They won’t be so jump shot laden and an important reason why will be the added role of Damion James. Damion will take and make his share of 3’s, but he can pile up the buckets in a variety of ways. He hits the offensive glass with a vengeance and his athleticism allows him to finish at the basket quicker than his usually slower opponents. His mid-range game is very polished, yet was often forgotten because of the volume of shots D.J. and A.J. heaved. If Damion can be that special inside force, then the perimeter will be free for the likes of Abrams and Atchley to do their thing. More touches for Mason will mean more quality opportunities for the gunners.

Dogus Balbay, a Turkish point guard, will have a heavy say in how fast this team gels. He’s feisty, and that’s a positive trait, but the knock on him is his less than desirable shooting stroke. However as far as the 08/09 Longhorn team is concerned, all Balbay needs to do is facilitate the offense, and if he can do that, the offensive weapons on this roster should be strong enough to give any team a run for their money.

ESPN college basketball guru Andy Katz

Texas
Despite losing point guard D.J. Augustin to the NBA draft, the remaining Longhorns make Texas a solid threat to advance to the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight season. A.J. Abrams returns after backing out of the draft and could play either guard position, depending on the development of Turkish point guard Dogus Balbay, who missed last season with a knee injury. Underrated guard Justin Mason is back, along with starting interior players Damion James and Connor Atchley from last season’s 31-7 team that advanced to the Elite Eight. With such a deep returning backcourt, incoming freshman guards Varez Ward and J’Covan Brown won’t get much initial playing time.

source

Many folks would rather see about a dozen or so different teams ranked higher than the Longhorns, but for the sake of the experience factor in college basketball, the Longhorns deserve to be ranked pretty high. They return 4 starters from an Elite 8 squad.

The national media might fall asleep on Texas just because Augustin is gone, but reason tells me Texas will benefit from the expanded roles many of the players will be forced into.

Post from: EveryJoe

Texas at #2

One team that should have the talent to benefit from the expected hard times in the Midwest is the Texas Longhorns, yep, the Damion James and A.J. Abrams led Longhorns.

Abrams is the most lethal scorer on this team without a doubt, however Damion James, whose name has appeared on multiple 09 draft boards, should be the team’s most dominant player from an all around standpoint.

Abrams has NBA aspirations too, but I clearly believe James’s impact has to be more profound than A.J.’s if the team plans on sticking around for the second weekend of the NCAA’s.

A.J. will get his shots and whether they are good looks or not, he will make a fair share of them.

James will not shoot as much, but boost a much higher field goal percentage while rebounding and blocking shots like many players two to three inches taller do.

While this duo is not exactly ying and yang, they both let the long balls fly, so the threat to feast on defenses will always be available.

Center Connor Atchley should be able to climb into double figures with more shooting opportunities freed up with Augustin gone, but don’t count on the rebounds or blocks to increase, because bigger roles will be cast to big men Dexter Pittman and Matt Hill.

Dexter came on strong in last year’s tourney—had a couple of good games—but aside from that he didn’t impress the coaching staff enough to warrant him more PT earlier in the season.

26 games played, only 6.8 min/gm, not exactly Sasha Kaun type minutes.

Guard Justin Mason is the prototypical role player on D and O, but his role needs to expand. His “glue guy” label is all fine and everything, but he needs to supply scoring at the guard position to somehow make up for D.J.

Expanded minutes at the point could be awarded to Mason because of his experience at playing the position last year.

Unless Turkish point guard Dogus Balbay can supplant him.

Back in June Mark Rosner from statesman.com wrote about Balbay’s chances of taking over point guard duties after suffering a tough knee injury that kept him out all of last season.

All indications, and they seem consistent, point to Dogus as a gritty and confident guard, eager to penetrate the lane, but an unflattering side note mentions his lack of an outside shot, usually an oxymoron label for a foreign player.

Though Texas had playing time in store for Dogus in 07, so I don’t see why he couldn’t become the facilitator the team could afford, provided the above players live up to or better their resumes.

He will be very different from Augustin, obviously, so it’s up to the others to rise up and know when to be the aggressors on offense.

The D.J.-less transition could mean some early defeats, but the squad has the depth and the added scoring punch to beat teams in March.

After all this Texas forecasting, I will put my hand down and state that anything less than an Elite 8 appearance will be a travesty, because in light of the opening paragraph, the assertion is not straying far from the truth, the Big 12 will not exude “power conference” fear in people next year.

Texas and Oklahoma– that’s it.

If Blake Griffin had left for the Association we might be talking about Conference USA receiving more bids in March.

Think about it.

Anyways, I pick the Longhorns to advance to the Elite 8.

Photo credit: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Prediction three: Turkish Delight?