40 Acres Sports

With the Horns and Sooners set to do battle at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, there’s another reason for fans of the two teams to argue and spit at each other. The Big 12 has released the men’s basketball preseason coaches poll and Texas is at number two right behind [tag]Oklahoma[/tag].

The Horns lost their best player in [tag]DJ Augustin[/tag] but returns a ton of talent and depth everywhere but point guard. With defending conference and national champs [tag]Kansas[/tag] losing so many players the conference is wide open this season. If either [tag]Dogus Balbay[/tag] or somebody can step up to man the point the Longhorns should have another shot to win the conference and make a deep tourney run.

2008-09 Big 12 Preseason Poll

See how the coaches think the league will turn out below:

	Team	Points
1	Oklahoma (3)	109
2	Texas (4)	107
3	Baylor (2)	103
	Kansas (3)	103
5	Texas A&M	79
6	Oklahoma State	69
7	Missouri	51
8	Kansas State	50
9	Nebraska	49
10	Texas Tech	39
11	Iowa State	20
12	Colorado	13

Texas made a huge splash in national basketball recruiting by gaining the commitment of top-10 ranked 2009 guard [tag]Avery Bradley[/tag]. Bradley chose Texas over UCLA, creating one of the biggest “gets” in the [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] era. While Bradley lived in Dallas for a stint, the fact Barnes and the Longhorns could get a Californian kid out of the Pac-10 is huge for this program. New assistant, and ex-player [tag]Chris Ogden[/tag] did the recruiting of Bradley who has moved up national lists with his strong performances in tournaments throughout this summer.

Bradley is 6’2″, but his long arms and tremendous athleticism makes him the premier perimeter defender in high school basketball. His size and defense will make him an instant impact player when he gets on campus. He’s not a polished outside shooter however his midrange game gives him the potential to be an elite scorer at shooting guard.

Rivals.com expert Jerry Meyer gives the following scouting report on Bradley:

“There might not be a better midrange scorer in the class nor a better on the ball defender than Bradley. He does have room for improvement as a rebounder and passer, but his niche as a scorer and defender make him one of the top shooting guards in the country. His wing span and heart allow him to play bigger than his height.”

Bradley is the second commit in the 2009 class, joining four-star small forward [tag]Shawn Williams[/tag] out of Duncanville who committed back in early August. Add the commitment of arguably the top player in the 2010 class in [tag]Tristan Thompson[/tag] and Longhorn hoops has a great future.

The fact that Bradley will play for the Horns may not even the best part of the deal, Bradley’s good friend, and top 5 player in the 2009 class [tag]Jordan Hamilton[/tag] was already a Texas lead and the two have expressed desire to play at the same school. With Bradley, Hamilton, Williams, and Thompson on the same team, Texas should become a fixture at the top of college basketball.

Check out a video clip of Bradley below:

Love the Texas Longhorns? Follow the football team religiously? Then you should be blogging about your favorite team and be getting your articles read by about 50,000 unique visitors per month! You’ll even get paid (a little) to do it.

Bevo Sports is looking to add a few additional writers as part of our redesign and relaunch for the 2008 college football season. Think you’re up for it? Then email us at jobs@40acressports.com and let us know why you think you should write for the site. Please include a sports-related writing sample and any links to your work or websites in your email. Examples that show your knowledge of UT sports are preferred.

You will be expected to make at least 3 posts per week. The perfect applicant will be passionate about the Horns and of course also need to be knowledgeable about college football, basketball, and baseball. Being opinionated and witty wouldn’t hurt your chances either.

Initial compensation will be 100% of Google AdSense revenue on your individual articles. After an initial 3-month period you will be eligible for a share of overall site revenue based on the monthly hits to your stories. Every 12 months you will also be reimbursed up to $100 for a premium Texas-related website membership. It might not be a ton of money but you’ll be getting paid to talk about something you love.

Further details can be provided via email if desired.

Hook ’em!

Unless you’re brand new around here you’ve no doubt noticed some major changes to Bevo Sports this week. We’re officially Version 2.0!

