Texas basketball (15-7, 4-5 SEC) picked up a solid road win against an SEC foe over the weekend, with a second-half blowout of the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge. Texas and head coach Rodney Terry picked up their first-ever double-digit win in SEC play after UT had a 58-33 edge over the Tigers in the game's final 20 minutes on Saturday evening.
Key Texas basketball guards rising up amid SEC play in early February
The Longhorns have picked up the pace in SEC play over the past couple of weeks, winning three of the last four and four of the last six after starting out conference play with three straight losses to ranked teams in the top 25.
Texas still probably needs at least four or five more wins before Selection Sunday to feel good about the chances from the Selection Committee to get a bye in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
On3's latest Bracketology predictions for the NCAA Tournament has the Longhorns as a seven-seed in the West Region, facing the 10-seed BYU Cougars.
Here are three Longhorns players who have found a better rhythm in SEC play in the past couple of weeks during this upward trend for Texas.
Tre Johnson, G
SEC averages: 18.0 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.6 BPG (40.1 FG%, 28.6 FG3%, 92.3 FT%)
Guard Tre Johnson is on pace to be just the sixth true freshman to ever lead the SEC in scoring at a clip of 19.0 points per game. Johnson is the only Longhorns player who has scored in double figures in every SEC game. He's also got three games with over 20 points in conference play in the SEC.
In the past three games, Johnson has really turned his performances up a few notches. Johnson has registered at least 18 points, three assists, one steal, while making all of his free-throws (20 attempts), resulting in two wins in the past three contests for the Longhorns.
That included a huge outing with a career-high 30 points in Texas's thrilling one-point win over the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies at the Moody Center on Jan. 25.
Devon Pryor, F
SEC averages: 3.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.3 APG, 0.0 SPG, 0.2 BPG (56.3 FG%, 33.3 FG3%, 80.0 FT%)
Sophomore forward Devon Pryor has been one of the pleasant surprises of SEC play for the Longhorns this campaign. After only playing in seven games for Terry and the Longhorns as a true freshman in 2023-24, Pryor has already made significantly more contributions for Texas's reserves in the forward rotation in conference play this season as a sophomore.
Pryor has averaged around four points per game, two rebounds, and one assist in a dozen games played. But he's started to get a bigger role for the Longhorns off the bench in SEC play in the past couple of weeks.
In Texas's past three games, Pryor has played double-digit minutes off the bench while scoring multiple field goals in each contest. Pryor has also averaged six rebounds per game in Texas's last two outings, including road games against Ole Miss and LSU.
Tramon Mark, G
SEC averages: 10.4 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 1.4 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.2 BPG (41.0 FG%, 40.7 FG3%, 86.4 FT%)
Going back to Texas's first-ever SEC win over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry game on the hardwood a few weeks ago, senior guard Tramon Mark has started to find his confidence and offensive game for the Longhorns. Mark scored a season-high and game-high 18 points for Texas in the win over LSU.
In three out of the four wins in SEC play, Mark has scored in double figures while shooting at least 45 percent from the field and better than 40 percent from beyond the arc for the Longhorns.
He came to life in the second half, scoring a team-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 from beyond the arc, and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.
Mark said his defense was what drove his success on both ends of the floor in the dominant 31-point win over LSU last weekend.
"My defense got me going, having multiple really good defensive possessions, it led to great offense on the other end and that's what got me going. I've been guarding the best players on each team for almost my whole career, he's a great player but I know what the challenge is each night."Tramon Mark