After decades of defensive focus, Texas is getting fast-paced basketball with Sean Miller

One thing Texas fans hope to see from Sean Miller‘s men’s basketball program during his first season in Austin is more exciting offense. The Longhorns saw a taste of what Miller’s teams can offer in March when the Xavier Musketeers surged back against the Longhorns and won their First Four matchup 86-80.

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After Texas did well to keep the Musketeer offense at bay in the first half of that contest, Marcus Foster and Zach Freemantle helped XU surge to 47 points after the break and limited Texas to 33 points in the second half.

Miller’s luck ran out in the first round against Illinois, but that type of second half embodied the style he wants his teams to bring night in and night out.

“If anything, maybe we had a wearing-down effect, especially with the way the crowd was against Texas,” Miller said at the time. “But it was great to see us be down at halftime and respond because we’ve really been more of a team this season where we had to hold our lead and get to the end.”

Fast forward almost seven months. Miller is now the head coach of the Longhorns. He’s no longer in the Big East, but rather is set to embark on his first season in the SEC.

While expectations are mixed for Texas — the Longhorns were picked ninth in the SEC preseason poll — Miller’s team should push the pace in a way not seen on the 40 Acres since Damion James, Avery Bradley, Jordan Hamilton, and Dexter Pittman were on the roster in 2009-10.

Miller’s teams used to play a slower brand of basketball. During his final seven years at Arizona, the Wildcats’ highest ranking in KenPom‘s Adjusted Tempo was No. 102. That was his 2014-15 team that went 34-4 and reached the Elite Eight. Only one other Arizona team from 2015 forward was in the top 150 in adjusted tempo: the 2019-2020 team that was ranked No. 115 and finished 21-11.

Adjusted Tempo is possessions per 40 minutes, adjusted per opponent.

Year	Team	KenPom Adjusted Tempo	Ranking	Leading scorer	Record	NCAA Tournament Finish
2014-15	Arizona	65.8	102	Stanley Johnson – 13.8 ppg	34-4	Elite Eight
2015-16	Arizona	68.3	154	Ryan Anderson – 15.3 ppg	25-9	Round of 64
2016-17	Arizona	66.0	277	Allonzo Trier – 17.2 ppg	32-5	Sweet 16
2017-18	Arizona	67.1	224	Deandre Ayton – 20.1 ppg	27-8	Round of 64
2018-19	Arizona	66.7	227	Brandon Randolph – 12.4 ppg	17-15	Missed
2019-2020	Arizona	69.3	115	Zeke Nnaji – 16.1 ppg	21-11	No Tournament
2020-21	Arizona	67.7	198	James Akinjo – 15.6 ppg	17-9	Missed

Miller was fired by Arizona after the 2021 season. He stayed away from coaching in 2021-22. In that time, he learned a few offensive wrinkles that defined his second stint at Xavier.

“For me, being in the west, a guy and a program that I admire, because of competing for the top prize against them a number of times is Gonzaga,” Miller said Tuesday. “Not that I just tried to take the playbook of Gonzaga and bring it to me, that wouldn’t have worked, but look and study playing at a faster tempo, trying to learn from it.”

The man who replaced Miller at Arizona, Tommy Lloyd, was a key part of the Gonzaga offensive system. Miller saw what Lloyd ran in Mark Few‘s program that was a mainstay in the second and third weekends of the NCAA tournament and thought it would work well for him.

Not only did Xavier find success on the court, the Musketeers ran a fast-paced offense that analytics adored. Xavier was No. 8 in KenPom Offensive Rating in 2023, No. 31 in 2024, and No. 47 in 2025. The Musketeers were moving and scoring.

Year	Team	KenPom Adjusted Tempo	Ranking	Leading scorer	Record	NCAA Tournament Finish
2022-23	Xavier	70.5	33	Souley Boum – 16.4 ppg	27-10	Sweet 16
2023-24	Xavier	71.2	31	Quincy Olivari – 19.1 ppg	16-18	Missed
2024-25	Xavier	69.2	84	Zach Freemantle – 16.8 ppg	22-12	Round of 64

“The three years that I coached at Xavier, we played at an entirely different pace on offense,” Miller said. “It’s one that I’ve learned to enjoy. I think it’s the future. I think that just because, in fact, you’re playing at a faster pace doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to turn the ball over more or shoot quick every time. It just allows your players to learn and grow through concepts, to play with pace and force.”

There’s an interesting symmetry with the last 10 seasons of Miller’s career and Texas Longhorns basketball. The data starts for Miller with the 2014-15 season. For Texas, that functioned as Rick Barnes‘ final season in Austin. There have been 10 Texas basketball seasons since then with three different coaches sitting on the end of the Longhorn bench.

Where things stop being symmetrical is in pace. Shaka Smart and Chris Beard emphasized defense, trusting their teams to turn the opponent over. The goal was to hold the team on the other side to one fewer point as opposed to scoring one more point than that evening’s foe. Rodney Terry tried to do likewise but volatile personnel choices hampered what he could do on defense.

Because of the defensive focus from Barnes, Smart, Beard, and Terry, pace was never a thing for the Longhorns save for the 2022-23 team that had capable ball-handlers at all five spots. Even they barely cracked the top-100.

Year	Coach	KenPom Adjusted Tempo	Ranking	Leading Scorer	Record	NCAA Tournament Finish
2015-16	Shaka Smart	65.3	306	Isaiah Taylor – 15.0 ppg	20-13	Round of 64
2016-17	Shaka Smart	67.6	212	Jarrett Allen – 13.4 ppg*	11-22	Missed
2017-18	Shaka Smart	65.2	316	Dylan Osetkowski – 13.4 ppg*	19-15	Round of 64
2018-19	Shaka Smart	65.1	306	Kerwin Roach – 14.6 ppg	21-16	Missed
2019-20	Shaka Smart	65.9	292	Matt Coleman – 12.7ppg	19-12	No Tournament
2020-21	Shaka Smart	68.6	146	Andrew Jones – 14.6 ppg	19-8	Round of 64
2021-22	Chris Beard	63.8	336	Timmy Allen – 12.1 ppg	22-12	Round of 32
2022-23	Chris Beard/Rodney Terry	68.8	98	Marcus Carr – 15.9 ppg	29-9	Elite Eight
2023-24	Rodney Terry	67.4	186	Max Abmas – 16.8 ppg	21-13	Round of 32
2024-25	Rodney Terry	67.6	176	Tre Johnson – 19.9 ppg	19-16	First Four

*Tevin Mack was leading the team in scoring in 2016-17 before he was indefinitely suspended for a violation of team rules. Andrew Jones was leading Texas in scoring in 2017-18 before he received his leukemia diagnosis.

This year according in KenPom’s preseason rankings, the Longhorns are the No. 39 overall team. Their Offensive Rating checks in at No. 43 in the nation. Their Defensive Rating is good for No. 32. Those types of numbers have been seen in Austin before.

But for Adjusted Tempo? Texas is starting at No. 76. No Texas team has approached a number like that in over a decade.

There are questions for the Longhorns on offense. Shooting is a touchy subject, but there are athletes on the floor in players like Dailyn Swain, Chendall Weaver, Camden Heide, Simeon Wilcher, and Tramon Mark. There will be an adjustment for those players as they move in an offense with a quicker pace, but it’s one Miller is ready to teach as he starts his burnt orange tenure.

“I enjoy coaching it,” Miller said. “I think fans enjoy watching it. Look, most importantly I think young people that want to choose programs, I think they want to play in a style that allows them to get up and down. That’s something that we certainly are bringing with us to Texas.”