augustin in waiting

the dominoes have begun to fall as various college players either jump into the nba draft pool, or tentatively stick in their toes (by not hiring an agent) so if they dont like what they hear they can withdraw and play on for dear old U.

which brings us to texas point guard d.j. augustine. the april 27 deadline is looming and augustin is expected to have made a decision by midweek. hes home this weekend for a family wedding and he should have plenty of family input when he returns to austin to sit down with coach rick barnes and hash it out.

from what ive gathered, who stacks up in front of him has little or no bearing on his decision. its simply whether he wants to play another year for the longhorns and have another shot at the final four after texas finished one game shy this spring, or head for The League. odds are against him returning. but if any of barnes' guys who have left him early in the past few years are ever going to stay, d.j. is the guy. he likes school, is good at it, his family doesn't need the big bucks and most nba guys with whom ive talked to a man say he can improve his status by coming back for another year.

if augustin returns and committed if troubled guard J'covan brown makes his grades and qualifies academically--we wont know about that for another month or so--the longhorns indeed will rank among teh top 3 in preseason polls and again will contend for a national championship. if not, history has proven they'll make a run but fall short.

the logical line of thinking has been that d.j. will declare, but not hire an agent, which serves only to complicate texas' spring recruiting. barnes is due a break. but again, it may only be his heart.--Mike Jones.