Sean Miller Defends Controversial Decision in Texas’ Loss to Purdue

The No.11 Texas Longhorns ended their unlikely run in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, losing to the No. 2 Purdue Boilermakers in the Sweet 16.

Texas battled Purdue to the very end, losing on a last-second tip-in. The put-back came from forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who out-muscled Texas forward Dailyn Swain to send the Boilermakers through to the Elite Eight.

After the play, many fans questioned why Swain had been under the basket instead of starting center Matas Vokietaitis. Texas' head coach Sean Miller answered those questions in his post-game press conference.

Why Was Matas Vokietaitis on Bench During Final Play?

Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis dunks the ball against the Purdue Boilermakers in the first half during a Sweet Sixteen game of the West Regional of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

Vokietaitis was a huge factor in Texas' first three tournament games, putting up a combined 55 points and 33 rebounds across 90 minutes of work. Despite that, Miller opted for forward Nic Codie after Purdue took a timeout with 11.9 seconds left in a gridlocked 77-77 game.

As previously mentioned, Purdue went on to the win game by scoring in the exact spot Vokietaitis typically occupies. So, when Miller went to his post-game press conference, he was immediately asked about the decision.

“When [Purdue center Oscar] Cluff fouled out, that meant Kaufman-Renn would play the five, and the best thing Renn does at the five is drive the ball. I think it would have been very difficult for Matas to put him in that position," Miller said. "We had already seen how that worked throughout the game, and it wasn't to our advantage."

Cluff had indeed fouled out moments before Purdue's timeout, so Miller's philosophy was that matching the slower-footed Vokietaitis on new pseudo-center Kaufman-Renn could lead to a disadvantageous one-on-one scenario. The prospect of Kaufman-Renn getting a chance to ice the game by driving past Vokietaitis is made more frightening by Purdue's elite three-point shooting, which could prevent other Longhorns from rotating to help their center.

Vokietaitis' lack of quickness also makes him a liability when switched on to guards, especially guards with the speed of Purdue's Braden Smith. While Vokietaitis came up with a clutch block on Smith earlier in the night, expecting him to do so again with the game on the line would be foolish.

"We went [with a] quicker [lineup], and we tried to, like, cross match, meaning put Swain on [Kaufman-Renn] so that Swain could be on Braden Smith [if they screened]," Miller said.

Purdue head coach Matt Painter saw this change and elected to not run his team's bread-and-butter ball-screen, opting instead to let Smith cook on an isolation possession against Texas guard Chendall Weaver. That left Kaufman-Renn right under the basket for the game-winning bucket.

TREY KAUFMAN-RENN GAME-WINNER 🚨

PURDUE ADVANCES TO THE ELITE 8 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CYj7ltsGXT
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 27, 2026

While the game did not go his way, Miller's reasoning was certainly sound.

While Smith is a good scorer, he is a transcendent pick-and-roll ball-handler. So, forcing him away from his best action is a good outcome, one which resulted in a miss from Smith.

Unfortunately, Swain could not seal his man.

"We did get the stop, they just got us with their size on the offensive rebound," Miller said.

It is also worth noting that Vokietaits being in the game would not have guaranteed him getting the rebound. After averaging 11 per game to that point in the tournament, he finished yesterday's match with only two.

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