Where Tre Johnson’s freshman season ranks among Texas basketball one-and-dones

Texas guard Tre Johnson has now earned Southeastern Conference freshman of the week honors four times this season. He averaged 28.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in two games versus Alabama and Kentucky last week.

[BOOKMARK: Check Inside Texas daily for FREE Texas Longhorns content]

Without a doubt, the Longhorns would not be anywhere close to the NCAA Tournament bubble without the 6-foot-6 freshman. A threat to score from literally anywhere on the court, Johnson leads the Longhorns in…

• Minutes per game (33.3)
• Field goals made per game (6.9)
• Field goals attempted per game (15.7)
• Free throw percentage (87.6)

His 19.8 points per game leads the SEC and is ahead of national player of the year candidates like Auburn’s Johni Broome and Alabama’s Mark Sears by a full 1.5 points. He has scored 475 points in 24 games, and if Johnson can maintain his impressive scoring average over the course of the remaining five regular season games he’ll enter the SEC Tournament with 574 points.

The Longhorns have had a number of tremendous seasons posted by fabulous freshmen. Where could Johnson’s 2024-25 in burnt orange rank among other one-and-dones before he heads to the lottery of the 2025 NBA Draft?

There’s a clear No. 1 Johnson isn’t catching. Kevin Durant‘s 2006-07 where he was the unanimous national player of the year and a consensus first-team All-American remains the best individual season in Texas history. Durant averaged 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks before he was picked second overall by Seattle in the 2007 draft. In just one season, Durant scored 903 points and shot 47 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three.

Durant, of course, won Big 12 freshman of the year that season in addition to conference player of the year. He joined a number of Longhorns who won freshman accolades across time in the Southwest Conference and Big 12, including Travis Mays (1987), Terrence Rencher (1992), Kris Clack (1996), T.J. Ford (2002), Daniel Gibson (2005), Tristan Thompson (2011), Myles Turner (2015), and Jaxson Hayes (2018).

Several players from that list played additional seasons in Austin, but a number from that group plus several others elected to make Texas men’s basketball their one-season stop before heading to the NBA Draft. One-and-done Longhorns taken in the first round include Durant, Thompson, Mo Bamba, Hayes, Myles Turner, Jarrett Allen, Avery Bradley, and Cory Joseph, plus plenty of others picked in second round after one year in Austin.

Johnson already has one freshman record, breaking Durant’s mark for most points scored in a freshman debut with his 29 in the season opener versus Ohio State. He won’t catch Durant’s 903 points in one year, but at 475 points he sits in fourth behind Durant, Rencher, DJ Augustin, and Thompson for the most in a freshman season with five games to go. Even 60 points in five games, would slot him into third amongst freshmen. He still has a ways to go to break into the top 10 scoring seasons in program history, needing to reach the 656 points Joey Wright scored in 1990-91 to make that list.

While points are an important statistic, it’s not the be-all and end-all. He’s certainly a shoo-in for All-SEC honors and freshman of the year accolades. Conference player of the year is likely a bridge too far with Broome doing what he’s doing for the No. 1 Auburn Tigers.

Could he make an All-American team? There are four selectors currently in the AP, the United States Basketball Writers Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and The Sporting News, with all four honoring three teams worth of All-Americans. Positional designation controversies aside, it’s incredibly difficult to believe Johnson isn’t one of the 10 best players in the sport. That’s evidenced by On3’s Jamie Shaw putting Johnson at No. 3 on his Big Board 1.0.

The draft is undoubtedly going to be a big feather in Johnson’s cap, but the way for him to move up the rankings is to perform in the final portions of the season. Durant, on a team in-and-out of the top 25 until the final stretch of the season, helped Texas get to overtime of the Big 12 Tournament versus Kansas before falling by four points. Durant famously won just one NCAA Tournament game after that, ending a one-year career in Austin on the first weekend against USC.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY for just ONE DOLLAR PER WEEK!]

A number of Texas freshmen who went in the first round in recent years didn’t even manage to win an NCAA Tournament game, namely Bamba, Allen, and Hayes. If Johnson and the Longhorns make March Madness, he has an opportunity to move his campaign up the list of one-and-done years put together by a Longhorn. If Texas falls short, he’ll join a growing group of Longhorns that look fondly on their time in Austin but will also look back on time that doesn’t feature postseason opportunities.