For months, Texas men\u2019s basketball has been preparing behind closed doors. On Sunday, the public finally gets its first look at head coach Sean Miller\u2019s revamped roster.<\/p>\n
And the Longhorns won\u2019t be easing into action.<\/p>\n
No. 7 Texas will face No. 13 St. John\u2019s at Madison Square Garden in New York at 11 a.m. Central, an exhibition game against a program coming off a season where it captured both the Big East regular-season and tournament titles.<\/p>\n
The matchup will be Texas\u2019 first appearance in front of fans after closed scrimmages against Arizona State and SMU. With 11 newcomers this season, Sunday offers a chance to see just how far the new-look Longhorns have come.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I think we have a really good group, there\u2019s nothing that can make up for experience,\u201d Miller said in Monday\u2019s media availability. \u201cYou can only practice and play against yourself so much. So, I\u2019m really looking forward to the trip to New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n
That experience will come quickly against a St. John\u2019s team led by Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who has guided the Red Storm to back-to-back 30-win seasons. Last season, St. John\u2019s finished 30\u20137 and reached the Sweet 16, holding opponents to 69.6 points per game while outrebounding by 3.8 boards per contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you play against St. John\u2019s, it\u2019s like going into the athletic crucible,\u201d Miller said. \u201cYou have to play through exhaustion. When a shot goes up, there\u2019ll be no team that will try to get second shots more than St. John\u2019s. They are relentless in terms of their effort level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Red Storm\u2019s physicality will also test Texas\u2019 ability to stay out of foul trouble. Last season, the Longhorns ranked second-to-last in the Southeastern Conference in defensive free-throw rate, while junior center Matas Vokietaitis committed an SEC-high 123 personal fouls and fouled out on five separate occasions.<\/p>\n
Unlike its last two scrimmages, where players could stay on the court after committing five fouls, Sunday\u2019s exhibition will enforce the usual disqualification rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the game within the game a lot of times,\u201d Miller said. \u201cOur team a year ago just never ever was able to be the best that we can be fouling, and that hurts. So, I think that\u2019s a real emphasis for this year\u2019s team: can we be the team that makes more free throws than the other team attempts?\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the challenge awaiting the Longhorns, Sunday provides the opportunity to play at one of basketball\u2019s most historic venues. For several Longhorns, including sophomore guard Amari Evans, it will be their first time lacing up in the Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never played in the Garden, but I can\u2019t wait to go,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna win that game, so it\u2019s gonna be a confidence boost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s result won\u2019t count, and might not even be remembered by March. But the performance could reveal just how close the preseason top-10 ranked Longhorns are to meeting those expectations ahead of their Nov. 2 season opener against Chicago State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, Texas men\u2019s basketball has been preparing behind closed doors. On Sunday, the public finally gets its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-472950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}