Tramon Mark’s playmaking reshapes Texas’ offense in the NCAA Tournament

One of the easy-to-spot adjustments made by Texas during the SEC Tournament was giving Tramon Mark the majority of the opportunities to initiate the offense in the half-court.

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According to Mark, that adjustment was implemented during the Longhorns’ time in Nashville.

“I think the first media time out of that Vanderbilt game,” Mark said Sunday when asked how long that had been in the works.

Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry said Sunday the move was in the works prior to Texas’ trip to the conference tournament that may have earned their spot in the NCAA Tournament. But to make it, he claimed needed to have a critical part of his roster available.

“We’ve wanted to do that for some time,” Terry said Sunday. “I think for us, the only limitations that’s been holding us back from doing that a little bit was it made it a little easier for us to do it when we got Chendall (Weaver) back. That changed the dynamic in terms of another type of guy that could be out there on the floor with those guys.”

Weaver missed time across most of January and February, leaving the January 7 game versus Auburn and not returning until making a brief appearance versus Oklahoma in the regular season finale. But his return versus the Sooners marked one of the first times in 2025 that the Longhorns had their complement of players. Weaver saw more minutes versus Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, and Tennessee, opening up the chance for Mark to take point.

The switch helped Texas achieve the needed two wins for its resume in order to be one of the last four in. In three games in Nashville, Mark was 14-for-36 from the field, scoring 19 points versus Vanderbilt and 15 points versus Texas A&M prior to notching eight against the Volunteers. He had two assists versus Vanderbilt, five against Texas A&M, and three versus Tennessee. That 3.3 assists per game average was over double his previous season average of 1.6. He also was efficient with the basketball, recording only two turnovers in each game. That was all in 101 minutes of action in the SEC Tournament.

The effect on the team was a positive one. Texas recorded 1.097 points per possession in its three games in the tournament for the No. 1 conference in college basketball in 2024-25. That was just below the Longhorns’ season-long mark in the same statistic of 1.107. It’s a different sample size, sure. But the season-long average includes a number of games against some of the worst teams in college basketball while the last three games number is against three NCAA Tournament teams, including a couple who think they can win it all.

Not only did Mark have dribble-drive opportunities, it allowed for Tre Johnson and Jordan Pope to play more off the ball and open up shooting chances for two of the best shooters on the Longhorns.

“Being the shooter that I am, he creates a lot easier shots and looks that I may not be normally getting,” Pope said Sunday. “Having a guy like that being able to get downhill and create and just make plays for himself, it’s huge for us. That’s one of the adjustments we made, and I think if he can be himself then we’ll bee successful.”

Pope said Mark has good pace and vision that helps him score and generate opportunities for others. Johnson added Mark can drive the lane, something Mark himself acknowledged when explaining why he was successful in the role.

“I just know I can get downhill, I know I can create for others,” Mark said. “I feel like I did a good job of that, getting downhill, hitting shooters, and playing basketball. At the end of the day, that’s what I can do.”

The one drawback is that Mark committed a lot of fouls in three games, though it’s hard to tell if that has any correlation with his increased offensive workload. He was whistled for four fouls in each contest in Nashville and fouled out versus Texas A&M and Tennessee. He also took a few hard falls on the Bridgestone Arena court, something he downplayed on Sunday following the NCAA Tournament Selection Show.

That’s a tradeoff that Terry and company will undoubtedly take as the Longhorns try to make it out of the First Four and into a first round game with Illinois in the Midwest region. It’s one that took almost the entire season to materialize, and it wouldn’t have happened without the team returning to full health and Mark’s own skill in the role.

“Tramon is really good and has been good over the course of his career when the ball was in his hands,” Terry said. “We felt like it was a great opportunity for us to do that. We couldn’t do it in the Oklahoma game. Chendall was still just coming back. He was ready to go in conference (tournament) time though.”

With the team full-go, Mark at the point provides the Longhorn offense with a new dynamic that’s helped not just Mark himself, but also others around him. It’s an adjustment that has Texas feeling additional confidence as it gets set to take on Xavier on Wednesday.

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“Having a player like that who can score and create for others that’s a threat to have out there, I’m glad he’s on our side,” Pope said.