For a Texas Longhorns basketball team adjusting to a new head coach, setbacks have been a common theme during the offseason, from the rehabilitation efforts of Xavier Musketeers transfer forward Lassina
Traore and guard Tramon Mark to the late arrivals of European signees Declan Duru and Lewis Obiorah, and culminating with two important preseason injuries.
On Thursday, head coach Sean Miller revealed that Traore and FAU transfer center Matas Vokietaitis suffered lower leg injuries about three weeks ago, continuing the trend of adversity as both were unavailable for the closed scrimmages Texas played, including a 19-point loss to TCU over the weekend that, without context, would raise serious alarm balls about this team.
Miller called the absences “problematic.”
“It’s also, no doubt about it, put us in a unique situation of the 30 practices to have, in essence, about a three-week period of time with your two five men that are going to play a lot of minutes both out at the same time,” Miller said.
The 7’0, 255-pound Vokietaitis suffered a significant ankle sprain, but has been performing well in his return to practice with Miller expecting him to have between four and six days of preparation for the season opener against No. 6 Duke in Charlottesville.
The 6’9, 245-pound Traore missed last season because of a preseason ACL tear that kept him from receiving full clearance to practice until late August, which also caused the Texas medical staff to take a more cautious approach with his mid-foot sprain. So although Miller expects Traore to be available against the Blue Devils, he’s been more limited in practice than Vokietaitis.
“Selfishly, as a coach, you want your entire roster to be able to practice every day. Those two guys missing the time that they’ve missed has really hurt everybody,” Miller said.
With only four returning scholarship players on the roster acclimating to a new coaching staff, every rep in practice or the closed scrimmages is magnified in value.
Traore and Vokietaitis are also the most experienced bigs on the roster. At 25 and having played three seasons of college basketball before the injury at Xavier, Traore is both physically and emotionally mature. And although Vokietaitis is only a sophomore, the Longhorns don’t replicate the combination of his height and mass and experience with its roster depth.
That’s the part of the roster that was thrust into bigger roles in the scrimmages — 6’8, 220-pound sophomore forward Nic Codie, 6’9, 240-pound freshman forward John Clark, and 7’0, 250-pound freshman center Lewis Obiorah.
Despite gaining around 20 pounds of muscle during the offseason, Codie is still a lean player who only played 5.5 minutes per game in his 19 appearances as a freshman and had his development limited by a season-ending knee injury in high school. Clark also had a season-ending knee injury in high school even though he benefits from a more sturdy build.
“It’s never in the player’s best interest to miss an extended period of time, especially when they’re young — as a freshman or their senior year in high school,” Miller said, referring to Clark in a statement that also applies to Codie.
Obiorah is so raw that he’s going to redshirt this season.
The hope for Texas is that the two young forwards will benefit from being thrust into larger roles with the injuries.
“If there’s a silver lining in it, John Clark and Nic Codie have gotten a lot of additional reps — they played a majority of the scrimmage minutes against both SMU and TCU,” Miller said.
The other good news? As much as the injuries set back the team’s overall development during preseason, Traore and Vokietaitis are both returning in time for the regular season.
“We’ve learned to play without those guys during their absence, but we are very much looking forward to getting them back full time,” Miller said.
