Head Coach Terrence Johnson didn’t mince words about the Bobcats transition into the Pac-12 Conference
“It’s going to be extremely challenging,” Johnson said. “This will absolutely be a basketball league. We are making one of the largest leaps in modern day in the modern shifts of conferences. We’re going to be in uncharted territory. The resources that some of the teams in this league have, we probably won’t be able to reach early on. Hopefully we can get there and get to the middle of the pack at some point.”
In many ways, Texas State University is used to transitions. The step up from FCS to FBS in football was difficult. The move into the new Pac-12 Conference may be even harder, particularly for basketball.
Despite the rough and tumble, thunderdome-adjacent Sun Belt Conference, the league as a whole is not considered to be a strong basketball conference in recent years.
According to KenPom rankings, Sun Belt is dead last compared to the other Group of Five football conferences and 20th overall with a rating of -5.87. The Sun Belt ranks behind the Bobcat’s old conference, the Southland, as well as notable names like the Horizon League, MAC, Big Sky and even the Ivy League.
Meanwhile, the new Pac-12 conference will average a rating of 9.94, making it the highest rated mid-major basketball conference and ranked right behind the storied basketball conference the Big East.
Setting computer rankings aside, the winner of the new Pac-12 Conference will be guaranteed a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
In bracket projections, according to the Field of 68, future Pac-12 member Gonzaga is projected to be a No. 3 seed while other future Pac-12 member Utah State is projected to be a No. 8 seed. Another future Pac-12 member, San Diego State, is currently sitting on the bubble, making the new conference a potential three-bid league.
Meanwhile, Troy, the Sun Belt conference tournament champion, is projected to be a No. 14 seed.
The success of the Texas State men’s basketball program has also been middling, even though there are some historical bright spots.
Since the transition to Division I in 1984, Texas State has made the NCAA Tournament twice in 42 years, once in 1994 and the second in 1997. The Bobcats have also made the National Invitational Tournament once in 2022 along with four regular season conference titles and two conference tournament titles. To Johnson’s credit, two of those four regular season titles were under his tenure in 2021 and 2022.
With schools going all-in for basketball, the question that remains to be unanswered is how committed the administration is in giving the resources necessary to make Texas State competitive in the new Pac-12. It certainly appears they have put in the commitment for the football program.
To make the leap on the basketball court, there will need to be a similar commitment. In many ways that has already started. The university committed $60 million in 2018 to convert Strahan Colosseum to the Strahan Arena at the University Event Center. That included “a spacious premium hospitality room known as the Richard A. Castro Legacy Club, sparkling new coaches offices for basketball, volleyball, tennis, golf, soccer, baseball and softball, and meeting spaces. The UEC also has new academic areas, team meeting rooms, locker rooms, and a new display space for the Texas State “T” Association Hall of Honor,” according to the TXST Athletic’s website.
Johnson believes that the university will continue to take the steps necessary to compete in the Pac-12.
“I think the administration, the community and Dr. Damphousse somewhat understand,” Johnson said. “I also think that they’re willing to figure out more about what they can do, [find] some unconventional ways that they can help us. My job is to try to get as much support as we can get here financially so we can continue to have the right staff members and players in place.”
While acknowledging the support the administration has and will give to the program, Johnson also talked about the amount of work both the coaching staff and the players will need to do.
“When it’s all said and done, all that we’re going to do for that particular year is to try to do my best to get these guys playing and do more with less,” Johnson said. “It wouldn’t be the first time we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and make ourselves relevant. So it’s going to be a battle for sure. But at the end of the day, the players have to play.”
The debate between the direction of the basketball program is a two-fold problem. Much like the success of football, the success of basketball programs–both men’s and women’s–requires a full commitment from the administration and the coaching staff. The coaches can’t be fully expected to compete in a new conference with an administration that is one foot in and one foot out while a fully committed administration needs to see more success on the court than Texas State has historically produced.
In his six seasons as head coach, Johnson one of the university’s strongest coaching records accumulating 107 total wins, the most of any coach in the Division I era at Texas State. Next season will present Johnson a chance to move into third place all-time for most wins as head coach, trailing only Milton Jowers and Vernon MacDonald.
Johnson’s two regular season conference titles are tied with Mike Miller for the most regular season titles in the Division I era while having an appearance in the NIT tournament, the Bobcats most prestigious tournament bid since the NCAA Tournament appearance in 1997.
Competing in one of the best mid-major basketball leagues will help the program reach their lofty goals, but it will be a long wait on the bench in the new Pac-12 if the commitment isn’t there.
One of the biggest fundraising drives for the university as a whole is called Step Up for State. In order to compete in the Pac-12, both the team and the administration will have to do both–fundraise and step up.
