If there’s any way to live up to the lofty albeit qualified comparisons of Texas Longhorns freshman guard Tre Johnson to Kevin Durant made regularly by head coach Rodney Terry, Johnson did it on Monday in breaking Durant’s team record for most points in a debut — the nation’s No. 6 prospect in the 2024 recruiting class dropped 29 points, nine more than Durant against Alcorn State in 2006.
For the No. 19-ranked Longhorns, however, the end result was an 80-72 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Hall of Fame Las Vegas Opening Night event in which Johnson’s teammates couldn’t perform well enough against the Buckeyes absent graduate transfer wing Tramon Mark, out with a right ankle sprain.