At SEC Tipoff, Texas basketball coach Rodney Terry unafraid to compare Tre Johnson to Kevin Durant

At these conference media day events, coaches usually bring veterans to talk about their programs, how the offseason went and the upcoming season.

Texas coach Rodney Terry brought the only freshman out of 16 teams to SEC media day on Tuesday in Birmingham, Ala. He brought the one player that Terry feels comfortable comparing to Kevin Durant.

KD? Yes, Tre Johnson might be that special.

“I feel a little bit lost,” Johnson told Paul Finebaum on SEC Network. “Just going with the flow.”

Johnson, a 6-foot-6 guard from Garland, had an aw-shucks demeanor on the dais. But his scoring ability is aw-hell yes. Ranked the nation’s fifth-best overall prospect, Johnson is UT’s 23rd McDonald’s All-American and scored 2,563 points in high school.

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“Everything I’ve been working towards is being one of the greatest basketball players ever,” Johnson said. “That’s what’s been on my mind since I was a young kid. I didn’t really think too much about college or anything else in between. I just knew that I wanted to go down as one of the best to touch a basketball.”

Johnson is one of four freshmen on a Longhorns team that includes six others from the transfer portal — 10 newcomers in all. Associated Press Top 25 voters slotted the Horns 19th in the preseason poll. SEC coaches have Terry’s group pegged to finish seventh in the 16-team league.

Johnson is going to play a key role in all of it, as one of the Horns’ top shooters and someone who will command defensive attention.

“He’s proud of being from the state of Texas and representing Texas at the flagship program, and he’s a super competitor,” Terry said.

“I got a chance to coach Kevin Durant for one year at Texas, and he and Kevin have a lot of things that kind of cut from the same cloth in terms of incredible work ethic. He’s a guy that you literally have to push him out of the gym. He’s in the gym 24/7 much like Kevin was, and he’s a super competitive kid.”

Shedrick goes from ACC to Big 12 to SEC

Tales from the transfer portal creates will make for some interesting storylines all season long. For example, guard Tramon Mark went from Arkansas to Texas. Terry said Mark will be a “a great two-way player for us.”

Texas picked up a pair of transfers from Indiana State in guard Julian Larry and forward Jayson Kent. How that team was bypassed for the last year’s NCAA Tournament will forever be a mystery. But Indiana State ran all the way to the NIT championship game.

Terry said Larry and Kent have “a little bit of a chip on their shoulder” from getting shutout of the NCAAs.

Graduate senior Kadin Shedrick may have the best college basketball world view. He started at Virginia in the ACC and then transferred to Texas to play in the Big 12. Now, Shedrick is playing in the SEC.

“These days, you’re seeing nine teams ranked in the top 25 preseason, and I think that’s really impressive,” Shedrick said of the Horns’ new league. “We’re excited for the opportunity to play all the teams in the league.”

Ole Miss coach Chris Beard will return eventually

With Texas’ move into the SEC, the Longhorns will eventually face the Ole Miss Rebels. That’s where coach Chris Beard landed after being fired by UT in January 2023.

Beard landed his dream job at Texas. But school officials had little choice after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his longtime fiancée. The Travis County District Attorney’s office later dropped all charges.

Beard hired Terry to join the Texas staff prior to the 2021-22 season. Terry took over the interim head coaching role when Beard was first suspended by the school. In Terry’s first full year as the head coach, the Horns reached the Elite Eight.

Texas is scheduled to play at Ole Miss on Jan. 29. Beard will then make his Moody Center return during the 2025-26 season.

“He and I, our friendship, we’re still really close right now,” Terry said. “We’re still talking, communicating at a high level, talking about other opponents other than ourselves and things of that nature. But you talk about a great person and a great coach, Chris Beard is that kind of guy.”