Was it something Rick Barnes said?
While all the top prospects around the nation decided to return to school rather than face the uncertainty that was the NBA heading into a lockout, the Texas Longhorns basketball team was not so fortunate. Texas lost their best players, all of them, to the NBA draft, in a year when it was the odd thing to do.
Had we been living in another world, bizarro-NCAA if you will, it could have been North Carolina that felt this fate. Rather than Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller all returning to Chapel Hill, perhaps they all would have left, taking their chances at the next level. This, of course, did not happen and UNC is primed to be the preseason number one team in the nation. But could it have been Texas instead?
The Longhorns lost their top two scorers, their top two rebounders and their top assist man to the NBA. These three individuals were a sophomore, freshman and freshman respectively. The fact that Jordan Hamilton (Texas’ leading scorer, second in rebounding), Tristan Thompson (second in scoring, first in rebounding) and Corey Joseph (first in assists) all left school early, very early, to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft must say something. What it says exactly I am not quite sure. If they had all returned, Texas would be a force to be reckoned with this season. Perhaps they left because they weren’t pleased with the direction the team was heading. Perhaps they were ready to make that coin, lockout risk or not. Perhaps one thought the others were leaving and didn’t want to stick around by himself and vice versa.
Whatever the reasoning behind it, Texas is decimated heading into the 2011-2012 season. J’Covan Brown will be left with the task of carrying the team’s offense while at the same time, teaching and learning to play with a bunch of freshmen.
In our bizarro-NCAA, where North Carolina felt the sting of the fates instead of UT, Coach Roy Williams would be content with the top prospects he had brought in and confident the remaining players could step their games up in response to their increased roles. In the real world, I am not sure Texas coach Rick Barnes has the same confidence or recruitment reaches. Nevertheless, he will have to lead his depleted squad to Chapel Hill this December to face the UNC Tar Heels, the real ones, the ones who will be rated as the top team in the nation.
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