Texas basketball executed ‘aggressive’ plan in the NCAA transfer portal

“We really wanted to be super aggressive right out of the gates, knowing that we had some real needs to fill,” Miller said.

The aggressiveness paid off — Texas signed five players from the portal to secure a group that 247Sports ranked third nationally in total points and third nationally in average player rating, led by rising junior TCU transfer forward David Punch, the No. 9 player in the portal, and rising sophomore Colorado transfer guard Isaiah Johnson, the No. 14 overall player in the portal.

The Longhorns also added size on the wing with Auburn transfer Elyjah Freeman, a 6’8, 185-pounder, and Tennessee transfer Amari Evans, a 6’5, 220-pounder, a significant part of the staff’s plan.

“When you have size, you can be more interchangeable — different players can be on the court with different combinations, not if this one particular player is in the game, then the other can’t play, they platoon for each other. That’s really not what we wanted to do. So I think the size and the versatility of our group is something that we really wanted to make sure that we had,” Miller said.

But Texas needed lead guards, too, in order to replace Jordan Pope and Tramon Mark, key holdovers from the Terry era.

Some of that playmaking punch in the backcourt will come from St. Mary’s transfer Mikey Lewis, but landing Johnson, the No. 2 point guard in the portal, was the huge coup — as an 18-year-old playing in one of the nation’s best basketball conferences, Johnson set the freshman scoring record for the Buffaloes as his 16.9 points per game scoring average ranked third in the Big 12 and 13th nationally among Division I freshmen with the help of nine 20-point performances.

“To me, he’s the modern guard in that he can both score and distribute. From an offensive perspective, skill level, I don’t know if there’s too many players that will be playing college basketball that are more skilled than him,” Miller said.

With splits of 48.6/37.8/82.1, Johnson is an elite scorer in terms of his efficiency, but the Texas head coach also believes that the 6’1, 190-pounder has more to offer than simply making baskets.

“I also believe that he has the ability to make his teammates better. Understands the game, plays really under control,” Miller said.

Some of Johnson’s basketball intelligence developed with the help of his father, Chris, a well-regarded NBA trainer who has worked with players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan, and Tyrese Maxey.

Now the next step is to continue that development at Texas as part of a portal class that has elevated the Horns to a potential preseason top-10 program.

“I’m excited to get him here because he was so young, I think he’s going to grow and get bigger and stronger, and as he does, I think some of the things he did as a freshman, he’s really going to be even better at as a sophomore,” Miller said.