Ioannis Papapetrou (Getty Photographs)
It’s turning into more and more clear that Texas coach Rick Barnes is going to should survive a second straight depressing year if he’ll maintain his job for years to come back.
On the heels of a disappointing season through which Texas lost 11 Huge 12 video games and missed the NCAA event for the first time in Barnes’ 15-yr tenure, the Longhorns have now misplaced five underclassmen since March.
Rising sophomore ahead Ioannis Papapetrou, Texas’ main returning scorer, turned the latest to depart Tuesday, signing a profitable professional deal to play in his native Greece with Olympiacos BC. Papapetrou averaged 8.three points and 4.four rebounds for Texas as a freshman and led Greece’s U-20 crew in scoring at 15.9 points per sport this summer season at the European Championships.
“There is not any question that Papi wished to be right here at The University of Texas, and it was going to take something very important for him not to be right here,” Barnes said Monday evening in a press release. “And that is exactly what happened. The skilled crew in Greece approached Papi and his household again this week earlier than he was set to go away to come again to campus, and the team basically created a contract that catered exactly to his needs and the needs of his family. In the end, the contract was an excessive amount of for him and his household to say ‘no’ to of their situation.”
The departure of Papapetrou means a Texas staff that already shot 29.7 % from behind the arc a 12 months ago and 41.3 p.c total now will have to exchange its 4 main scorers. Sophomore level guard Myck Kabongo entered the NBA draft despite lacking the first 23 video games of last season on account of NCAA eligibility issues and promising wings Sheldon McClellan and Julien Lewis introduced in the course of the spring they intend to transfer.
Papapetrou’s departure is a bit completely different in that he wanted a proposal he couldn’t refuse before he’d leave the Longhorns, however it’s no less damaging to Texas. He was a mismatch at both forwards spots and he had the potential to supply a breakout season subsequent yr and assist shoulder the scoring burden.
Without Kabongo, McLellan, Lewis and Papapetrou, the 2013-14 Texas roster is severely undermanned.
Point guard Javan Felix confirmed flashes of promise filling in for Kabongo as a freshman, but Demarcus Holland is the lone returning taking pictures guard, a bit of a misnomer for a defensive-minded player who sank only 8 of forty six threes final season. Young large males Jonathan Holmes, Connor Lammert and Cameron Ridley are also expected again, however every of them need to make major strides next year.
Also disconcerting for Texas is the elite recruiting classes Barnes once yearly delivered have not been as widespread the previous couple years. None of Barnes’ four signees for subsequent season ranked in the prime one hundred of the Rivals 150 and the Longhorns were non-factors within the recruitment of extremely touted Kentucky-bound Texas products Julius Randle and Aaron and Andrew Harrison.
A dropping season next year would continue the downward pattern Texas has been unable to tug out of the previous five years.
Since a co-Big 12 title and an Elite Eight run in 2008, Texas hasn’t superior past the primary weekend of the NCAA tournament and it has completed greater than a tie for fourth within the Massive 12 only once. The Longhorns have been lucky to slip into the NCAA match in 2012 and they have been all however out of rivalry by the start of convention play this past yr.
With Kansas reloading with one of the nation’s high freshman classes and Oklahoma State and Baylor returning the core of NCAA event teams, Texas as soon as once more would not seem to be in position to contend in the Massive 12, which may very well be dangerous news for Barnes.
The only manner the notoriously apathetic Texas basketball fanbase stops speaking soccer long sufficient to pay attention to hoops is that if the Longhorns are both contending for a Last Four or uncharacteristically bad.
Unfortunately for Barnes, proper now it is positively the latter.
Ioannis Papapetrou’s departure only increases the pressure on Texas coach Rick Barnes
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