We knew as early as Saturday’s post-game press conference that Dogus Balbay could very well be done for the year. Coach Rick Barnes told reporters he didn’t expect good news, and he was proven a soothsayer when Sunday’s MRI confirmed an ACL tear which will sideline the point guard until next season.

Without Balbay in the lineup for most of the game against Tech, Barnes relied on Justin Mason and Jai Lucas to handle duties at the point guard position. J’Covan Brown was limited to just five minutes and didn’t even see the court until just before halftime. Barnes was sending a message to his freshman, namely “that [Texas] can win games without [Brown].”

The thing is, Texas nearly didn’t. With Brown hardly playing, the Longhorn offense stalled out late in the game and the Red Raiders almost completed a double-digit comeback in just minutes. If Texas can barely top Texas Tech without Brown, what makes Barnes thinks the Longhorns can beat Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, A&M, or Baylor without him?

Lucas is not an effective point guard. He came to Texas because Florida wasn’t going to play him at the point, so clearly he was told he would get that opportunity on the Forty Acres. Well, he’s had that opportunity, and it’s not going to work out. Jai is nowhere near the 5’10” he is listed at, and he lacks the quickness to get enough separation off the dribble to get any open looks. In the last two games, there were two different fast breaks which ended in blocked shots because Lucas tried to take it the entire way on his own.

Jai is most useful when he can actually get open looks from behind the arc, and the only way to do that is to play him off the ball and run screens to get him loose. Defensively, he gives up far too much height to get any helpful pressure on the perimeter, so most opposing guards can shoot threes even if he is in their shorts. Lucas is not the team’s answer at point guard, and he should truly be limited to a couple of short stints each game where Texas tries to free him up for some open threes.

Mason, meanwhile, is going to be needed for a ton of minutes each game. There’s practically no depth in the backcourt, and his play on the defensive end is going to be critical as the calendar turns into March. But he struggled to shake his man off the dribble late in the game on Saturday, most likely due to fatigue from suddenly being saddled with so many minutes. If Mason is going to be too tired to blow past people late in the games, there is no question that Brown has to handle the point guard duties in those crucial minutes.

J’Covan has certainly had growing pains this year, be it his early-season turnover woes, his occasional quick-trigger on shots, or his lapses on defense. The questionable D even irritated his coach enough enough to land Brown in the dreaded doghouse. But unless Rick Barnes decides to hand the reins to J’Covan in these final weeks, there is little hope that the Longhorns are going to be able to muster any sort of run in the post-season. It may be a learning process in the last four games and into the Big 12 tournament, but J’Covan Brown is going to have to be this team’s point guard. Refusing to play him at this point is simply stubbornness to the point of self-detriment.