Bond IS Leaving UT

[NBHorn7]

The Link


I guess the allure of participating in the big CBI presented by Buick just wasn't enough to keep him
here.

Will there be others besides probably Kabongo going pro if he can?

 

[Vol Horn 4 Life]

Even though the CBI is the "whatever" tournament, I'm surprised he would transfer before the season is complete. There's no reason to leave unless something else is going on......like a team in complete disarray with poor leadership and no light at the end of the tunnel.

When good players leave early for the NBA it's "the reason we recruit them". When the good ones are gone and the average ones transfer it's a sign of something bigger.

 

[Third Coast]

So he's leaving now to give the players coming back more playing time in the CBI. How thoughtful of him. I'm sure they'll really appreciate divvying up those 11 minutes per game.

 

[blonthang]

Throwing out some thoughts as to why?

1. Bond's a sophomore, getting some, but not a whole lot of PT. Maybe he asked Barnes for more and Barnes told him there are others just a bit better who should be on the court before him. So, Bond looks for a better opportunity to play now.

Actually, in today's world of college athletics I don't find this case too disturbing, if the athlete really is just in a queue that's stacked up, but a bit of patience might be in order. He's only a teammate's twisted ankled away from a starting position.

2. He's trouble --- though I don't see any evidence of that. Many years ago Abe Lemons had a verbal war with Henry Johnson and Lemons commented in the press towards the very end of the year: "Johnson won't be playing anymore for The University of Texas." (in anger). The next year Johnson showed back up to early practice and he and Abe worked it out and he had a really good year.

Barnes has had similar situations, Mueneke comes to mind, close to season suspension for on-court fracases, Barnes worked with him and he became a pretty good contributor.

But I'm not suggesting this with Bond, just another possibility. Bonds comments on leaving WERE pretty gentlemanly and the right speak to leave on good graces.

3. Just one of those things; maybe personal differences that are irreconcilable with Bond and a fellow player or coach. Or feeling out of place in Austin (go figure), maybe a girlfriend thing, a family issue, who knows?

Again, I'm not suggesting that any one of the above are true, but you've got to wonder why a sophomore who IS playing afterall, just not that much, decides to transfer so early in his college career.

Good luck to him.

I'm a bit slow to make assumptions about coaching, etc., though I do scratch my head at this year, even with the youth.

Maybe Barnes' approaches aren't the best, maybe it's just that he's gotten a bunch of really good talent in the past few years, but he DOES have a boatload of former UT players getting plenty of time in the NBA, some like Bond who didn't even contribute that much at the 40 Acres (e.g., Bradley and Joseph).

So, maybe he's not screwing them up TOO bad during the time he has with them in Austin?

 

[georgecostanza]

I wouldn't be surprised to see McClellan or Lewis leave as well. They didn't play like they were motivated a lot of the time.

Actually, that's how the whole team played a lot of the time.

 

[bystander]

You have to have a pretty big ego to think you are a good player when you are unable to get minutes on a team that is ranked OUT of the top 90 or so teams in America.

 

[HornTYS]

I'm with Costanza....

This program is a tire fire right now.

 

[Horns11]

Bond was slow and out of shape when he returned from injury. I'm not sure if that was a factor of forcing him back into action too quickly, or he really just is a slow and out of shape dude.

Either way, he was useless this year, especially on the defensive end where we needed a forward to stop all the damn offensive rebounds against us.

 

[elface]

Bond seems to me to be a classy guy. He was the only one on the team to make the all academic team and his leaving now is demonstrative in showing that he knows what his playing time would be. He is from Pennsylvania and so a return to that area to be closer to family makes sense as well. His leaving also opens up the possibiity of Harris and Croaker signing with Texas with the understanding that Randle and Kabongo will be playing elsewhere.