Isaiah Johnson ensures that the Horns have that 'Texas Fight' in them at SEC Tipoff

In a time focused almost entirely on college football, we can't let ourselves forget about the upcoming college basketball season, and that starts with the annual conference media days like the SEC Tipoff.

This week, both Texas men's and women's basketball teams traveled to Birmingham, AL, for the SEC's media days, and that included head coach Sean Miller bringing along Matas Vokietaitis, Isaiah Johnson, and David Punch.

While breaking down what to expect in the upcoming season, Johnson made sure to share that Miller has instilled a renewed sense of "Texas Fight" in the Longhorns. A lot of that was done through his recruiting efforts and work in the transfer portal.

"We have a lot of new players, a lot of new guys: freshmen, transfers. We just get along well together," Johnson said on SEC Now. "We're a very competitive group. I would say we're gonna fight no matter what the score is, no matter what is happening on the court; we're always gonna stick together and fight."

The Horns showed glimpses of that fight last season. Not necessarily in the regular season or the SEC Tournament, but once March Madness truly tipped off and Texas made its Cinderella-esque run to the Sweet 16.

Clearly, Miller bringing in the No. 4 recruiting class and No. 5 transfer portal class in the country has only doubled down on that mentality.

Sean Miller's recruiting efforts brought the right players to the 40 Acres

Those top-five recruiting and transfer classes featured some of the brightest stars in the sport, Johnson being just one of them, coming to Texas via the Colorado Buffaloes, as well as Punch coming to the Horns from the TCU Horned Frogs.

The recruiting class has even more elite players, two of whom are expected to start for the Longhorns this season: five-star shooting guard Austin Goosby and five-star power forward Marcus Spears Jr., who was the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting cycle before reclassifying to 2026.

"We really have an amazing group of kids; I'm talking about guys that love the game. [They] don't talk about it, but show it," Miller said at SEC Tipoff. "They have all really come to Texas to win, to be part of something that's bigger than just their own goals."

Obviously, every player, coach, and program has the goal of winning, whether that be every game, every tournament, or every season.

However, the more and more we hear from this Texas men's basketball team, the more and more it sounds like they expect nothing less than at least a title or two this season (SEC and/or NCAA).

Miller clearly believes in his players, and his players clearly believe in him. Now, we just have to wait a few weeks until we see just how much all of the offseason efforts pay off.

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