Texas men’s basketball team is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams that have made The Associated Press Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll.
Ranked at No. 19, the Longhorns follow Alabama at No. 2, Auburn at No. 11, Tennessee at No. 12, Texas A&M at No. 13 and Arkansas at No. 16. They beat out other SEC teams Florida, Kentucky and Ole Miss, who sit in the lower half of the poll.
The Longhorns have consistently made the preseason’s top 25 poll for the past five years. Since its first appearance in the 1978-79 season, the team has made 21 appearances on the top 25 poll in school history.
While a preseason poll doesn’t necessarily indicate how well a team will perform, Texas has lived up to the expectations of the preseason poll the last several years. They have become just one of eight programs to advance to at least the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 in the past three years.
In Rodney Terry’s first year as head coach in the 2022-23 season, the team made a run to the NCAA Elite Eight. Now, with a roster fully built by Terry, there are a lot of new faces who can impact the team’s ability to go far in the March Madness tournament.
One of these new faces includes graduate guard Tramon Mark, who earned a spot on the Preseason All-SEC Third Team.
Mark spent his first three years of college playing at Houston, starting in all 37 games in the 2022-23 season and helping give Houston the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Although the Cougars only advanced to the Sweet 16 that season, Mark made it further in the tournament earlier in his collegiate career, reaching the NCAA Final Four his freshman year.
For his senior year, Mark transferred to Arkansas and led the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game, steals with 36 and minutes with 32.5 minutes per game.
Mark joins the Third Team with four other players, Chad Baker-Mazara from Auburn, Alex Condon from Florida, Jaxson Robinson from Kentucky and Collin Murray-Boyles from South Carolina.
In addition to Mark’s All-SEC honors, the media voted Texas as the No. 7 team in the conference, with Alabama leading the group.
Mark and the rest of the Longhorns will start their 2024-25 season against Ohio State on Nov. 4 in Las Vegas, with tip-off slated at 9 p.m.
