Other than Tre Johnson, who will declare for the 2025 NBA Draft, the Horns have six scholarship players with remaining eligibility.
The NCAA Tournament just completed its first weekend, but for the Texas Longhorns, the offseason is well underway with Sunday’s news that Rodney Terry will not return as head coach as athletics director Chris Del Conte hires Xavier Musketeers head coach Sean Miller.
Pending the official announcement of Miller’s hire and his introductory press conference, the big news on Monday is the opening of the NCAA transfer portal, which closes on April 22. Players who declare early for the 2025 NBA Draft have until June 16 to withdraw their names, but that almost certainly won’t apply to anyone on the roster this season.
In the one-year roster era of college basketball, Texas has seven players with remaining eligibility, a group that includes freshman guard Tre Johnson, who will declare for the draft in the coming days, leaving six players for Miller and his new staff to evaluate when they arrive in Austin.
While needing to add at least eight scholarship players to the roster isn’t unusual in this new era, it is concerning that the Longhorns only have one player currently signed in the 2025 recruiting class, consensus four-star center John Clark.
Let’s take a look at each of those players to evaluate the state of the Longhorns roster as the Sean Miller era begins.
Guard Jordan Pope
Remaining eligibility: One year
Overview: The 6’2, 175-pound Californian arrived on the Forty Acres after transferring from Oregon State as a high-volume scorer on a bad team with hopes of making the NCAA Tournament and a significant need to learn how to play defense for the first time in his career.
Predictably, Pope struggled defensively for much of the season, especially when the coaching staff was switching every screen, consigning Pope to frequent mismatches against bigs.
Offensively, Pope predictably struggled with his consistency because he struggles to get to the rim and was forced to rely on a jump shot that faded in accuracy down the stretch, especially from beyond the arc.
Pope’s scoring average dropped from 17.6 points per game to 11.0 points per game and while his three-point shooting percentage suffered an extremely minimal drop, he also still shot just 43.5 percent from the field, less than 15 percent of his shots came near the rim, and his assist rate was only incrementally higher than forward Arthur Kaluma, who was arguably a better overall facilitator for Texas.
The Longhorns offense finally found a better rhythm in the SEC Tournament when Pope was moved off the ball in favor of wing Tramon Mark, in part because Pope isn’t particularly effective as a pick-and-roll ball handler, so if Pope wants to stay in Austin and Miller decides to retain him, the new coach will have to do so understanding that he’ll need to find a true point guard to run the offense while receiving below-average defense from Pope.
Guard Chendall Weaver
Remaining eligibility: One year
Overview: Weaver is coming off a frustrating season after missing 13 games with a hip injury. That absence, however, put into stark relief how much Texas needed Weaver’s ability to make winning plays, especially at winning time, so the 6.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists that Weaver averaged in 20.7 minutes per game in the 2024-25 season don’t fully describe his impact on games because of his energy and athleticism.
After preparing to play the Longhorns in the First Four and then coaching against Weaver, Miller fully understands how important it will be to retain Weaver.
“You look at [Texas’] stats during the season and then you look at the SEC Tournament, you see the impact of Chendall Weaver. Every team in the nation would like a guy like him,” Miller said last week.
Forward Jamie Vinson
Remaining eligibility: Three years
Overview: Vinson was a late addition to the 2024 recruiting class after decommitting from Vanderbilt and taking official visits to Kentucky, Rutgers, and South Carolina before returning to Austin from Oak Hill Academy in Virginia because Terry and his staff missed on portal targets. As a consensus three-star prospect ranked as the No. 261 player nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Vinson profiled as a multi-year developmental prospect.
Indeed, Vinson only played two minutes in conference play — the blowout loss to Alabama — but flashed some of his projectable attributes in his small sample size of 44 minutes with four dunks, a block rate of 7.6 percent, and a defensive rebounding rate of 20.8 percent. If Vinson can continue developing that skill set of finishing around the rim, protecting the rim, and cleaning up the defensive glass, he could become a rotation contributor.
But Vinson also needs to continue developing physically because at 6’11 and 225 pounds, he doesn’t yet have ideal mass to play in the paint of the rugged SEC.
Forward Nic Codie
Remaining eligibility: Three years
Overview: The nation’s No. 10 power forward in the 2024 recruiting class suffered a significant setback with a knee injury in high school that caused him to miss the first four games of the season, setting back his development on and off the court.
Codie was an infrequent contributor in conference play with his only two baskets coming in five minutes during the blowout win over LSU in Baton Rouge, but the 6’8, 200-pounder did flash his upside in a 20-point performance against UAPB on 8-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-2 from three, adding two rebounds and an assist.
The low defensive rebounding rate of 10.9 percent for Codie in 105 minutes provides some cause for concern, but his high-level shooting touch makes him an intriguing player for the 2025-26 season with a full offseason of development.
Guard Malik Presley
Remaining eligibility: Three years
Overview: The San Marcos native was brought in from Vanderbilt to redshirt and provide tough looks for Johnson in practice as a defense-first wing who recorded 58 points (2.2 ppg), 41 rebounds (1.6 rpg), and 13 assists (0.5 apg) in 308 minutes (11.9 mpg) during the 2023-24 season for the Commodores.
With Texas expanding its number of basketball scholarships from 13 to 15 this season, there’s little downside to keeping Presley on the roster even if he’s just a practice player who can play SEC-quality defense against the first team.
Wing Devon Pryor
Remaining eligibility: Two years
Overview: From the physical standpoint, Pryor arguably had the highest upside of any player on the 2024-25 Texas roster, but some physical setbacks hampered him as a sophomore, including an ankle injury at the start of the season and a late-season calf strain.
When Pryor was healthy and in the rotation for the Longhorns during conference play, his activity level, athleticism, finishing ability, and mid-range jump shot were all quality skills that impacted the game, including nine points on 4-of-6 shooting with six rebounds and an assist against LSU.
Like Weaver, Pryor provides a level of energy and athleticism that every team needs to be successful.