Texas State Head Coach Terrence Johnson‘s men’s basketball team reflects a deliberate commitment to experience and maturity. The Bobcats are among a select few Division One programs nationwide—and one of only two in the Sun Belt Conference alongside Coastal Carolina—that do not feature a single freshman on their active roster.
Texas State’s seniority has placed them amongst a select group of teams with the most players possessing at least five years of college basketball experience. The Bobcats squad consists of six players who meet this criteria: senior guard Dylan Dawson, senior forward Tyrel Morgan, senior forward Tylan Pope, senior guard Joshua O’garro, senior forward Christian Turner and graduate guard Drue Drinnon.
There are only four other teams across the country playing Division One basketball that have more than six players with this experience. The University of North Carolina Charlotte, the University of Louisville and Wichita State University all have seven players, while Oklahoma State University leads the way having eight players with five or more years of experience.
Instead of recruiting players from high schools across the country, Johnson has dipped into the transfer portal to improve on last year’s (17-18) record. The star of Johnson’s recruitment so far seems to be former Nevada forward Tylan Pope. Pope is growing into the team with each performance, and seven games into his Texas State career Pope is averaging just under 12 points and 6.1 rebounds in just 22.6 minutes per game.
The Bobcats’ seniority and leadership is apparent in games so far this season, most recently in their last two games of the Myrtle Beach Invitational in Conway, South Carolina. After dropping the first game against Bradley, the Bobcats responded with two big wins. The first against Princeton where Tyrel Morgan dropped a career high 27 points on nine of 14 shooting. In the fifth place game against Ohio University Pope had the hot hand putting up 24 points on nine for 14 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds.
In spite of all the emphasis on seniority, the engine driving Texas State’s offense is sophomore guard Kaden Gumbs. A product of San Marcos High School, Gumbs has quickly established himself as the team’s leading scorer, averaging 16 points per game while showcasing exceptional efficiency—shooting 49% from the field and an impressive 87% from the free-throw line to start the season.
Coach Johnson will hope to continue building chemistry with his veteran squad over the next handful of games before their Sun Belt Conference play begins later this month in a battle against Georgia Southern on Saturday, Dec. 21 at Strahan Arena. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
