New Texas basketball coach Sean Miller welcomed back a key piece to his squad Thursday when guard Tramon Mark announced on social media that he will stay with the Longhorns.
A graduate student with one more year of collegiate eligibility, the 6-foot-5 Mark developed into a versatile two-way player this season for former coach Rodney Terry. He averaged 10.6 points and 3.7 rebounds despite battling nagging injuries and often matched up defensively with an opponent’s top perimeter threat. Mark also played some point guard down the stretch for the Longhorns, who finished 19-16 with a spot in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four, where they lost to Miller’s Xavier squad.
Mark will be in his second season at Texas after spending his first three years at Houston, which included a redshirt season. He played one year at Arkansas for the 2023-24 campaign before joining Texas.
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Tramon Mark: What it means for the Longhorns?
It means plenty for the Texas backcourt, especially if Miller can retain incoming seniors Chendall Weaver and Jordan Pope. Neither Weaver nor Pope has entered the NCAA transfer portal as of Thursday, and neither has publicly declared their plans for next season. However, Pope told the American-Statesman after the Longhorns’ loss to Xavier in the Final Four that he wanted to return, and Weaver has posted photos of himself with Miller and the Texas staff on social media.
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If Miller — and the Texas NIL funding arm — can convince Weaver and Pope to return, it would give next year’s squad a reliable three-guard rotation with complementary skill sets. Weaver is a 6-foot-3 defensive dervish who rebounds like a forward and attacks the rim with abandon. In contrast, the 6-2 Pope prefers to get his points from the outside and seems primed for a bounce-back season after averaging just 11 points on 43.5% shooting this past season. He averaged 15.1 points a game in his first two seasons at Oregon State.
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Sean Miller: What else does the new coach need?
Size. Some defensive muscle in the paint. Size. Rebounding.
And did we mention size?
The Longhorns lose their top four forwards in Arthur Kaluma, Jayson Kent, Ze’Rik Onyema and Kadin Shedrick. Miller did nab a commit from former Xavier player Dailyn Swain on Tuesday, but the 6-foot-8, 220-pound incoming junior projects more as a versatile wing who averaged 11 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
The Texas frontcourt also will welcome back Nic Codie, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound incoming sophomore who announced his decision to stay at Texas earlier in the week. Codie averaged just 5.5 minutes as a freshman.
Expect Miller to pursue more players in the backcourt, too. The Longhorns need a true point guard to run the offense, and they will need more points to replace the production from Tre Johnson, the SEC’s leading scorer and freshman of the year in 2024-25 who’s expected to declare for the NBA draft any day.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball: Tramon Mark makes his decision about returning to the Longhorns
Reporting by Thomas Jones, Austin American-Statesman / Austin American-Statesman
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
