A surprise NCAA ruling has put two former Texas guards back on the market, but it should not change the Longhorns’ plans in Austin.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a class-wide preliminary injunction Friday that requires the NCAA to grant a fifth season to Division I athletes who started playing in 2022-23 and finished their fourth year in 2025-26. That ruling covers two members of last season’s Texas team, opening the door for a return that nobody saw coming.
The catch is simple: Texas has no obvious way to make it happen.
The Longhorns already sit at the NCAA’s current men’s basketball roster limit of 15 players. Unless the NCAA creates an exemption for players affected by the injunction, Sean Miller would have to clear a spot by removing someone he recruited or kept on board. For a team expected to open the season in the top 10, that would be a self-inflicted mess.
Texas built this roster for a reason. Miller added the nation’s No. 4 transfer class and the No. 5 high school class while reshaping the backcourt around Colorado transfer Isaiah Johnson, Saint Mary’s transfer Mikey Lewis, Tennessee transfer Amari Evans and freshmen Joe Sterling, Bo Ogden and Austin Goosby. That work is done.
And the two former Longhorns, if they decide to take advantage of the extra year, are not likely to be the ones Texas brings back.
A special transfer-portal window for players impacted by the injunction opens Aug. 3 and lasts one week, giving them a chance to find teams long after most rosters have already been set. Neither former Longhorn has publicly said he is entering the portal as of Saturday, so their next move remains unclear.
One of them is Pope, who would bring real scoring punch wherever he lands. He averaged 13.1 points last season and shot 37.2% from 3-point range. He can create his own shot, work on or off the ball and give a team a perimeter scorer it can trust.
That makes Kentucky an obvious hypothetical fit, especially with the Wildcats holding an open 15th roster spot. Mark Pope recently said the eligibility lawsuits could add “game-changers” to the available talent pool.
It also sets up a name-brand bit of basketball chaos: another Pope in college hoops.
Gonzaga could make sense, too, after losing guard Mario Saint-Supéry to Valencia Basket. Pope’s shooting and late-clock shot-making would fit a contender that needs help in the backcourt.
Weaver brings a different kind of value. He averaged 5.8 points and 4.1 rebounds while taking on tough defensive assignments. He’s the sort of guard a strong team can use without asking him to run the show.
Vanderbilt, which currently lists 14 players, looks like a natural stylistic match next to Tyler Tanner. Weaver could handle difficult perimeter matchups, help on the glass and add another experienced SEC guard. A return to UT Arlington is another possibility, since Weaver won WAC Freshman of the Year there before transferring to Texas and could chase a bigger role than he had in Austin.
That’s the larger picture here: the ruling could give both players a better final stop somewhere else. But it doesn’t create a reason for Texas to scramble and undo the roster it already spent the offseason building.
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