AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team tips off the 2024-25 season in a month, and while official practices just began, head coach Rodney Terry has been the guys all summer and likes the look of them.
The Longhorns made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year in Terry’s first full season at the helm, finishing 21-13. Terry and the coaching staff leaned on the transfer portal to help rebuild the roster after Dillon Mitchell, Tyrese Hunter and Chris Johnson transferred while Brock Cunningham, Dylan Disu, Max Abmas and IT Horton exhausted their eligibility.
Texas added six players from the portal, and Terry said they’ve fit in well with the younger talent and the other players in the program who decided to stick around.
“We’ve got all the ingredients to have a really good team,” Terry said. “We can play a lot of different ways and a nice blend of guys. We started this summer with this group and you want chemistry to happen organically, and this group loves to be around each other. We don’t have any cliques and they’re already celebrating their teammates’ success.”
Two of the transfers are expected to handle point guard duties, and between them, they have essentially six seasons of college hoops experience. Julian Larry came in from last year’s NIT runner-up Indiana State and Jordan Pope most recently played at Oregon State. Larry is in his fifth year while Pope is in his third, and Terry places a premium on having a veteran player help trigger the offense.
“You need consistency there, and we’ve got the luxury of having older guards who can handle the ball,” Terry said. “All our guards have to initiate offense for us so we won’t just have one guy dominate the ball for us.”
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Tre Johnson, a freshman who played high school at Link Academy in Branson, Missouri, will also contribute at point guard. Tramon Mark comes in from Arkansas and will be a key backcourt piece and San Marcos native Malik Pressley will also help. He last played at Vanderbilt and has a sophomore standing.
Coming off a breakout season last year, Chendall Weaver is expected to have an expanded role on offense while still maintaining his frenetic pace and activity on the defensive end. Terry said he’s made strides with his shooting over the summer and “will keep teams honest” with an improved game on that end.
In the frontcourt, Arthur Kaluma (Kansas State) and Julian Larry (Indiana State) join Kadin Shedrick, Ze’Rik Onyema and Devon Pryor. Freshmen Jamie Vinson and Nic Codie will also be in the mix down low for the Longhorns. Vinson, a 6-foot-11 Austin native, played his first two high school years at St. Michael’s before transferring to basketball factory Oak Hill Academy in Virginia for his junior and season seasons.
Terry said Pryor, a sophomore, is “scratching the surface of how good of a player he can be.”
“He’s gotten stronger and he’s a guy with a very high ceiling as a young player,” Terry said. “He didn’t have a summer with us last year, but now he has a full year with us.”
Texas opens the season Nov. 4 in Vegas against Ohio State, then comes home for three games until they take off for Brooklyn and a date with Syracuse in the Legends Classic at Barclays Center on Nov. 21. They could meet old Big 12 Conference foe Texas Tech the following day depending on results. The Red Raiders play St. Joseph’s in the event’s other game.
Texas hosts the two-time defending NCAA champs UConn on Dec. 8 and opens Southeastern Conference play in College Station against Texas A&M on Jan. 4.