Sean Miller has high expectations for Matas Vokietaitis in his second year as a Longhorn

One of the most important moves for Texas during the recent offseason was transfer portal related, but it wasn’t grabbing a player from the portal. Texas kept Matas Vokietaitis in Austin after his first season as a Longhorn, giving Sean Miller a player he believes can be one of the best in the country in 2026-27.

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Miller told The Field of 68 earlier this week that Vokietaitis, who announced his return to the Longhorns on April 10, currently has 6% body fat at 7-foot, 255-pounds. Vokietaitis started all 36 games for the Longhorns this past season, and used that frame and his accompanying skill to average 15.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest. He led the Southeastern Conference in field goal percentage at 61.9% and was the only player in the league to post a mark above 60% during the 2025-26 season.

Entering 2026-27, Miller has high expectations for Vokietaitis to be an impact player and also to expand his skill set.

“Once you get in the game, he is incredibly physical,” Miller said. “Then, he has the next level where sometimes that physicality can get away from him. Learning how to channel it — for a lot of this year he was getting fouled as many times per game as Zach Edey did in his final year at Purdue. Think about that. He gets his licks in as well, but I think one of the things we’re trying to teach Matas is you don’t want the spotlight to be on you every play. You have to pick and choose your battles, and your physicality can be a gift. Don’t weaponize it every time. Don’t be in the fray every time.

“I believe if he can make some growth in that area and also just become a little bit better defensively, and part of him being better defensively is not fouling, protecting the rim in a smarter way, I have no doubt he’ll be one of America’s best players.”

Vokietaitis averaged 26 minutes per contest in 2025-26 and scored in double figures in all but five games. He saved some of his best performances for the NCAA Tournament. He scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds in Texas’ first round win over BYU and followed that up with a 17-point, 9-board game against Gonzaga to advance the Longhorns to the Sweet 16. His season finished without a flourish as he logged a 9-point, 2-rebound game in the loss to Purdue.

Some of the explanation for that downtick is due to Vokietaitis logging four fouls against the Boilermakers. As Miller mentioned, fouls were a problem for the 7-foot Lithuanian. Vokietaitis fouled out five times during the 2025-26 season, including in the Longhorns’ First Four game against NC State. He had at least four fouls in 14 other games.

That led to some diminished block numbers for a player his size. He only had five games with more than one block, a surprising stat for a 7-footer. But Miller believes development is coming for Vokietaitis, who is doing more than just playing basketball as a tall human.

“Bill Walton… used to say this to me all the time. Sean, does he play basketball because he’s tall or does he play basketball because he loves it?” Miller said. “He would say, for example and he would always use the same example, if we had an intramural game on the other side of campus and he was 6-foot tall, would he go out there and play? Explain his love, is it true or not?

“Matas is one of those guys that plays the game because he loves it, not because he’s 7-foot. He’s a really hard worker. He puts work in every day. Early to practice, loves the game, wants to be great.”

Keeping Vokietaitis for the 2026-27 season was one of the biggest wins for the Longhorns in the most recent portal cycle. Surrounding him with portal additions like Mikey Lewis, Elyjah Freeman, Amari Evans, David Punch, and Isaiah Johnson along with signees like Austin Goosby, Bo Ogden, and Joe Sterling has Vokietaitis set up for a big junior season.

A big junior season for a big man.