Matas Vokietaitis Goes 9-for-9 as No. 7 Texas Rolls Past Chicago State 109-59

Nine shots, nine makes. Matas Vokietaitis did not miss a field goal all night, and that was only the headline act of a season opener in which Texas looked like a team in a hurry to prove its preseason ranking was not a gift. The No. 7 Longhorns buried Chicago State 109-59 on Monday night at Moody Center, never trailing, never letting the Cougars get closer than 24 after halftime, and putting up the most points Texas has scored in an opener since a 136-97 win at Oral Roberts in 1992.

The 7-foot center finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-9 shooting, added six rebounds and a block in 25 minutes. Texas shot 62.5 percent as a team, made half of its 26 three-point attempts, and doubled up the Cougars on the glass, 44-22. In front of 10,892 fans, Sean Miller's second Texas team showed off a roster that is almost entirely new and already sharing the ball like it has been together for months.

The First Eight Minutes Settled It

Chicago State had one brief moment of hope. After Texas scored the first five points, Mike Price hit a three at 18:25 to make it 5-3. Then Texas ripped off eight straight, capped by an Isaiah Johnson dunk at 15:40, to go up 13-3.

Price, who scored all eight of Chicago State's points in the opening six minutes, answered with another three to make it 17-8 at 14:27. Texas responded with a 9-0 burst that ended on a three from freshman Bo Ogden at 11:48, and at 26-8 the game was functionally over. Six different Longhorns had scored inside the first six minutes, which tells you plenty about how Miller wants this offense to look.

The rest of the half was a highlight reel in transition. Texas outscored Chicago State 16-0 on the fast break before the break, shot 21-of-31 (67.7 percent) from the field and 6-of-12 from deep, and turned 12 first-half Cougar turnovers into 18 points. Freshman guard Joe Sterling stretched the lead to 49-20 with a three at 3:35, and Texas went to the locker room up 56-30.

Vokietaitis Was Perfect, and It Was Not Close

Perfect nights can be fluky. This one was not. Vokietaitis went 9-for-9 because Texas kept finding him close to the basket, where Texas piled up 50 paint points, and because he cleaned up his own chances on the offensive glass. He grabbed three of Texas' 16 offensive boards and finished 4-of-7 at the line to get to 22.

It was the 11th 20-point game of his career and his 50th game in double figures. More important for Texas, it was a reminder of why the coaching staff built around him. Vokietaitis is the only returning starter from a team that went 21-15 and reached the Sweet 16 in Miller's first year, losing 79-77 to Purdue. Texas has 11 new players. With that much turnover, the big man is the anchor.

Freshmen With Real Minutes and Real Production

The most encouraging part of this opener for Texas might be how much of it was carried by players who had never played a college game.

Austin Goosby, the freshman point guard out of Dynamic Prep in Texas, started and played like a veteran table setter. He finished with seven points, a team-high eight assists and seven rebounds, posting a team-best plus-37 in 27 minutes. Goosby became the 40th freshman in program history to start a season opener, and the first since Tre Johnson in 2024. His first career shot was a three, and it went in.

Sterling was one of the most efficient scorers on the floor. Off the bench, he poured in 14 points in 15 minutes on 5-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-6 from three, and added three assists. Ogden, another freshman guard, had eight points and two steals, and he too made his first career shot from beyond the arc.

Then there is Marcus Spears Jr., the 6-foot-9 forward who was the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2027 before reclassifying and enrolling at 17. Spears came off the bench and gave Texas 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks in 20 minutes. Those four blocks tied for the second-most by a Texas freshman in a debut, one shy of the five James Banks posted in 2016. His free throw shooting (3-of-6) needs work, but the length and timing on the defensive end are already there. In the preseason, Miller compared Spears to a former Arizona star he coached, saying, "He reminds me of a player that I coached at Arizona: Aaron Gordon." That is a heavy comparison to put on a teenager. Monday was a decent first chapter.

The Transfers Fit Right In

Johnson, who led Colorado in scoring at 16.9 points per game last season, was the most complete guard on the floor. He went 5-of-8 from the field, 3-of-5 from three and 5-of-6 at the line for 18 points, with five assists and two steals. Next to Goosby, he gives Texas a second creator who can punish a defense that sags.

David Punch, who averaged 14.1 points and 6.8 rebounds at TCU last season, was quieter with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and three assists, but he played 24 minutes and did the connective work. Amari Evans was a revelation off the bench: 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, a career-high 3-of-3 from three and a team-best seven rebounds, three of them on the offensive end. It was the fourth double-figure game of his career, and his three at 3:38 pushed Texas to its largest lead of the night, 104-53.

That kind of depth showed up in the totals. The Texas bench outscored Chicago State's 48-22. The Longhorns won second-chance points 27-9, fast-break points 26-7, paint points 50-32 and points off turnovers 25-14. Texas assisted on 22 of its 40 made field goals and committed only 10 turnovers. One night against a rebuilding NEC team proves very little, but the ball movement looked intentional, not incidental.

Chicago State Never Found a Second Gear

The Cougars, picked eighth in the nine-team Northeast Conference after going 7-25 last season, have a brutal early slate under coach Landon Bussie, with 13 of 15 nonconference games on the road.

Will Lovings-Watts led Chicago State with 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and Price added 12 points and five assists but cooled off after his hot start, finishing 5-of-12. Davius Loury chipped in eight. As a team, the Cougars shot 39.3 percent, went 5-of-16 from three, made only 6-of-12 free throws and turned the ball over 15 times. They did not block a single shot.

To their credit, they did not quit. Lovings-Watts hit a three at 17:33 of the second half to cut it to 62-38, the closest the Cougars got after the break. Texas answered immediately with back-to-back threes from Elyjah Freeman and Johnson to make it 68-38 at 16:29, and the lead hit 40 at 9:28. From there, the deep reserves got their minutes.

What It Means for Texas

The final margin was the largest in a Texas season opener since a 59-point win over Alcorn State in 2006, and the third-largest win in Moody Center history. Texas has now won 25 straight home openers, a streak that dates to 2001.

Texas has size and a reliable hub in Vokietaitis, real length in Spears, a confident freshman point guard in Goosby, shooting from Sterling and Evans, and a proven scorer in Johnson. And it played this one without Mikey Lewis, the Saint Mary's transfer who averaged 13.9 points last season and broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot in preseason practice. Miller expects him back sometime in December. When Lewis returns, the rotation gets crowded in a good way.

The open question is what this group looks like against teams that can punish mistakes. Texas lost an exhibition 87-74 to No. 13 St. John's at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 25, and the SEC will not hand out open looks like Chicago State did.

Still, perfect shooting from your center, freshmen who play older than their age and a bench that scores 48 points is a good way to start a season that comes with expectations. Next up for Texas was Gardner-Webb at Moody Center on Thursday, Nov. 5. Full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab), and Texas Athletics has its own game recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: Texas Athletics official box score and recap, Field Level Media via Deadspin, theScore, TSN. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

The Longhorns did not just win the opener. They made a statement about how deep and how unselfish this rebuilt roster can be, and Vokietaitis made sure the first line of the season belongs to him.

Photo: Max Yu/University of Texas Athletics.