Mantas to Matas?
The Texas Longhorns not only retained rising junior center Matas Vokietaitis in a huge offseason coup, but now head coach Sean Miller and his staff have landed another Lithuanian who is represented by the same agency with the Friday addition of guard Mantas Laurencikas.
The 6’2, 185-pounder will arrive in Austin with four seasons of eligibility remaining after competing for the Lithuanian youth national team, including winning a silver medal last summer with the U20 team last year at the 2025 FIBA U20 EuroBasket in Greece.
Laurencikas spent four seasons competing for Zalgiris in Lithuania, moving up from the youth system to the top team in the 2024-25 season. Last year, Laurencikis made the move to France, playing with Espoirs Monaco before getting the call to AS Monaco Basket, the top-tier league for French basketball.
In 2025-26, Laurencikas averaged 13.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in 27.2 minutes per game, shooting 45.4 percent from the floor and 77.5 percent from the line.
As an international prospect, it’s difficult to asses whether Laurencikas profiles as a rotation player as a freshman over someone like high school signee Joe Sterling, who is described by Miller as more of a developmental prospect.
Especially compared to Sterling, whose best attribute is his shooting ability, there are question marks about Laurencikas and his ability to stretch the court as a shooter — last year in Greece, Laurencikas missed all four of his three-point attempts over seven games and 127 minutes played in EuroBasket.
Where Launrecikas does seem to provide value for next season’s roster is with his distribution ability. The Longhorns project as a team that will rely on multiple playmakers in 2026-27, but doesn’t have a pure point guard. So Laurencikas has a chance to get on the floor if he can serve as a reliable ball handler while he tries to develop his long-distance shooting.
