Sean Miller Calls Out ‘Sign of Weakness’ in Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns men's basketball team bounced back from its worst loss of the season Monday night the Moody Center, rolling past the Southern Jaguars for a 95-69 win.

After the 88-69 blowout loss to the Virginia Cavaliers last week, Texas head coach Sean Miller got brutally honest about his team's performance, particularly on the defensive end.

But despite Texas' comfortable win over Southern, Miller's tone didn't change much, as he voiced serious concerns once again about the team's defense along with the inability to defend without fouling. It's safe to say the Longhorns still have a long way to go in the first year of the Miller era.

Sean Miller Rips Texas Again

Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller reviews a play before the start of the game against the Southern University Jaguars at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

"Look, we have problems on defense," Miller said. "Unless we get better, unless me, us as a staff, solve some of these problems, we're not going to be good enough. ... Man, it's not good."

Along with the defensive criticisms, Miller said that the team's issues with fouling shows "a sign of weakness."

"Our fouling is not a thing of aggression. It's a sign of weakness," Miller said. "Fouling negates effort, negates hustle. ... We have to play defense without fouling. It's a major problem."

Texas is allowing the sixth-most points per game (73.7) among SEC teams so far this season.

Sean Miller Says Lineup Changes Could Be Coming

Miller said that changes to the rotation could be coming in order to address the shortcomings on defense, though he added that he remains unsure what exactly the team's best defensive lineup looks like.

"In addition to just working at it, we might have to make some changes, which includes playing players who play better defense and maybe some guys that aren't playing defense as much. Man, it's not good," Miller said. " ... I don't think it's clear cut where every game you have the same answer, or else we would have just done that."

That said, Miller pointed to true freshman forward Declan Duru Jr. as someone that could see increased minutes moving forward due to his defensive ability. In eight appearances this season, Duru Jr. has averaged 1.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in eight minutes per games. He also has four steals so far this season.

"Getting him more minutes could make us bigger, tougher, more pressure defensively, things like that," Miller said of Duru Jr.

Barring some miracle, it's unlikely the Longhorns will get all of their defensive issues solved before facing the No. 5 UConn Huskies on Friday at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, CT. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT.