I think this team needs a win either Saturday or a win in the Big 12 tourney to solidify their spot in the NCAA tournament.
Yeah, I think it hurts Texas that they don't get an easy win in the first round of the Big 12 tourney. (No. 6 seed would normally get a cakewalk against the No. 11, but with only 10 teams, it's a bye.) RPI be damned, I think getting that 20th win would mean a lot, psychologically, to the committee. Still, regardless of Saturday's outcome, I think Texas has a good chance to beat Baylor or ISU in their first Big 12 tourney game.
Well we're in, but we'll soon be out. Mediocrity sucks. We should have everybody back next year, we should anyhow. With some size coming, and expierence we could be threats next year. But Brown and Kabongo will probably go pro and coach Barnes will keep us on this early entry treadmill. He need to start recruiting some guys that will hang around.
Brown is a Junior - even if he were to leave, he stayed 3 years. Kabongo would be an idiot to leave - he's a terrible point guard right now. And the entire class of freshmen that came in should otherwise be multiyear players.
The one thing they have going for them is that they've played pretty solid recently - the Missouri loss was closer than the final score, imo.. when Brown went out the game quickly slipped away, but it was only a 4 point game at that point and Texas had a lot of momentum - plus Missouri had some dudes that simply couldn't miss, not even their typical scorers... that's especially hard for a young college team... they kind of did their jobs on who they expected to beat them, but weren't able to react in game quick enough to the fact that the other players on the opponent were filling the void. Cincinnati can also be pretty up and down. They've had some strange losses. Still, end of the day, wouldn't pick them to advance. If they did advance one round, brought back all their freshman with next years class they can definitely be dangerous. If Brown comes back, too, they could be really dangerous.
I don't think either will leave with the class the Horns have coming in next year. If they stay and the class pans out, this team will be a top 10 team and a contender next season to win it all.
Avery Bradley seemed to have issues with Barnes. Cory Joseph was light years better, in my opinion, at running a team than Kabongo. A point guard's biggest responsibility is to control the ball and settle the offense - Kabongo is frantic whenever he has the ball and turns it over a lot due to carelessness. He still needs the game to slow down for him at this level. He'd be completely overwhelmed by the NBA speed, I think. Is Brown an NBA prospect at all? I haven't heard anything about him and he seems kind of small for the NBA.
'12-'13: Kabongo/Gibbs/Felix J'Covan/Lewis McClellan/Papapetrou Holmes/Bond Ridley/Ibeh Solid, but definitely not top-10 material, IMO. Kabongo's been a huge disappointment, especially considering he was a 5-star recruit that enrolled during the summer in order to get a head-start on familiarizing himself with Barnes' system and his teammates. If J'Covan goes pro, which would be foolish but very J'Covan-esque, then this team will struggle to crack the top-25. Here's to hoping that Ridley's just an absolute monster on the low-block.
Won't happen. I watched him play a few times. He's not very skilled and needs a lot of development. But he could turn out to be a great rebounder.
Football: Texas - 34, Rice - 9. Basketball: Texas - 73, Rice - 59. Baseball: Texas - 11, Rice - 8. Enjoy being our b****?
lol, for crying out loud Baylor owns you in Football and baskeball pipe down, you're a bunch of has-beens
The biggest improvement from players comes from their Freshman to Sophomore years - I think we could be very, very good if these guys develop next year, but it's still up in the air if they will do so. Kabongo needs the game to slow down for him - if he can make that happen, I think he can be really good. This team played like a really talented team of freshmen this year - they were in virtually every game, made lots of big comebacks, and showed flashes of brilliance. But as freshmen do, they made stupid mistakes and panicked at the end of games. If they make about 5 more shots this year at the end of games, they are a top-15 team. At the end of the day, they lost every single one of those close games against good teams - but they are on the cusp of being good. J'Covan would be an idiot to leave - he's not an NBA prospect and is reasonably smart (Academic All-American). A degree would benefit him a lot more than 2 or 3 years in Europe and then being unemployed. But if he does leave, that would be a huge step backwards for the team.
Very true, J'Covan's come a long way since stepping foot on the 40 Acres. Here's a classic CoCo tweet from his freshman year that I bookmarked... By the way, Julien Lewis is a stud defender. I do like our young guys... a LOT. I agree that we'll be much improved next season, but lack of a legitimate low-post threat really hurt us this year. Hopefully Ridley's all he's cracked up to be... he did turn down Roy Dub and UNC to play here, so I'm guessing he's the real deal.
Yeah, J'Covan strikes me as a total idiot with his tweets and his "cousin" tweeting for him last year and all that nonsense. But apparently, he does well in class - or his tutors do.