2010-11 Basketball Predictions: Texas

November 22, 2010

The Texas Longhorns began last season 17-0 and made it up to the top rating for the first time in school history. Many anticipated them to make a NCAA Championship run, particularly with future NBA candidates in Avery Bradley, Damion James and Dexter Pittman. But over the next couple months, the Longhorns would end the year with a 7-10 record the rest of the way while getting bounced in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to Wake Forest. Head coach Rick Barnes believes the way they ended last season was due to missing team chemistry. Barnes found that there were too many egos on last season’s team, and not enough leadership. Texas will be looking for quite a few players to improve this season to offer that leadership. It would be guards Varez Ward or Dogus Balbay. Senior forward Gary Johnson could be ready to breakout, and even possibly freshman five-star recruit Cory Joseph may be the solution. Either way, Texas needs to return to playing team basketball after a unacceptable year to say the least.

You will see Texas at +300 to win the league this year. In my eyes, there isn’t much value in them winning the conference title. This has the appearances of a reloading season for Texas. BetUS has these college basketball spreads posted, so if you want to bet on which team will win the conference then sign up for a new account with them. Deposit $500 or more and they’ll reward you with $500 free money to get you started.

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Frontcourt:

The Longhorns may not be big this year, with two forwards and three guards on the court most of the time. Gary Johnson figures to be their top player inside after putting up 9.4 PPG and 5.6 RPG last season. He’ll be accompanied by five-star recruit Tristan Thompson, who was Cory Joseph’s teammate at Findlay Prep in Nevada. But Texas will have make up the points lost from leading scorer in Damion James, who also finished as the Big 12’s all-time leading rebounder. Dexter Pittman will also be missed after being taken No. 32 overall by the Miami Heat. The Longhorns do have some experience that will provide depth in the frontcourt. It will come from seniors Matt Hill and Clint Chapman along with junior Alexis Wangmene.

Backcourt:

Guard play will likely determine how the Longhorns fare this season. Cory Joseph must work with offensive-minded shooting guards in J’Covan Brown and Jordan Hamilton. Brown posted 9.6 PPG last season but made just 35.4 percent from the floor, while Hamilton is the team’s leading returning scorer at 10.0 PPG. Barnes is very big on both players with what they’ve done in the offseason to get better entering their sophomore seasons. Ward and Balbay are both coming off injuries that required surgery, and each is able to provide leadership and defensive toughness, two qualities that are really important to Texas’ success this year. Hamilton, Brown and Joseph figure to be the team’s top point producers, and Texas could get some offense from Shawn Williams as well. He is returning from an ankle injury that forced him to miss the remainder of the year just seven games into their 2010-11 season. At 6’6”, he can get a shot whenever he wants and is a potentially deadly 3-point shooter.

Jack’s Prediction: 5th Place in the Big 12 – Barnes said last season was the worst coaching job of his life. He had a team loaded with offensive talent, but advocated defense and rebounding so much down the wire that his team could lost their rhythm offensively. He will always teach defense and rebounding first, but this year he must find a way to replace three of their top four scorers from last season. If Joseph can master the ball screen offense that Barnes likes to run, then it could be a great season in Texas after back-to-back middle-of-the-pack finishes in the Big 12.

Written by admin · Filed Under College Basketball Predictions