The good news for Texas Basketball is simple: Monday’s season opener against Chicago State is not the sort of assignment that should expose a broken roster. The bad news is that Texas already has enough warning signs to know this cannot be brushed off as early-season noise. Sean Miller’s second team has talent, size and an eye-catching ranking, but it also has 11 newcomers, one returning starter and a couple of problems that were put on display before the games even started to count.
The exhibition loss at St. John’s was a blunt reminder that the Longhorns are not remotely finished. Texas lost 87-74, committed 16 turnovers and got beaten on the boards in a way that should make any coach wince. Miller did not exactly hide his irritation afterward, pointing out that it is never a good sign when your starting center and the coach are tied on overall rebounds, offensive or defensive. That is not a throwaway line. That is a warning siren.
Ball security cannot keep sabotaging Texas
The most obvious issue is turnover management. Texas gave it away 16 times against St. John’s, and that came after a year ago’s debut under Miller began with a 75-60 loss to Duke in Charlotte. Different opponent, same uncomfortable theme: if Texas is sloppy with the ball, better teams will make it look ordinary very quickly. That is the last thing a team with this much roster turnover needs.
The wider concern is that ballhandling responsibility is still being sorted out. Mikey Lewis broke a bone in his foot in practice, and Miller said at SEC media day on Oct. 14 that he expects Lewis back in December. Until then, somebody else has to absorb more of the load. Texas can survive growing pains against Chicago State, but it cannot afford to treat possession after possession like an optional extra once the schedule stiffens.
The rebounding problem is even harder to ignore
If the turnovers were annoying, the rebounding numbers were downright alarming. Texas was outworked on the glass at St. John’s, and Miller’s comment about the starting center having the same number of rebounds as the coach told the story better than any dry stat line could. A team built on new pieces cannot afford to be soft around the basket. It certainly cannot afford to look passive chasing missed shots while the opposition piles up second chances.
That matters even more because Texas is trying to establish a tougher identity in Miller’s second season. This is supposed to be the stage where the system becomes clearer, not less convincing. Instead, the opener arrives with questions about defensive rebounding, center play and whether the guard rotation can handle pressure without unraveling.
Chicago State will not answer everything, but it should reveal something
Monday night will not tell us everything about Texas Basketball, and nobody should pretend otherwise. Chicago State is not St. John’s, and it is certainly not the sort of opponent that will stress-test every flaw in the same way Duke once did in Charlotte. But that is exactly why this opener matters. Texas should be able to look cleaner, sharper and far more organized. If it does not, then the concerns are not temporary.
The Longhorns also have to account for the loss of Dailyn Swain, the former leading scorer who left for the Chicago Bulls as the No. 15 pick in the NBA draft. That is another reason the margin for error is so thin. The scoring burden, the ballhandling burden and the rebounding burden are all shifting at once. That is a lot to ask of a group still learning each other.
For now, No. 7 Texas gets the safest possible runway. But the point of a season opener is not just to survive it. It is to show that the ugly stuff from the exhibition was an exception rather than a pattern. If the turnovers stick around and the rebounding remains sloppy, then the ranking will start to look more like decoration than proof.
