Longhorns basketball earns impressive Blue Ribbon preseason ranking

After a deep March Madness run, expectations are high for Longhorns men's basketball. The roster is full of talent, people nationwide are taking notice. That includes Chris Dortch, who released the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook preseason top 25 on Tuesday and ranked Texas No. 7.

While the Longhorns will have a few familiar faces, they have been one of the busiest teams in the transfer portal over the last few months. Their additions include guard Amari Evans, junior guard/forward Elijah Freeman, sophomore guard Isiah Johnson, junior guard Mike Evans, and junior forward David Punch. They will be joining a program that posted a 21-15 overall record during the 2025-2026 campaign.

lucky No. 7 🤘#HookEm | #AlwaysCompetepic.twitter.com/1ygBSHQNll

— Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB) September 17, 2026

The talented group will also get some help from one of the country's best freshman classes. In just a few months, highly regarded high school recruits Bo Ogden, Austin Goosby, and Marcus Spears Jr. will make their collegiate debuts in the burnt orange. They are part of a Longhorns recruiting class ranked the No. 4 recruiting class nationally by 247 Sports.

As the Longhorns chase a national title, they will face competition from their own conference. Three other SEC teams also made the top 25: Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Only Tennessee and Florida were ranked higher than Texas.

“You commit to a coach.”
Texas transfer G Amari Evans on why he choose Texas out of the portal pic.twitter.com/A0chl3knKS

— Evan Vieth (@EvanVieth) September 16, 2026

Although a lot could change in the next few weeks, the Longhorns are poised for success with head coach Sean Miller leading the way. In his first season in Austin, Miller showed he could get the best out of his players and lead a team on a deep tournament run. Now the goal is to win a title and have confetti raining down when the 2026-2027 men’s college basketball season comes to a close.

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This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Longhorns basketball earns impressive Blue Ribbon preseason ranking