THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013
PAGE 11
Last season, TCU was proof that any team in the big 12 can win on any given night. With mounting injuries, the Horned Frogs will once again probably resort to playing the role of spoiler rather than contender.
Baye
Junior forward Devonte Abrams tore his Achilles playing with the team up in Canada. Abrams was expected to pair with top-retainer Kyan Anderson and heralded recruit Karviar Shepherd to assist with coach Trent Johnson's daunting rebuilding task.
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Now, junior Amric Fields, coming off a torn ACL last season, will have to hope his rehabilitation was successful as he steps into a starting role. Freshman Hudson Price and senior Jarvis Ray will likely fill out the rest of the starting lineup.
This is a team whose wins will come through tough defense and forcing mistakes. Offensively, the team represented one of the worst offenses in Division I. Shepherd and Price will do their best to spark that offense, but it remains a work in progress.
TCU probably will not be a threat to Kansas in their matchups this year if Kansas enters the games with the right mentality. But the Horned Frogs should still improve upon their two conference wins last season.
DEPARTURES
- Garton Green
ADDITIONS:
- Adrick McKinney
- Karviar Shephard
- Brandon Parrish
- Michael Williams
- Connell Crossland
Ben Ashworth
- Hudson Price
- Aaron Durley
Last season, Texas had the youngest roster in all of college basketball. This year it continues to be young, as it thought last year as a transition season to cultivate younger players into legitimate rotation players down the road. However, that took a 180-turn, when three of Texas' players decided to transfer shortly after the season.
Texas also lost Myck Kabongo to the NBA and blossoming forward, loannis Papetrou played so well in the U-20 European Championship for Greece that he ended up signing a deal with a Euroleague team.
Texas struggled mightily to score last season especially from the perimeter and really the only
players that can create its own shot and spark some adequate offense is its point guard Javan Felix. That spells trouble as he shot a wretched 25.5 percent from threepoint range last season.
team as his recruiting has dwindled, as has his roster. Barnes has built Texas into something special, but you could see his name appear on the hot seat as the season drags on slowly and painfully for the Longhorns.
It can hope for a huge step forward from former blue-chip recruit Cameron Ridley, who flashed some down low ability last season, but never amounted to anything noteworthy. Demarcus Holland, the other guard, has flashed ability to drive to the hoop, but his shooting woes have caused defenses to sag back in the paint daring the Longhorns to shoot. Other than that, Texas is going to struggle to get the ball in the hoop.
texas has had a rough period where the top-recruits have denied Texas causing them to down spiral into a much less respectable program. Losing four of five sophomores from last year's team won't help. Texas shouldn't find rock bottom in the Big 12 with TCU, West Virginia and Tech still around, but things will get awfully rocky in Austin come February and March.
This is by far Rick Barnes worst
Connor Oberkrom
The legendary coach led the Red Raiders to four straight 20-plus win seasons during his 8-year stint before stepping down and passing the coaching duties on to his son, Pat Knight, in 2008. Since then, things haven't been so pretty for Raider Basketball, and those years of success seem far back in the rearview mirror.
Times have changed in Lubbock. The Red Raiders have won just four Big 12 games the past two seasons under Billy Gillispie and interim coach Chris Walker.
But new coach Tubby Smith certainly has the wherewithal to turn the ship around. He won a national title at Kentucky in 1998 and made 17 NCAA tournament appearances in 22 seasons, and there are a few pieces he can play with this year.
The Raiders return four starters from last year's team, including junior Jordan Tolbert and last year's leader score, senior Jaye Crockett. Tubby Smith also added junior point guard Robert Turner from New Mexico Junior College, and highly recruited high school power forward
The Raiders did surprise in the Big 12 Tournament, beating West Virginia 71-69, but their storybook post-season run came to a screeching halt with a 91-63 defeat at the hands of Kansas.
of the season.
texas Tech needs to improve its offensive output significantly if it wants to be a player in the Big 12. There should be improvement, which may lead to two or three more conference wins, but as Tubby Smith gets a chance to stockpile a few recruiting classes of his own, Tech could return to Bob Knight-form in the next three or four years.
Texas Tech finished the 2012-2013 season at 11-20 and 3-15 in conference play, just one game ahead of last placed TCU.
Sophomore Dusty Hannahs gives Tech a threat from behind the arc. He finished 13th in the Big 12 last year in 3-pointers, hitting about 36 percent of his attempts.
After starting the season, 4-0, averaging over 85 points a game, Tech lost four of its next five. The team had great trouble putting the ball in the basket; it would only eclipse the 80 point mark in a victory one more time the rest of the season with an 85-74 score against North Carolina A&T.
Kansas should handle this game at home, just from an overwhelming advantage in talent and depth, but Lubbock is far from a sure thing. Bill Self is just 2-3 at the United Spirit Arena, but on the bright side, those two wins have come in the past two years.
But the Red Raiders rebounded with two wins before Big 12 play to finish the non-conference slate at 7-4.
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After kicking off the conference season with a 62-53 win over lowly TCU in Fort Worth, Tech would lose four straight, beat Iowa State at home, then lose nine straight, beat TCU at home, then lose the last two games
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Harris led the Mountaineers in scoring last season with 9.8 points per game, while Staten led the team in assists with 3.3 per game.
While West Virginia should see more consistency with its lineup this year, it's still unlikely to make any major Big 12 championship run.
Coach Bob Huggins had a total of 14 different starting lineups last year with one player who truly stayed consistent in Deniz Kilici, who graduated last year. Still, West Virginia has some talent returning, particularly in junior point guard Juwan Staten and sophomore guard Eron Harris.
With seven new scholarship players on the roster, the West Virginia Mountaineers will have a number of fresh faces contributing to the team this season.
Mike Vernon
Leading the crop of newcomers is freshman Devin Williams,a 6-foot-8,220-pound forward from Cincinnati,Ohio. ESPN ranked Williams as a four-star recruit with offers from Memphis and Ohio State.Williams is likely to start for the Mountaineers,who went 6-12 against Big 12 competition last year.
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