Sean Miller Announces Changes at Point Guard for Texas Longhorns

Rodney Terry's decision to move Tramon Mark to point guard at the end of last season helped the Texas Longhorns do just enough to gain momentum and earn a spot in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament.

But with a new regime now at the helm, Sean Miller has a different plan in mind.

Miller met with the media on Monday ahead of the third game of the season against Fairleigh Dickinson and announced that there's going to be some notable changes at point guard moving forward.

Jordan Pope to Take Over at Point Guard for Texas

Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Pope drives the ball around Duke Blue Devils guard Caleb Foster during the second half of the Dick Vitale’s Invitational game at Spectrum Center. | Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images

Miller said that Jordan Pope will take the reins as the lead initiator while Mark will move to more a role more focused on attacking and scoring.

The move has nothing to do with Mark and more to do with Pope, as Miller said that point guard is Pope's "best position."

"Jordan will play a lion's share of the minutes at the point guard position," Miller said. "I believe that that's his best position. ... Moving Tramon away from that and putting him in that scoring role, that could really free him up."

Mark struggled in the season opener against Duke, finishing with just two points on 1 of 2 shooting in 24 minutes. Pope, meanwhile, had 15 points in 30 minutes off the bench.

Sean Miller Wants to Let Tramon Mark Loose on Offense

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark drives against Lafayette Leopards guard Ryan Pettit during the second quarter at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

The Longhorns played inferior competition in the win over Lafayette on Saturday, but it was clear that Mark was more comfortable without having to worry about running the offense. His passing ability will certainly still shine when needed, but it's his scoring punch that could do wonders for this year's team.

"Tramon Mark is a terrific playmaker, and he could do a lot of things besides score, but what position he plays and how that works a lot of times puts him in either a better position to do that more often, or sometimes he's almost working against himself," Miller said.

Miller added that Mark looked more free from Game 1 to Game 2, though that doesn't mean the team won't lean on his play-making as the season goes on.

"I thought the difference in Tramon between game one and game two is he was really freed up to do what I think he does best, and that is just play the game and wired to score and not have that extra burden of trying to run the team and be an extension of the coach and be a quarterback," Miller said. "I still think at times, he can lead us in assists, and his playmaking is good, but I think that's what's in his best interest, in our team's best interest."