Texas men’s basketball is leaning hard into youth this season, and Sean Miller’s freshman group has wasted little time making its presence felt on the Forty Acres.
Six freshmen are part of a 15-man roster, and the class carries real weight. Texas landed the No. 4-ranked 2026 high school recruiting class by 247Sports in Miller’s first full recruiting cycle, a group built around five-star guard Austin Goosby and forward Marcus Spears Jr., plus four-star guard Bo Ogden, guard Joe Sterling, guard Mantas Laurencikas and forward Coleman Elkins.
Goosby didn’t shy away from how he views the group.
“Personally, I feel like we have the best freshman class, just the most talented in general,” Goosby said.
Miller has been just as direct about what he’s seen since the group arrived.
“Our freshman class, I love those guys … and who they are,” Miller said. “Not just because of their talent but as a group, they have been incredibly coachable.
They’ve come in eyes wide open, willing to listen and learn, showing up, working at it, embracing this is our program. … We’ve had zero problems with pulling them along.”
That buy-in has shown up in practice all summer and into the season, where the freshmen have worked alongside Texas’ returners and transfers. Their teammates have noticed the difference.
“They don’t play like freshmen, none of them; they’re all amazing,” sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson said.
Texas does have the kind of veteran presence that can help smooth the transition. The Longhorns have five juniors, including four expected to play major roles, along with two key sophomores who already have plenty of game experience. That mix should give the freshmen plenty of guidance as they settle into college basketball.
“It’s a process,” junior forward David Punch said. “Offseason, all the way into the season, it’s a process. Every game is a learning experience, and I tell the guys when it comes to game time, don’t worry about making mistakes, just go out there and have fun.”
The freshmen are also helping each other through the adjustment. Sterling said the shared experience has mattered from the start.
“It’s been great having those other people to go through new things with,” Sterling said. “We’re definitely a super tight-knit group already, the freshmen and the whole team as well.”
The biggest adjustment, as expected, has been the speed. Ogden said the pace hit him right away, especially in Miller’s offense.
“At the beginning, it was like, man, this is fast; you got to get used to it,” Ogden said. “It definitely slows down as you go through, but it’s still way faster than high school, so you (have) to adjust a little bit.”
Miller is trying to build on last season’s run to the Sweet Sixteen, and he’s doing it with a roster that includes several players still learning the college game. The freshmen know that if Texas is going to get where it wants to go in March, they’ll have to prove the inexperience label doesn’t define them.
“We’ve come in here, and we’ve been able to work and be here all summer, and we’re going to show what freshmen can do,” Goosby said. “Doesn’t matter how old you are; if you’re coming here to compete, you’re going to compete.”
In Other News...
Texas Faces A Red River Pressure Test Bigger Than Oklahoma
Steve Sarkisian and Brent Venables both framed this weeks Red River matchup as more than a rivalry game, and from Texas perspective that makes sense. The Longhorns come in undefeated and ranked No. 1, carrying the kind of spotlight that turns every detail into a test, while Oklahoma arrives trying to steady an offense that has had trouble finding consistency and protecting the ball.
For Texas, the pressure is not just about beating Oklahoma, it is about looking like the team that can handle the moment when the stakes climb. Both coaches pointed to rushing success and turnover margin as the key indicators, which puts the Longhorns in a familiar but unforgiving spot: if they control the ground game and stay clean with the ball, they can keep their unbeaten run intact. If not, a rivalry that already carries its own chaos could become the kind of game that exposes a little more than Texas would like this early in the season. [Read more 🡒]
Brent Venables Is Standing By Oklahoma's Embattled Play Caller
Ben Arbuckle has become the latest target of Oklahomas restless fan base after a rough stretch on offense, and the frustration has only grown louder as the Sooners have struggled to generate much consistency. Brent Venables, though, is not backing away from his offensive coordinator, choosing instead to frame the slump as something his staff can work through rather than a reason to make a quick change.
The noise around Arbuckle has been amplified by fan sentiment, including polls showing a sizable portion of the fan base would rather have Lincoln Riley back. For Texas observers, it is another reminder that Oklahoma is still searching for answers on that side of the ball, and Venables is betting that Arbuckle can absorb the heat long enough to find them. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Just Walked Into A Red River Spot Fans Know Too Well
The Red River Rivalry has a way of ignoring the polls, the records and just about every bit of logic attached to it, which is part of why this meeting feels so familiar. Texas enters as the top-ranked team, and the history of this matchup has produced plenty of tense afternoons whenever one side showed up carrying the No. 1 label. Even so, the Longhorns have their own reasons to feel better about this version of the game, with recent play and key contributors giving them a profile that looks a lot different from the chaos this rivalry can usually deliver.
Oklahoma still brings the kind of name and history that can make this game uncomfortable in a hurry, even with a season that has not matched the standard both fan bases expect. The Sooners have been uneven through the opening stretch, and the latest chapter only adds more pressure to a matchup that rarely needs much help finding it. For Texas, the challenge is less about the ranking and more about avoiding the kind of Red River turn that has flipped so many scripts before the final whistle. [Read more 🡒]