Transitioning into a new era of men’s basketball, the Longhorns don’t need to find a pioneer to take on head coach Sean Miller’s system.
Instead, Texas has junior forward Dailyn Swain, who followed Miller to Texas after playing under him for two years at Xavier.
“This is my third year playing for Coach Miller,” Swain said after Tuesday’s game against Rider. “Playing that offense is a huge reason why I stayed, and I’ve been playing with him.”
Offensively, Swain moves fluidly on the court when trying to find open spaces for easy shots. He excels closer to the paint, shooting 52% from the field and only 29% from beyond the arc. When the space under the basket eventually opens up while the ball is circulated around the court, Swain shows off his prowess by running into areas close to the hoop and demanding the ball for an easy layup or dunk.
Through the first five games of the season, Swain has averaged 15.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and one steal. His headline performance this season happened against Rider, when he came up one point short of his career-high, only missing two shots from beyond the arc and scoring 26 points on an efficient 81.8% from the field.
Though not the primary ball-handler, Swain is also able to facilitate play and control the tempo. Typically, through his defensive action, the forward is a strong rebounder on the defensive end of the floor and is able to pick the ball away for steals. After recovering possession, Swain is skilled at taking the ball down the court to keep the game’s flow high-tempo.
“One of the gifts he has at 6-foot-8 is he can really handle the ball in the open court,” Miller said on Tuesday. “(Swain and senior guard Chendall Weaver) both can make plays for themselves and others in the open court. When those guys get defensive rebounds, it just feels like good things happen for our team. A lot of his best plays tonight were just that, pushing the ball.”
However, Miller believes that Swain’s comfort level in his fast-paced system goes back to before he even arrived at Xavier. He explained that developing comfort in a basketball system goes all the way back to recruiting, a process that starts when a player is only 16 years old.
Since recruiting him, Miller has watched Swain go through the “ups and downs of a freshman” and eventually grow into the sophomore who helped lead Xavier past Texas in last year’s March Madness First Four round.
“There’s a byproduct of that familiarity that gives you confidence and comfort,” Miller said. “(Swain) is a player right now that is confident, and I think he’s comfortable in the environment that he’s around. Texas is new to him, but how we do things is very familiar, and he is the beneficiary of that.”
