After a disappointing end to the 2023-24 season, Texas men’s basketball lost key players such as junior forward Dillon Mitchell and senior guard Tyrese Hunter to the transfer portal. Nonetheless, head coach Rodney Terry made solid use of the portal when recruiting new names for the team.
The most recent signing came on June 26 with senior forward Arthur Kaluma out of Kansas State. Terry has added six players from the transfer portal to the team.
“We’ve always had transfers in college athletics,” Terry said. “For us, we started early, a process in being able to manage the portal in terms of developing a database and developing a formula that works for us, from an analytical standpoint and from a character standpoint, trying to find who’s the best fit for us in terms of what we do culture-wise, basketball-wise and things of that nature. All that matters to us.”
Texas announced the first three signings of the season on April 17 with senior forward Jayson Kent, senior guard Julian Larry and senior guard Tramon Mark.
Larry and Kent are familiar with each other, as the two seniors played together at Indiana State for two years. Mark, on the other hand, played for Houston in the Big 12 as a freshman and sophomore before transferring to Arkansas in the SEC for his junior year.
“You expect Julian Larry to be a guy that’s a leader for you, bringing leadership qualities,” Terry said.
Only a week later, Texas announced the signing of junior guard Jordan Pope out of Oregon State. As a sophomore, Pope received an All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention and finished the year as the fourth-highest-scoring sophomore in program history with 562 points.
Sophomore guard Malik Presley, originally from San Marcos, played for Vanderbilt in Nashville his freshman year. Presley played in 26 games with five starts for the Commodores.
The last signing, Kaluma, started his collegiate career at Creighton and transferred to Kansas State as a junior. Playing in the same conference as his new team last season, Kaluma received an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and scored 31 points against the Longhorns in two games.
“We have some experience in terms of some guys that have played in this level (and) been successful in this level,” Terry said. “You want to lean on that experience and we will, probably early in the season. We have some continuity from last year … We also brought in guys that have had the balls in their hands and played significant minutes over the course of their careers.”
Terry’s new roster is made up of six transfers, six returners and four freshmen. The longhorns tips off its season in the Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas Opening Night against Ohio State on Nov. 4.
