Texas is opening the 2026-27 season with a spotlight it hasn’t seen in years.
The Longhorns came in at No. 7 in Monday’s Associated Press preseason Top 25, giving Sean Miller’s team a place among the sport’s early title favorites and marking Texas’ highest preseason AP ranking since it started the 2021-22 season at No. 5.
For a program that just finished 21-15 overall and 9-9 in SEC play, the jump says plenty about how quickly the national view of this roster has changed. Texas reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 last season, but the team Miller is taking into this year looks very different.
The Longhorns bring back only one player from that rotation: junior center Matas Vokietaitis.
Everything else was reshaped in the offseason. Texas added 11 newcomers and, according to 247Sports, put together the nation’s top incoming class when transfers and freshmen were combined. That haul gives Miller a roster packed with options, but it also puts the burden on him to make it all fit fast.
The AP voters clearly think he can.
Texas checks in behind Florida, Duke, Illinois, UConn, Arizona and Michigan State. The Longhorns also open the year ahead of several SEC teams, including No.
8 Tennessee, No. 12 Arkansas, No.
20 Alabama, No. 23 Kentucky and No.
24 Vanderbilt.
Florida, the preseason No. 1, drew 47 first-place votes and enters as the conference favorite.
That leaves Texas in a familiar but demanding spot: nationally relevant before the season even starts, with little room to ease into the schedule. Vokietaitis gives the Longhorns an experienced presence inside, but how quickly the returners and newcomers connect will shape everything that follows.
Texas has a preseason exhibition against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden before beginning the regular season against Chicago State on November 2 at Moody Center.
The talent is there. Now comes the hard part.
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