40 Acres Sports

With DJ Augustin set for NBA draft, Dogus Balbay gets his shot at point guard for Longhorns. I’m super excited to see this kid play.

DJ Augustin gives Blazers another talking point. He probably won’t still be there at #13 but they’re reportedly very impressed.

I’m at the mall with my wife and had a Big 12-related observation. Here in North Dallas in the big sporting goods store (Dick’s) there’s a ton of Longhorns gear and some [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] stuff, but there’s very little A&M apparel at all. There’s a whole wall of Texas and OU stuff with two Aggie t-shirts in the corner. There was more [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] and LSU stuff than that.

It’s even worse at the sports memorabilia store. Some very cool and very expensive Vince Young and Kevin Durant stuff and some Ricky Williams and Earl Campbell autographed prints and mini-helmets. The Sooners are represented solely by Adrian Peterson and the Aggies have absolutely nothing. Think about it, what Aggie memorabilia can even A&M fans collect? Six year old Dat Nguyen Cowboys jerseys?

Dallas is three hours away from Austin, College Station, and Norman yet there’s absolutely no Texas A&M presence here. Just thought that was an interesting real world observation about the state of the three programs.

After testing the NBA draft waters Longhorns guard [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag] has made the decision to return to Texas for his senior season. AJ made the announcement at a press conference today, the last day he could withdraw his name and retain his eligibility.

He had a few workouts with NBA teams but was not invited to the league’s pre-draft camp and it was clear he would not be drafted. Returning to Texas will allow AJ to get his degree while also improving his chances of playing professional basketball. He’s not going to be the team’s starting point guard but he’ll likely have more ball handling responsibilities and at least a chance to prove he’s more than just a spot up shooter.

Watch video of an excerpt from AJ’s press conference and comments from Kevin Durant and [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] below:

Welcome back AJ.

Daniel Gibson has surgery on left ankle to remove bone spurs and loose cartilage. He should be ready for training camp.

AJ Abrams works out for the Sacramento Kings. He has until Monday to pull his name out of the draft.

Andy Katz says DJ Augustin looks likely for lottery. DJ had a great workout Saturday.

Examining NBA prospects not pointless. As long as no bridges were burned there’s no harm in AJ Abrams testing the waters.

There wasn’t much hope that Texas point guard [tag]DJ Augustin[/tag] would return for his junior season but all doubt was erased Tuesday.

Augustin signed with the Thaddeus Foucher of the Wasserman Media Group. The group, headed by mega-agent Arn Tellem, also represents former Longhorns LaMarcus Aldridge and TJ Ford.

As long as they don’t hire an agent, underclassmen have until June 16th to withdraw their name from the NBA Draft. Augustin has long been slotted as a late lottery pick (10th – 13th) so he was holding onto his eligibility as injury insurance. The only way he was coming back to Texas was if he was seriously hurt in one of his many pre-draft workouts.

The NBA Draft will be held June 26th. Good luck DJ.

Varez Ward signs with Texas. Sounds like he could be Justin Mason 2.0 which is not a bad thing at all.