40 Acres Sports

Baylor upsets Missouri and will face off against the Longhorns tonight at 8:20pm.

More national honors for Durant. CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish names him player of the year.

Lady Horns get knocked out of tourney by OU. Probably out of NCAA tourney now.

Rick Barnes is AP Big 12 coach of the year. Apparently Bill Simmons doesn’t get a vote.

ESPN has announced their 2007 ESPN.com All-America Team and Longhorn freshman [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] is their player of the year.

Expectations were high when Durant arrived in Austin, but if anything, he has surpassed them. Durant has averaged 25.1 points and 11.4 rebounds a game and shattered the Big 12 season scoring record — all while leading the young Longhorns to within a couple baskets of a share of the league title.

Probably just the first of many such honors for Durant. The other four All-Americans are Texas A&M point guard Acie Law, UCLA guard Arron Afflalo, Nevada forward Nick Fazekas, and Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker.

D.J. Augustin says he’ll be back next year, and says Durant is telling teammates he’ll be back too.

Bill Simmons has a huge man crush on Kevin Durant, but has some pretty harsh words for how [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] is handling his super-star freshman. In his latest Page 2 article on ESPN.com, Simmons absolutely rips into Rick Barnes, calling for his retirement and labeling his coaching unconscionable. Here is one of the funniest lines from his rant:

Do they have plays in their playbook called “Durant stands frozen 25 feet from the basket while other guys dribble aimlessly” and “half-assed pick-and-roll that leads to nothing” and “Durant posts up while the point guards stare him down, then reverse the ball the other way?”

I have to admit, lately I have been saying something along the same lines. Durant needs to get the ball more. Actually, Durant has to WANT the ball more. But I think this will come in time. Durant is still young and growing into a leader.

I actually think Barnes is doing a good job handling all of the youth he has on the floor. I mean, Texas is 22-8 so far on the season and was 1 game away from winning the tough Big 12. I would say he is doing an alright job. Ease up Bill.

You can read the whole rant after the jump.

(more …)

Kevin Durant has been named Big 12 Player and Freshman of the Year. First freshman to win POY in Big 12 history.

The Longhorns couldn’t pull out the victory yesterday and earn a share of the Big 12 regular season title, but if the young Texas team can put together three straight strong games they’ll have a chance to win the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City. To do so they’ll likely have to knock off both Texas A&M and Kansas.

The bracket has the Horns matching up on Friday at 8:20 p.m. against the Missouri vs. Baylor winner from Thursday night. A win could set up another match up with the Aggies, but a loss in that first game could seriously hurt the Horns seeding in the NCAA tourney. Favorable scheduling should give Texas fans to catch all their games on TV, hopefully with a completely healthy Kevin Durant.

Useful Links

• Official Big 12 Championship site
• Download bracket (PDF)
• Longhorn sports calendar

Ohio State will wear new Nike jerseys next week with a LeBron James logo. James has no OSU affiliation.