Before Texas men\u2019s basketball plays a single game that counts, it already has a reputation to live up to. The Longhorns are a national contender. A top-10 team. A Final Four hopeful.<\/p>\n
On paper, at least.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns enter head coach Sean Miller\u2019s second season ranked No. 7 in the AP preseason poll and picked to finish second in the Southeastern Conference preseason media poll, carrying ambitions of reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2003.<\/p>\n
But for a program that\u2019s almost completely unrecognizable from a year ago, there\u2019s a difference between the team everyone imagines and the one that actually has to perform on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of our players, our staff, and I\u2019ll say myself, we signed up for high expectations,\u201d Miller said in an Oct. 19 media availability. \u201cWhy would you ever want to go to a program that has to trip over themselves to apologize about what they can\u2019t do, what they don\u2019t have? \u2026 We have to embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The expectations aren\u2019t without justification.<\/p>\n
Over the offseason, Miller and his staff assembled the nation\u2019s top-ranked overall newcomer class, according to 247Sports, around lone returning starter junior center Matas Vokietaitis. The result is a roster that, by all indications, appears capable of competing with the nation\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this team is more talented, like very, very talented,\u201d Vokietaitis said when asked to compare last season\u2019s roster and this season\u2019s. \u201cEverybody is sacrificing every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a roster sheet can only tell you who the team has. It can\u2019t tell you what that team will become. And while the Longhorns have been projected as one of the nation\u2019s best teams, what they\u2019ve shown on the court so far hasn\u2019t always reflected that reputation.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns\u2019 87-74 exhibition loss to St. John\u2019s on Oct. 25 offered an early reminder of that disconnect.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns looked unfamiliar with themselves. They struggled to find an offensive rhythm, finishing with 16 turnovers and 12 assists. Defensively, Texas had few answers for the Red Storm\u2019s attacks in transition.<\/p>\n
But a single exhibition hardly defines what Texas will become. Just as its preseason ranking doesn\u2019t guarantee success, Sunday\u2019s struggles don\u2019t necessarily indicate what the Longhorns will look like come March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re nowhere near where we one day can be with this team,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean beyond this year. I\u2019m talking about this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the Longhorns live in the gray area between the expectations surrounding them and the team they\u2019ve yet to prove themselves to be.<\/p>\n
And the players understand that distinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we see the media and see stuff like that,\u201d sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson said. \u201cBut honestly, it doesn\u2019t really matter because we haven\u2019t really played a game yet at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning Monday against Chicago State, those expectations will face the reality of the regular season. There will be growing pains, adjustments and eventually, an SEC schedule that will require more than individual talent.<\/p>\n
Each game will offer another glimpse of who the Longhorns truly are, gradually replacing preseason expectations with something more tangible.<\/p>\n
For months, Texas has been defined by the team everyone imagines it could become. By March, there will be far less to imagine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Texas men\u2019s basketball plays a single game that counts, it already has a reputation to live up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-478747","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\/478747","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=478747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}