Texas Longhorns Basketball: 2013 SG Xavier Rathan-Mayes Lists Texas in his Top Five

Mudiay, Berry, Tyus Jones, Jaquan Lyle. STACKED position.

2014 already looks like a scary proposition in-state, with Winslow, Jackson and Mudiay all having one eye OOS. It’s early; we’ll see. Mudiay moving onto Prime Prep with Mickey and Shepherd can’t help.

2013 should be a championship-run team. Core supporting players like Lewis, Holmes, and Bond will be upperclassmen, and the hope is that Ridley and McClellan are on track to develop into collegiate stars in ’13. Right now, I would put odds at projecting either to stay past 2013 at under 50%. So ideally, Barnes would like to add a stud freshman to that 2013 core, someone like Julius Randle would be superfunawesome. Rathan-Mayes and Croaker both look like solid players—think McClellan or Lewis—but not instant impact freshman that I think Barnes should be targeting in this class. Same with our supposed top big man target now, Joel Embiid. So yeah, if Barnes “misses” in 2013, 2014 becomes that much more imperative—but then the question becomes: is it too late?

For the most part, Texas has stayed competitive with Baylor and KU, even in these past two “down” years. The real question is whether Barnes’ “back to basics” approach with recruiting can pay off in teams that BEAT Baylor and KU for Big 12 championships and tournament runs that last (at least) past the first weekend.

And let’s face it, it is only OK. He made his name at Nevada, where he put together one pretty solid team and made a nice run in the tournament.

Then he took over a loaded and really successful Stanford program after Montgomery left. He couldn’t really keep the momentum going, and Stanford dropped off a lot, relative to where it had been. Of course, things have gotten worse since he left there, and now a once great program struggles to make the tournament.

Johnson’s LSU record was uninspiring.

I don’t think Johnson’s record is that of a recruiting wizard. At Stanford, he did land the Lopez brothers, but that is pretty much the only recruiting feather in his cap. Johnson also had Miles Plumlee committed to Stanford before Johnson left for LSU. Recruiting clearly dropped off at LSU when he took over.

The schedule will likely be just as hard in the Big 12. The ten team Big 12 schedule, where you play everyone twice, is a bitch. (It is a fun, awesome bitch for basketball fans, but it doesn’t make for an easy schedule.)

Also, for what it is worth, the simple rating system has the Big 12 and the Big East pretty much neck and neck over the last 10 or so years, with most seasons the Big 12 ranking slightly higher. This is a measure of average conference strength.

The Big East gets so many teams in the tournament simply because it is so big.

I can’t find the post, but I remember an impassioned diatribe by Peter Bean basically stating that expectations of a future “big name” hire need to be recalibrated. “BRAD STEVENS IS NOT WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR!” Etc and so forth.

It’s academic, anyway. As long as Texas, Inc. is doing well, Barnes isn’t going anywhere.

I’m in agreement with Reggieball’s points about Johnson. I think TCU would have been better off going the UH/SMU route. Hire a respected name coach that will put together an AAU-friendly, Texas-centric staff.