In a familiar trend, the Horns struggled in the first half and missed opportunities early in the second half before Johnson nearly willed the team to a remarkable rally.
On Wednesday night in Fayetteville, Texas Longhorns guard Tre Johnson put the team on his back in a way that even Kevin Durant never did in burnt orange and white, scoring a freshman-record 39 points in a 86-81 overtime loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks that dealt another blow to the NCAA Tournament hopes for the Longhorns.
TEXAS FRESHMAN RECORD 39 POINTS
Every bucket from Tre Johnson’s big night @TexasMBB pic.twitter.com/gtQcT1krf2
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 27, 2025
Johnson went off in the second half, scoring 17 of the 39 points by Texas as the freshman phenom found his offense in a variety of different ways, including a set the Horns ran time and time again late in the game, running Johnson down the baseline before curling off a screen on the block into a high middle dribble handoff that allowed Johnson to get a catch on the run with a downhill advantage.
It was one of several late-game sets devised by head coach Rodney Terry and his staff that put Johnson in a position to succeed, including a clean three from the corner with 1:34 remaining that missed.
After Texas produced a layup for Johnson with 1:11 remaining that gave the Longhorns a 69-68 lead, neither team could score late as Arkansas guard Johnell Davis missed a layup and Johnson had an isolation opportunity that fell short when he put the ball on the rim, but the bounce didn’t favor him.
Trying to run the game-winning play, Hogs guard DJ Wagner got downhill against a mismatch and Longhorns guard Jordan Pope was late rotating into position to draw a charge.
Wagner made the first and missed the second from the line, giving Johnson a final chance to win the game, but contact from behind that went uncalled contributed to a missed layup, a notable moment in a game that sometimes featured typical SEC physicality combined with enough soft fouls and no-calls against the visitors that Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry picked up his second technical foul of the season in the first half trying to defend his team.
If there’s a superstar whistle in the conference, it almost never goes in favor of Johnson even though opponents constantly inhibit his freedom of movement at every available opportunity in ball-denial defense and force him to play through contact on his shot attempts.
The missed layup by Johnson sent the game into overtime and Arkansas took advantage of how Texas was defending screens by producing mismatches for 7’2 forward Zvonimir Ivisic, who scored the first two baskets of overtime for the Hogs before two layups helped lead to the team’s final seven points coming from the free-throw line as the Horns went into desperation mode.
Other than the remarkable effort from Johnson, Texas struggled with its shotmaking, missing quality looks early in the second half after entering halftime trailing by 12 points, forcing the Longhorns to expend energy while largely playing even with the Razorbacks even as the home team provided opportunities to make a run.
Several plays were emblematic and illustrative of why Texas struggles with its assist rate even when the ball and player movement are effective.
Terry frequently discusses the emphasis on getting paint touches and on the second second-half possession for the Longhorns, Pope dribbled into the paint and passed to the corner instead of forcing a shot. As the ball swung around the perimeter on two more quick passes, Pope did the right thing by relocating to the corner opposite his pass. When it arrived, he was open, but missed from three.
After Wednesday’s game, the Oregon State transfer is 3-of-15 shooting from three in the last three games (20 percent).
Following an offensive rebound, an out-of-bounds play for Johnson didn’t produce a shot, but it did give him a chance to draw defenders for a kick-out pass to senior wing Tramon Mark for an open three. Mark missed left drifting left, poor shooting technique.
The missed three led to a layup by Arkansas.
The ensuing offensive set by Texas got senior forward Arthur Kaluma an open mid-range shot. Instead of taking it, he threw the ball away into the backcourt trying to pass back to Johnson.
It was one of several times that Kaluma gave up a quality open look to unnecessarily extend a possession by dribbling, and ending with a worse shot. When he did take open threes, he was out of rhythm, missing all three.
The knee injury and missed time seemed to impact Kaluma’s aggressiveness looking for three-point attempts, but his ability to take and make those looks are also crucial to the team’s success — Terry would surely accept losses as a result of his best players missing quality shots instead of going deeper into the shot clock only to take a more contested attempt.
Kaluma did score 13 points, second on the team behind Johnson, but he also went 4-of-14 shooting and dealt with foul trouble.
In a trend as familiar as the team starting slowly and struggling to match the physicality of an opponent during the first half, Texas received no scoring balance as Pope scored five points on 2-of-7 shooting, including 1-of-5 shooting from three-point range, before fouling out.
Pope had returned to the starting lineup after he was benched in favor of senior guard Julian Larry, who had scored three points on 0-of-5 shooting from the floor in the previous two games.
Against Arkansas, Larry played nine minutes without attempting a shot.
In total, Texas scored 10 bench points in the game while also receiving two points from Mark, who went 1-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes and only played seven minutes in the second half. The Arkansas transfer is now 1-of-10 shooting for two points in 39 minutes against his former team this season.
If that sounds like losing basketball, it’s because it is, and that’s what Texas is playing right now with five losses in the last six games despite Johnson’s heroics.
The star freshman deserves better, and so does everyone else who actually cares about this basketball program.