No. 7 Texas suffers growing pains in 87-74 exhibition loss to No. 13 St. John’s

“It’s not to our advantage to be ranked where we’re ranked and have one returning player.”

In the midst of significantly heightened expectations for the No. 7 Texas Longhorns in the 2026-27 season, head coach Sean Miller’s statement last Monday put into perspective how much growth will be necessary during the non-conference season.

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Heading into next Saturday’s season opener against Chicago State in Austin, Sunday’s 87-74 exhibition loss to No. 13 St. John’s at Madison Square Garden featured some real growing pains for Texas, especially in a first half that saw the Longhorns enter the break trailing by 18 points. The only lead for Miller’s team came after scoring the game’s first basket.

The high-profile transfers for St. John’s led the way for the Red Storm — Auburn transfer forward Keyshawn Hall scored a game-high 24 points on 8-0f-13 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the line and Baylor transfer guard Tounde Yessofou added 23 points, five assists, and four rebounds.

For Texas, junior center Matas Vokietaitis and sophomore guard Isaiah Johnson were able to get to the free-throw line frequently in the second half, contributing to the Longhorns winning the final 20 minutes by five points. Texas posted a 24-to-8 advantage in free-throw attempts in the second half as Vokietaitis went 7-of-8 shooting from the line and Johnson went 6-of-8 shooting. Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points while Vokietaitis notched 14 points.

Texas didn’t exactly take advantage of those opportunities in shooting 64.7 percent from the line, a disappointing outcome after a much more positive offseason shooting program, including missing the front end of one and ones on multiple occasions.

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The value of playing the Rick Pitino-coached team on the road in an exhibition was quickly apparent in how poorly things went for the Horns as the Red Storm delivered heavy pressure early, quite literally in the sense of full-court pressure, and more figuratively in their…

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Publish date : 2026-10-25 19:29:00

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