Sean Miller Gives 2 Areas of Improvement for Texas After Loss to Arizona State

Monday night's loss to the Arizona Sun Devils will be a tough one to look back upon for the Texas Longhorns. Ahead by 10 points with seven and a half minutes left, ESPN's win probability system gave the Longhorns a 95.1% to come away victorious.

But Texas struggled down the stretch and was unable to respond to a lead-taking three-pointer by guard Maurice Odum with ten seconds left, falling 87-86. The Longhorns drop to 0-2 against Power Five opponents and will now face NCAA Division II program Chaminade on Tuesday.

Postgame, Sean Miller briefly spoke about two areas that contributed to his team's late collapse and in which he needs to see improvement in the near future.

Turnovers

Nov 18, 2025; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns guard Dailyn Swain (3) is congratulated by forward Camden Heide (5) during the first half at Moody Center. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

"19 turnovers are the key to our team," Miller said. "We came in the game, and for the most part, in our early season, we've done a good job taking care of the ball. We had nine at the half, and had a couple of guys who were uncharacteristic in terms of making tough turnovers. And look, we had a couple plays late in the game, that stretch when we had an advantage, part of what got (Arizona State) back into the one-possession game was steals."

Miller mentioned a Sun Devils steal off an underneath out-of-bounds play coming out of a timeout and another happening on one of Texas' set plays. After the second half's under-eight-minute media timeout -- during which they were leading by eight points -- the Longhorns gave up six turnovers from six different players.

"It's tough to win against good teams, neutral court, when you have 19 turnovers," Miller said.

Arizona State scored 18 points off of Texas' turnovers and sealed the game by forcing a Tramon Mark turnover in the final seconds.

Personal Fouls

There were 49 personal fouls given out in the 40 minutes of play, Texas called for a majority of them.

"We had 28 personal fouls. That's insane," Miller said postgame.

Those calls ended up translating into 36 free throws for the Sun Devils, who converted 28 of them. Odum, who scored 36 points and had the game-winner for Arizona State, went 16-for-18 from the stripe.

The Longhorns had seven players with three or more fouls, including guard Simeon Wilcher, who fouled out in 19 minutes of play, and forward Lassina Traore, who tallied four in 10 minutes. Resultedly, each of Texas' starters played at least 26 minutes.

"I thought that a couple of times, Arizona State, they put you in a position to guard the dribble, and they got into the paint and were able to draw fouls from the three officials," Miller said. "If one guy didn't catch it on the baseline, the other guy maybe didn't catch it on the wing, the guy at half court damn sure caught it."

Miller said he and his team have to look back on "why" his players earned the whistles from the three officials, emphasizing the need to play better defense without fouling. He also highlighted the team's two charges, which count in both the turnover and personal foul categories, as another point of review.

Miller's team has the chance to bounce back against Chaminade and then one of N.C. State or Boise State in Maui.