Texas Basketball's Freshman Class Is Doing Exactly What Sean Miller Recruited Them to Do

Three games in, Marcus Spears Jr., Joe Sterling, and Austin Goosby look like the real thing. Baylor on Sunday will be the first honest test.

Three games into the 2026-27 season, Texas head coach Sean Miller has a freshman class doing what five-star freshmen are supposed to do against small-conference opponents: dominating without visible effort. The question — as always with early-season blowouts — is whether the production translates when the competition stiffens. Baylor on Sunday is the first data point that matters. Marcus Spears Jr. is the headliner, and deservedly so. The 6-foot-7 forward, still 17, has 36 points across three games with a cumulative plus-49 in two blowout wins. Against Grambling State he played just 20 minutes and posted 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists in a 93-62 win. His film shows what the recruiting rankings promised: a drop step that shakes defenders, court vision sharp enough to recognize a double team and find the open man, and the kind of above-the-rim athleticism that produces alley-oop dunks in live action and dunk-contest highlights in warmups. But the more interesting freshman story Monday night was Joe Sterling. The 6-foot-4 guard hit three 3-pointers against Grambling State, two in the first eight minutes, and has 10 made threes through three collegiate games. Those around the program have nicknamed him "Joe Curry" — partly facetious, partly not. Sterling's free-throw shooting during summer workouts drew national attention, and his early returns suggest the shooting is translatable. Miller praised Sterling's defensive instincts postgame, noting that he ranks near the top of the team in steals and deflections during practices and games. That's the kind of detail that earns minutes. Austin Goosby, the starting guard, leads Texas in minutes (73), assists (13), and steals (7) through three games. He's the freshman whose role is most secure. The rotation question is behind him — the playing-time battle is between Sterling and fellow freshman Bo Ogden, a four-star Austin Westlake product who has 16 points in 46 minutes across three games. If Sterling keeps shooting like this and defending passably, Ogden's minutes shrink. Miller hasn't committed to a final rotation yet, and there's no reason to rush it. The 93-62 win over Grambling State was Texas's third blowout in a row, following a 109-59 demolition of Chicago State. The starting five — Goosby and Spears plus three upperclassmen — is set. The bench pecking order is the only thing still being sorted. That's a good problem to have in November. The real evaluation starts Sunday against Baylor at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Baylor is 2-0 and expected to be an NCAA Tournament team. It's not a top-10 test, but it's the first opponent that will make Texas execute under pressure. How Spears handles physicality, whether Sterling gets clean looks against a real defensive scheme, whether Goosby's assist-to-turnover ratio holds — those are the questions that matter. The cupcake portion of the schedule isn't fully over, but the first meaningful exam is here.