It’s been a long time in the making, starting as a list of features and some simple sketches on paper back in March, design finally started in June, development in August, and miraculously we had the site live and running on schedule for the opening weekend of the 2008 college football season.

The most obvious difference is the site has undergone a major design facelift. We’ve redesigned everything from the ground up. A new clean, modern look that we think not only looks good but is going to make the site is easier to use. We’ve also reorganized everything to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. All content is grouped by sport, select football, basketball, baseball, or recruiting from the top navigation to find the latest coverage and analysis of each sport. Everything else will be listed under the Other Sports drop down.

The homepage has been completely reworked to present more content to you in and better highlight all the best stuff the site has to offer. Next to the main features you’ll find the most recent and most read articles. Below it are all the latest stories grouped by sport, the top performers from the most recent games, and the latest video featured on the site. Schedules, rosters, depth charts, and more for each sport are also right around the corner.

Just as importantly, the roster of editors on the site is also about to grow. We’re actively looking for writers to help us continue to expand the quantity and the quality of the content on Bevo Sports. We’ll have a full article on what we’re looking for and what’s in it for you soon, but if you’re eager to throw you hat in the ring please let us know. The site is only going to get better and better.

We’re not done yet though. We’ve got more changes still to be made, additional features to be added, and likely bugs to squash (but hopefully not too many). Please let us know via the contact form if you run into any problems, have trouble finding anything, or just have a feature request or comments on the new site. We hope you enjoy the new and improved site!

The team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics officially debuted their new Oklahoma City team name and logo this evening. To no one’s surprise the team name is the Oklahoma City Thunder, but I’m not sure anyone expected the logo to be completely terrible. I’d love to support [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag], but I’m not wearing anything with that on it.

It honestly appears as if they spent $71 at TemplateMonster or LogoMaker.com. They used so much money paying off the city of Seattle that they were forced to get on the Internet and search for “basketball logo templates” and after 10 minutes decided on “Basketball team logo 3” you see now on their merchandise. Wow.

The logo says nothing about the team, the city, or the mascot. All it says is swooshy colors and “basketball.” I just hope the state of Oklahoma never gets a pro football team, I shudder to think what their logo would look like.

Good luck up there Kevin, you’re going to need it.

Kevin Durant is the future of Team USA. The 2012 Dream Team should feature KD and several more of the league’s new stars.

The academic progress of top 2008 basketball recruit J’Covan Brown was always a concern but it is now official. Brown won’t be enrolling at the University of Texas this fall and still has work to do to hopefully be ready for the spring semester. Brown and Varez Ward were the only two signees in the 2008 class so this leaves a big hole if he can’t get in.

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes said Thursday that recruit J’Covan Brown could possibly join the program for the spring semester after it was announced that Brown failed to qualify academically.

“He could still make it,” Barnes said.

Brown, a star combo guard from Port Arthur Memorial, reiterated his vow to play at Texas.

“I will work as hard as I can to make sure that I am able to earn a spot at the University of Texas as soon as possible,” Brown said in a statement.

Rick Barnes is blazing the 2009 recruiting trail and is a player or the possible leader for several top national recruits. Two players rumored to be leaning to playing for the Horns are small forward [tag]Jordan Hamilton[/tag] and guard [tag]Avery Bradley[/tag].

Both players are incredible five-star prospects and they showed everybody why against FMP-Serbia this weekend. The 6-foot-7 Hamilton uses his quickhands to poke the ball use and then after leading the break dishes back to the 6-foot-3 Bradley for the facial on the Serbian player. Check out the video below:

Both guys look incredible and are reportedly Texas’ to lose. If Barnes can pull them both in they’ll team with recent commit [tag]Shawn Williams[/tag] to possibly make a deep tourney run in 2009-2010. I’m excited already.

(via)

Royal Ivey signs three-year deal with 76ers. After his best season in the NBA gets a good contract with lots of guaranteed money.

Horns basketball will get three Big Monday telecasts. Texas will make 11 national TV appearances in 2008-09 season.