Mark Turgeon Has A Parting Gift For Rick Barnes

Interesting surprise. This is a hell of an incoming class.
 
Little brother of Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs.
 
3 star, but a good offer list and I like the things I’ve been reading about him. Tough-minded.
 
He can play 1 or 2.

Can he take constructive criticism?

So, A&M loses a coach and a recruit and Texas gets one? Damn ain’t that just the way of the world.

So how does this impact minutes in the rotation for the Garden Gnome and following the trend should the Ags anticipate the news of their picking up a Murray St. de-commit any time in the near future?

Jai graduates.

Good shooter/solid ballhandler. What’s not to like if you’re a Texas fan? He can play on or off the ball with Myck or Brown in the game. He’s also a tough, smart kid much like his brother, although he’s not quite as athletic as Ashton.

Sounds like we’re going to win the Daniels sweepstakes as well which automatically makes this a top 10-15 caliber club going into next season with the ability to be top 5 if one of our interior guys steps up. Yes, Myck Kabongo is that good.

My lineup looks like this:

Kabongo
Brown
McClellan/Thomas—depending on matchups
Daniels
Wangmene

Lewis, Gibbs, and Chapman off the bench.

Scipio,

Thanks, I had forgotten that he had been in Austin two years already and that transferring a year would not count as a red-shirt season.

Huge amount of roster turnover when you consider Texas will return as many walk-ons and lettermen.

Trips -
 
I don’t think Kevin Thomas is a 3. I think McClellan and Julien Lewis will split those wing minutes and Thomas will shore up the front court.
 
Also, we’re still waiting to hear on the LA Tech transfer.

Davey,

Jai lost a year because he made the inane decision to transfer after playing in one exhibition game with Florida his sophomore year. That cost him an entire year of eligibility, which was particularly dumb when you consider the reason he left was because he felt he was never going to start at point with Nick Calathes there. Nicky left after his soph year to play overseas.

I mentioned this over at BON, but I think the split between Lewis’ and Gibbs’ backup minutes during their freshman years will be how confident Barnes feels in Brown playing the 1 when Kabongo sits. If Brown is the backup 1, then Lewis will get more minutes in a “big” guard lineup. If not, then you’ll see more Gibbs handling the rock when Kabongo sits. I like the pickup, though. Between Gibbs, Lewis, McCllelan, Thomas and Holmes, there’s a lot of 3-4 year guys that will be great complementary pieces to go along with 5* talents like Ridley, maybe McGary, Randle, Harrison twins, etc. We may say it every year, but there’s chances for F4 and titles in the horizon.

There’s still outstanding pieces for 2011 too. As Vasherized notes in his post, Kabongo foretold the Gibbs coming and may have a second bombshell in Daniels coming to UT too. Barnes is also looking at bigs Olu Ashaolu (from LA Tech) and Tony Woods (from Wake Forest) as transfers that can get 2011 PT. Lot of positivism vibing from Austin, Horns fans should be feeling much better than they did on May 8.

jc25 -
 
I really appreciate Jai as a person and a guy who worked hard to maximize his talents, but I’m comfortable that his eligibility is expiring.
 
I’m not sure about Tony Woods from Wake. I don’t pretend to understand the details, but he’s leaving there after pleading guilty to assault. Rick is pretty squeaky clean when it comes to stuff like that. Dude is 6-11 though….
 
I have my hopes pinned more on Olu. We could use his athleticism, rebounding, and defensive presence.

Scip, that’s the thing…I’m not sure he ever maximized his talents as a Horn. People forget, but Jai wasn’t half bad playing primarily off the ball at Florida. He started all 36 games for them AS A FRESHMAN, averaging 30.6 minutes, 8.5 points & 2.3 assists. Shot 46% overall (109-237) and 43.5% from 3 (37-85). He was crafty at getting open off the ball and had a nice 3 point stroke and running floater. It wasn’t a talent issue, either. This team had a junior Walter Hodge and Calathes in the backcourt, and Marreese Speights, the overrated Dan Werner, and a freshman Alex Tyus in the front. Lucas EARNED his PT. He goes from that to 3.1 PPG in 12 MPG his senior year? For a coach that felt more than comfortable giving offensive black holes like Justin Mason and Doge Balbay crunchtime minutes? Something didn’t add up and I’m not sure what it was. Likewise, I’m comfortable that his eligibility is expiring, but I’m extremely disappointed in what happened before it did.

