Drooling over Durant

Texas lost to Kansas on Saturday. The Longhorns were on fire in the first half and ran out to a solid halftime lead. But, KU quickly erased the gap in the second half. UT phenom Kevin Durant did get hurt in the second half. It looks like he sprained his ankle. But, that wasn't the reason they lost the game. In fact, Durant was part of the problem in the second half, not the solution to any of Rick Barnes' problems.

Durant is tall, long, athletic, skilled, etc. It's hard for me to compare him to Tracy McGrady because McGrady didn't play college ball and I didn't see many Raptors games early in his career, but some do. Durant can handle the ball ok, but don't kid yourself thinking he's Allen Iverson off the dribble. He can shoot it, too.

The problem is that Durant doesn't always take good shots. When he gets his shots in the flow of the game, Texas is tough to beat. Why? Everyone else is involved and Durant gets better shots. When Durant is forcing shots, he ends up taking wild, off-balance shots that have little chance of going in. Or, he'll dribble into traffic and lose the ball (one such instance on Saturday left him on his butt and the ball going the other way in possession of the Jayhawks). In fact, the play he got hurt on never should have happened. Durant should have passed the ball before he stepped on the defender's foot and rolled his ankle. Too often, Durant demands the ball posting up off the block and then tries to be Michael Jordan and hit a fade-away jumper. For everything Durant is, he's not MJ (at least not yet), and it's going to hurt Texas in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments if he doesn't keep the other talented Texas youngsters involved in the game.

And, what's with the commentators brown-nosing and not pointing any of this out? Come on. Durant may be the most talented player in college basketball, but KU beat Texas because they shared the ball and kept everyone involved and didn't force bad shots, at least for the most part. It is the job of the announcers to recognize what is going on and remark on it, not sit back and oooh and ahhh over all the spectacular plays while ignoring the bone-head ones.