SOUTHWEST MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 25, 2025

Sean Miller

Tramon Mark

Lahaina Civic Center

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

Texas 119, Chaminade 78

SEAN MILLER: I really liked Tramon Mark, the way he played the game. It was great to see him shoot the ball like he's capable. He knows this. We really believe in him as a three-point shooter and a guy that's a play maker, can do a lot of things.

Early in the season, the percentages sometimes, in fact, lie. Like you really don't have a true indicator because we haven't built up enough games, but I thought he shot the ball like we see him shoot it all the time, and to watch him go 4 for 7, which I think he made all four in the second half, if I'm right about that. It was great to see him do that.

Obviously the rebounding was a real key. Two things that plagued us: Turnovers and insanity is how I'd describe kind of what was going on out there at times. We had 25 turnovers. We thought we were going to get 30 there for a second.

But I credit Chaminade. They pressed, they play hard, and they create that havoc. In spite of our 25 turnovers and in spite of No. 1, Nathan Medina, who had 30, we did some other things pretty well.

Q. Tramon, it's really good to have a bounce-back game going into tomorrow. Coach was talking about turnovers. Sometimes in games like this you can miss the things that get you set up for tomorrow. What do you want to do tonight in terms of flushing this and turning around and getting ready?

TRAMON MARK: We're just really excited for tomorrow. I already know the group of guys that we have. We did a poor job taking care of the ball today, but that's okay, we're going to bounce back tomorrow, have a chance to get a top-25 win tomorrow, so we're just focused on that right now.

Q. One of the things that as a coach you're paying attention to a lot of things that aren't seen sometimes in games like this. How do you get them refocused for tomorrow and thinking about resetting after a game where they had control throughout the entire game?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, look, this is a world-class tournament. Everybody knows the history and the tradition here of the Maui Invitational. No team flies over here and gets in the airplane for 11, 12 hours and wants to lose. It's heartbreaking. We had a tough loss. When you foul 28 times like we did last night -- I looked it up, I think in 700 some games that I've coached, that was maybe the most fouls that were ever called against my team.

We looked at it watching the film a number of times. We have to get better at defending without fouling. That was a key.

I thought we did a little bit better tonight. It was a different type of setup. But tomorrow we'll be tested there. But Odum who's a terrific point guard for Arizona State, he had shot 10 free throws in five games, and he shot 18 free throws against us. That's a heck of a thing.

We fouled their starting point guard and their 2, 15 times. 15 times we fouled two players, and those guys, they got us for 23 of 28 from the line. Think about this. If a team shoots 23 for 28 from the free-throw line, that's a good night. Two players shot 23 for 28.

Being able to learn from that experience and guard the dribble and be able to play without fouling -- look, I think we all hope when you come to a tournament like this that it's reffed no different than when you're in that Sweet 16 game in March. If you're going to call fouls in November, just call them in March and vice versa. We all want that, every coach.

But playing in this tournament and playing and not fouling and being able to defend without fouling and take care of the ball, those are the two biggest areas for us, and tomorrow to have a chance to beat a very good NC State team, we're going to have to be able to defend without fouling and we're going to have to be able to take care better of the ball than we have since we've arrived here.