I don’t know the details about Tony Woods either. Jason King at Yahoo pens him as a good guy and a situation that was overblown and all a misunderstanding…but just remember, LaceDarius Dunn’s girlfriend recanted her side of the story too. There’s something fishy in the water, and I don’t think Barnes needs that kind of risk or distraction on the team. I think he’d just as well prefer going with Ashaolu, anyway. He’s got Cameron Ridley already coming in 2012, and I think he’d like to add another promising big, whether it be Mitch McGary, AJ Hammons, Shaq Cleare, etc. I think in 2012 he’s comfortable rolling with a soph Holmes or Thomas starting at the 4 and putting Ridley next to him, so the one 2011 year from Ashaolu would be just peachy.

• A freshman Chandler Parsons was on that Florida team as well. I never thought that of the Big 4 (Lucas, Calathes, Parsons, Tyus), that Parsons would go on to have the best UF career and be the most likely to play in the NBA. It’s also amazing that this group never even came close to accomplishing what the Noah/Horford/Brewer/Green class did, despite similar, if not higher, plaudits.

jc25 -
 
Yeah, I don’t need anything more than my eyes to evaluate Jai. He’s tiny, weak, lacks quickness, is a major defensive liability, can’t create off of the dribble, and didn’t have the psychology to come off of the bench and be a 3 point specialist.
 
Arguing for more minutes for him or thinking that there’s something strange about his lack of success here strikes me as odd.
 
I’m on record as being less than excited when he transferred here and his time here confirmed it. That written, that’s all about Jai as a player. Not the great person.
 
The Florida team he played on lost every starter from the previous year, went to the NIT, and went .500 in a feeble SEC. He was massive defensive liability there, too. He started by default, never created for teammates, and if that Florida team had played in the Big 12, they’d have struggled to win 5 conference games. There’s a reason Donovan lost no sleep with his transfer.
 
Agree that Ridley can’t get here fast enough. We’ll have him for two years tops though.

How could the transfers play in 2011? Don’t they need to sit out a year?

chitwood -
 
Olu graduated from La Tech. Thus he can play anywhere he pleases for his final year of eligibility without penalty.

jc, Ashaolu is not a post guy… at least not a post defender like Thompson was. If Woods doesn’t join up, then that’s Wangmene/Chapman territory.

Thomas Robinson might be excited about that, but the rest of the league I think they have a chance to handle.

Ashaolu is also a 60% FT shooter. So he should it in nicely.
 
I think he’s a bit of a tweener. He doesn’t really have a great handle or shooting touch, but he’s long, wildly athletic, and has a great knack for defense and rebounding.
 
I’d expect him to play both 3 and 4 for us if he came here.

chitwood – Further to Scip’s point, Woods left Wake after his freshman year in 2009 and played CC last year. Thus, eligible for 2011.

Scipio – Keep in mind that year of Jai was with my BCG+UK slurred goggles on. Yeah, they went NIT, but I remember thinking that they would be a legitimate threat in that class’ soph-senior years (in retrospect, 1 outta 3 sucked). But I don’t pin the NIT bid on the froshes; instead, it was because Walter Hodge and Dan Werner weren’t equipped to move from bench cast to star starter. I still stand by the notion that Lucas could have/should have become a serviceable starter on the right team. I agree he never jived with the idea that his best role was a 5 mpg 3-point specialist.

Bob – Wasn’t an avid LA Tech watcher, so I’ll trust you on that one. For some reason, I thought he was bigger. One thing that’s good is that next year’s B12 is skewing to wings/guards as a strength. Aside from T-Rob and the Baylor giants, there’s not much that is scary in the paint.

Scip, I get that about Thomas. But a Thomas/Daniels combo should be interchangeable as hybrid forwards and there’s no way I take Daniels off the floor for any reason regardless of matchups.

Jai Lucas and Patrick Nkwopara need to make a movie where they join forces to overcome an infestation of killer freetail bats. Would be a good popcorn horror flick.

So apparently Daniels has pushed back his decision one more day … tough call UT vs. KU, both places are really good at developing players and he’d get major minutes/shots at both.

Anyone know the deal about the high school he attended? IMG Academy in Florida? Sounds a little sketchy.