This Texas Longhorns Newcomer is Fitting Right into the Program

The Texas Longhorns are now rolling to start the 2025-26 season, wrapping up a four-game home stand in which the Longhorns were perfect, ending the stretch with a dominating 99-65 win over the Rider Broncs.

Texas is now 4-1 throughout the first five games of the young season after dropping the season-opening game to Duke. The Longhorns have rattled off four straight victories to help build some momentum with a new look squad.

The Longhorns will now shift gears and head out on the road for the Southwest Maui Invitational, beginning on Nov. 24 against Arizona State. In the convincing win on Tuesday night, the Longhorns received top performances, with three different players reaching over 20 points, with one newcomer leading the way.

Dailyn Swain Leads Longhorns Tuesday Night

Texas Longhorns guard Dailyn Swain (3) shoots against Rider Broncs forward Shemani Fuller (3) during the first half at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

Headlining the Longhorns' 99-point affair was forward Dailyn Swain, who ended the ballgame, one point shy of tying his career high in scoring, capping off the night as the Longhorns' leading scorer with 26 points, shooting an impressive 81 percent from the field, making nine of his 11 field goal attempts, with the only two misses coming from beyond the arc. Swain also added five rebounds, three assists, and two steals.

In the postgame press conference, Swain mentioned his comfort level if the Longhorns ever needed him to be one of their go-to scorers, detailing that he is confident in his abilities to do whatever is required of him for the team.

"I'm comfortable doing whatever the team needs me to do," Swain said. "Scoring 20 points or guarding the best player or getting three offensive rebounds, whatever the team or coach Miller gives me, accepting it."

Spotlighting the performance in the postgame press conference was Sean Miller, who detailed Swain's high level of play throughout the night, and a part of his game that sticks out.

"He was dominant at times," Miller said. "His level of play really never waned. He started off strong, and he played the same way throughout the game. One of the gifts he has at six-foot-eight is he can handle the ball in the open court, and I thought a lot of his best plays tonight was pushing the ball."

Swain Fitting Right In

Swain is in his first season with the Longhorns after coming over with Sean Miller from Xavier when Miller was hired as the Longhorns' head coach. Swain spent his first two seasons under Miller at Xavier, where he averaged 7.8 points, shooting about 50 percent from the field in two years.

Now in just five games, Swain is quickly establishing himself as one of the Longhorns' key players, with a 16-point debut performance in game one against Duke; however, after the first game, Swain would score less than 15 points in the next three games until yesterday's 26-point performance. The third-year player credited his best performance of the season to his teammates.

"I think it starts with my teammates," Swain said. "They were telling me to be more aggressive, you know, the past few games I wasn't as aggressive as I was tonight, and them giving me that confidence is what allowed me to play like I did tonight."

For the season, Swain is averaging 15.2 points, shooting 51 percent from the field, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game, and as the season progresses, Swain's role will be increasingly important.