AUSTIN – Texas freshman guard Tre Johnson had his best game of his young college career on Saturday, dropping 30 points to help the Longhorns overcome a 22-point deficit at home and knock off No. 13 Texas A&M, 70-69. Johnson had 24 of points in the second half and was incredible down the stretch.
Sitting in the stands as always, recording the final few moments of the dramatic comeback on his cell phone, was Tre’s father, Richard Johnson Jr. The ties between Richard and Texas, and particularly with Longhorns coach Rodney Terry, go back way longer than Tre’s freshman season. They trace back to the fall of 1996, when Richard was a 6-foot-5 freshman at Baylor. Terry, then a 27-year-old assistant, was in his first year at Baylor under head coach Harry Miller. It was the first season for the Bears in the Big 12 after leaving the Southwest Conference. “I worked with Billy Gillespie and Harry Miller and they were always tough on the players,” Terry tells Hoops HQ. “I was the buffer. I let the players know what coaches meant after they got done yelling at them. I never had any problems with Rich. I think he was still just a young player and he was trying to understand what Coach Miller wanted from him.”
Richard played limited minutes as a freshman, so he transferred to Division II Midwestern State University (Texas), where he ended up scoring over 1,000 points in two seasons and averaged 19 points per game his senior season. He didn’t have much contact with Terry or the other Baylor coaches from that point on. But when Richard’s oldest son Tre was a sophomore at TK High School, he heard from Terry, who was then an associate head coach under Chris Beard at Texas. Terry had just watched Tre for the first time and was calling to offer him a scholarship to UT. Coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, college coaches had a lot of catching up to do, especially in a large state like Texas where there are a ton of high-major prospects. Terry’s prior history with Tre’s father gave him an important early advantage.
“The first time I saw Tre was at the TABC tournament in Dallas in June of 2021,” Terry recalls. “We were there to see Cason Wallace and later on, after watching a young Tre Johnson as a sophomore I thought, ‘Man, we’re offering this guy right now.’ We got back to campus and offered him after seeing him in person one time.”
Having made the easy decision, Terry called his former player, Richard, and made his first pitch. “After I saw him play I said to his dad, ‘Rich, I think you got one.’ He said, ‘You think so, Coach?’ And I said, ‘Oh, you got a real one,’ and the rest is history. We called him the young Ray Allen when we first saw him play in high school and to me, he’s lived up to that.”

Tre, now a projected lottery pick and five-star recruit out of high school, also considered Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas and Kentucky, but in the end it came down to Texas and Baylor. Those looking from the outside thought of it just as another in-state recruiting battle. Those who were closer, knew the truth.
“RT [Rodney Terry] has always been family, ever since I played for him,” Richard Johnson tells Hoops HQ. “I didn’t know how good Tre was going to be (at the time) but I saw a lot of potential and a lot of myself in him. When he was younger, he was always able to shoot and I would get on him for relying on his shot too much. But as he got older and stronger and had his growth spurt, his shooting and shot creation just got better and better and that’s a skill set that translates to every level of basketball.”
Tre grew five inches (from 6-0 to 6-5) between his freshman and junior seasons of high school. He credits his dad for helping him develop his skills and mental competitiveness, especially during the spring and summer of 2020 when there was no basketball because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “My dad instilled that in me since I was young but I didn’t really get it until Covid time,” Tre says. “I think Covid was the best thing for me. That’s when I got that ‘dog mentality’ in me. I got my athleticism from all the hard work and I had a growth spurt. My dad was on me all the time.”
Tre ended his high school career as the No. 6-ranked player in his class, according to 247 Sports. He was honored as a McDonald’s All American and played for Team USA for Nike’s Hoop Summit. When he arrived in Austin and started practice under a coach his dad has also played for, the significance of the full circle moment hit home.
“It’s kind of weird and crazy at the same time because my dad has stories of when RT was his coach at Baylor and I’m also going to have stories of us here at Texas,” Tre says. “The biggest similarities between us are our working habits, how hard we work and our competitive spirit. Sometimes in practice I’m like, ‘Wow, my dad really played for this same coach.’”
Tre has more than lived up to expectations as a freshman, not unlike another young scoring phenom, Kevin Durant, did at Texas during the 2006-07 season. Tre has been in the gym with Durant when he visited campus during the off-season, getting shots up with one of the best players in the NBA. “He [Durant] doesn’t waste any reps,” Tre says. “His reps are full intensity, 100 percent. His advice has just been to just keep my head down and keep working and block out all the other noise.”

Durant averaged 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and shot 40 percent from three-point range as a freshman before he became the No. 2 draft pick in of the Seattle Supersonics. That provided a road map for Tre that he hopes to follow. “Everyone has always said, ‘He’s just a scorer, he’s this, he’s that,’ but now they’re starting to see what makes him so good with his IQ, versatility and playmaking and how he can impact the game in different ways,” Richard says of his son.
Johnson is currently averaging 18.8 points and has scored 20 or more points six times this season. His scoring instincts and ability to elevate over the defense separates himself from a lot of shooting guards in this year’s draft. “He’s filled out his frame and he’s definitely been better in shot selection and getting to his spots,” one NBA scout told Hoops HQ. “The way he’s really improved his defense on the perimeter and is so good on the switch has really made him a two-way threat.”
Men’s College Basketball Top 25 Rankings
Seth Davis’ rankings for Week 14. Alabama, Florida and St. John’s move up.Texas is 14-6 and playing in the SEC, the toughest conference in college hoops. Having a superstar freshman like Tre has kept the Longhorns in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament bid and given them a spark down the stretch of close games. The history between Tre, his coach and his father has bonded the three of them in ways they hope will pay dividends on the court over the next two months.
“Rich is family to me,” Terry says. “Anytime a kid plays for me, he’s a part of my family, so anytime I’ve ever talked to Rich, it’s always been family. To now have him be an extended part of our family here at Texas and to have Tre here and coaching him, that was just icing on the cake and something really special to all three of us.”