Don’t know what to expect from the Texas men’s basketball team this season? You’re not alone.

Rodney Terry’s Longhorns have been working just as hard as anyone else this fall, getting ready for the upcoming season. Only they’ve been doing it in quiet, under-the-radar fashion.

Monday’s season opener is a running, leaping full cannonball into the pool. No. 19 Texas opens against Ohio State at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as part of the Hall of Fame Series Opening Night. Tipoff is 9 p.m. Central on TNT.

“We’re ready to finally start this journey of ours,” said guard Jordan Pope, one of Texas’ 10 newcomers.

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Other teams are starting off against random directional schools. Not the Horns. “You get challenged right off the bat,” Terry said. “You want to find our early where you are.”

So where are the Horns exactly? Well, it’s hard to tell just yet.

Terry and the coaching staff assembled a new roster that includes six transfers and four freshmen. One of those is dynamite freshman Tre Johnson, a McDonald’s All-American and the nation’s fifth-best recruit in the class of 2024. Expect to hear his name a lot this season. He will take — and for the Horns’ sake, presumably make — a lot of shots.

Multiple transfers must quickly bond together

Texas does have experienced veterans like transfer Tramon Mark, who made previous stops at Houston and Arkansas, and former Kansas State big man Arthur Kaluma. UT picked up a pair of graduate transfers from Indiana State in Julian Larry and Jayson Kent. Pope was one of the leader scorers the last two seasons at Oregon State, too.

The names Texas fans would know are likely 6-foot-11 Kadin Shedrick and 6-3 Chendall Weaver. They were the fifth- and sixth-best scorers from last year’s team that went 21-13 and finished seventh in the Big 12.

“Our biggest strength is we have a lot of versatility at a lot of different positions, a lot of different skill sets that complement each other,” Pope said.

At SEC Tipoff, Texas basketball coach Rodney Terry unafraid to compare Tre Johnson to Kevin Durant

Tre Johnson, a 6-6 guard from Garland, is the 23rd McDonald’s All-American in UT history

Said Larry: “The strength of this team is when we’re running, we’re really, really good. I really like us defensively, and I really like us running up and down the floor.”

Every one of these transfers were successful at their previous stop, so they know what it takes at high Division I basketball. But how quickly can they come together as a new team in a new place in a new league, the SEC?

“For us in November, it’s going to be about our identity. Who are we going to be in November?,” Terry said. “Are we a team every night that comes in and tries to go out really hard? Are we going to be a team that really wants to get out and play fast and run? Are we going to be a team that values taking care of the basketball?”

Terry: All Horns have ‘an opportunity to shine’

The Horns’ motto this season is “E.B.E” — Everybody Eats. If everyone does their job as individuals, the team will find success.

“We were here previously, we always said we always had good talent. We had good teams. And you win at the highest level, everybody gets a chance to eat, and everybody will get, you know, an opportunity to shine,” Terry said. “And so, we carried that over into this summer with this group, and it's kind of been our theme a little bit.

“It’s more about we than me.”

As Larry said, “If everybody does their job at a high level, then everybody's gonna eat.”

The Horns just can’t get eaten alive in the SEC. Alabama is the preseason No. 2 team in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll with Auburn, Tennessee and Texas A&M slotted 11-13, respectively. Arkansas is 16th, too.

Camp Fimfo, the Alamo and the San Antonio Spurs: A weekend retreat with the Texas men’s basketball team

While Texas fans focused on the Red River blowout, the men’s basketball team spent the weekend at Camp Fimfo in New Braunfels.

Mark and Johnson were third-team preseason All-SEC picks, but those were the only Horns who made the cut.

Games against Syracuse (Nov. 21), North Carolina State (Dec. 4) and UConn (Dec. 8) will be the mileposts Terry uses to gauge improvement as non-conference progresses. The SEC opener against A&M on January 4 in College Station will here before you know it.

Asked if this was a big season for him personally, Terry said, “I think it’s never about me. Oh, I think it’s always about our players. It’s about our program and organization, period.”

Terry kept it rolling when he took over for the fired Chris Beard in the fall of 2022. That team reached the Elite Eight the following spring. Last season, Terry led the Horns to another 20-win season and the NCAA’s second round.

This team? Monday is the shotgun start.

“We’re going to get tested on all those things at an elite level, right off the bat or neutral court,” Terry said. “And so I think it will be great for us.”