Lots and lots of news for the Horns now that the regular season has come to a close. And that starts with the Big 12 conference awards, where Rick Barnes took home Coach of the Year in a season where his Longhorns set a school record for regular season victories. D.J. Augustin was a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team, while A.J. Abrams and Damion James were named to the second team. The king of hustle, Justin Mason, was named to the All-Defensive Team.

In the latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, the Horns are still a 2-seed playing in the Phoenix regional with UCLA as the 1-seed. God forbid this projection actually holds, as good ol’ Joe has a potential second-round match-up for Texas with Arkansas…in Little Rock. Hardcore amateur bracketologists will be happy to know that Joe is now going daily with his picks from until Selection Sunday.

Andy Glockner’s Bubble Watch — now also a daily feature — has the Big 12 with three “locks” in Texas, Kansas, and OU. He feels that Baylor and K-State are solidly in, and barring a Bear implosion against Colorado on Thursday, I would have to agree. That leaves A&M in the “work left to do” category, which could be something of a misnomer. As long as the bubble doesn’t contract further with cinderella auto-bids, the Aggies should be fine. But while they don’t actually need another win, they certainly can’t afford to somehow lose to Iowa State.

While everybody is focused on seeds and bubbles, there is still that weekly tradition of the polls, which saw Texas climb to 6th in the AP and 8th in the ESPN/USA Today.

Although there’s no Big Monday, there’s more tournament action from Championship Week tonight. Auto-bids will be handed out in the Southern Conference (8 PM CST, ESPN2), where bubble team fans will be pulling hard for Davidson. At the same time, those nervous folks will be hoping that Gonzaga can stave off San Diego in the WCC Championship (8 PM CST, ESPN). And just underway in Albany, Rider and Siena are battling for the MAAC title on ESPN2.

Apologies for the lack of a daily update on Monday, but this week finds me mired in a couple of finals and a lot of writing. It’s a cruel set-up to have students walk before they finish their exams, but by this time Friday I will at least enjoy a sudden spike in free time. Content on the site might be a bit on the lighter side between now and then, but with most teams taking it easy during their own final exams, it works out pretty well.

New polls came out yesterday, and Texas stayed in the 4th and 5th slots of the AP and Coaches Polls. Not much movement near the top, as most teams took care of business last week. Texas fans will take note of St. Mary’s, who cracked both polls at #24 this week. If the Gaels can get past Southern Illinois on the road tonight, it looks like there will be a Top 25 match-up in Austin on January 5th.

Another week, another honor from the Big 12 Conference. This time, D.J. Augustin was named Player of the Week, while Kansas State’s freshman Towel Pisser was named Rookie of the Week. After both Damion James and A.J. Abrams have claimed the award this season, this thing might just be renamed Big 12 Player of the Week Presented by The University of Texas.

Want to watch some basketball on TV tonight? Good luck, buddy. While folks would likely enjoy that great mid-major match-up between St. Mary’s and Southern Illinois, fans will instead be treated to a scintillating game between Prairie View A&M and New Mexico State…on ESPN Full Court. Hope that new episode of Nip/Tuck captures your fancy.

A.J. Abrams was named Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 26 points per game in Newark and being selected for the Legends Classic All-Tournament Team. LaceDarius Dunn of Baylor grabbed the Rookie of the Week honors for the conference.

After shellacking Tennessee, the Longhorns jumped to #8 in both polls this week. Kansas checks in at number four, while Texas A&M is 9th. Kansas State fell from the Coaches Poll after losing to George Mason, but hung on at #25 in the AP rankings.

No major games of note last night, although the ACC/Big 10 Challenge started with a whimper as Wake Forest topped Iowa, 56-47. Nebraska was the only Big 12 team active on Monday night, and the Huskers grabbed a 79-62 victory over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.

The ACC/Big 10 Challenge ramps up tonight, with Wisconsin heading to Cameron Indoor to face Duke (8 PM CST, ESPN). Northwestern will be horribly overmatched against Virginia (6 PM, ESPNU) but if you haven’t seen the ‘Hoos play this year, give them a look tonight. In the Big 12, Iowa State hosts Northern Iowa (7 PM) and Colorado makes the short road trip to Denver (8 PM).

While we’re less than 30 minutes away from a press conference regarding Kevin Durant’s future — and all signs, including common sense, are pointing to his departure — last night served as a great opportunity to bring together the team and fans once more to honor the accomplishments of the best freshman to ever play the game, but also one of the most exciting Longhorn teams I’ve ever had the privilege of watching.

As the comments on the last post have mentioned, the staff surprised me with the Slater Martin Award early in the banquet. I was contacted by the basketball office last week about attending the event, but had already secured tickets through a fellow road-tripper’s Longhorn Foundation ties. I didn’t even think I’d be mentioned until I saw my picture flash up on the screen. After that, I don’t really remember what was said or what happened, but I am very honored to receive the award and to have been able to share even a sliver of the spotlight last night with such a great group of players and young men.

At the bottom of the post, I’ll have a complete rundown of who won what, but here were some highlights from the presentation:

Craig Way turned the mic over to Coach Barnes, who was interviewing Durant on-stage. Kevin mentioned that he never had a 30-point game in high school, which prompted Barnes to point out that good coaching must’ve changed something. Then KD made quite an astute comment — “Looking back, I think I did all right.”

While that seemed to be the quote of the night, just minutes later Barnes would top it. He spoke about the whirlwind week that Kevin and his family had experienced, traveling to awards ceremony after awards ceremony. “I kind of felt bad for Acie Law, Greg Oden, and Tyler Hansbrough,” Barnes said. “It was like they were just following around the Kevin Durant Award Tour.” As the crowd laughed, Barnes wound up and threw this zinger right down the heart of the plate — “I almost wanted to turn to Acie and say ‘Poor Aggie.'”

The coaching staff spoke, including the man who first recruited KD to the 40 Acres, Russell Springmann. While following up a man who brought a demigod to campus is certainly a tough task, Barnes made it even tougher on Coach Rodney Terry when he introduced him as the coach “responsible for recruiting Greg Oden.”

Terry later gave the staff a ton of credit, particularly Barnes. Minutes later, Coach Ken McDonald ripped on Terry for sucking up for a raise. Then, he turned on his most serious voice and began singing the praises of Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds. He couldn’t keep the bit up for too long before laughing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dodds did give them all a bump in pay. This staff sure as hell deserves it.

After the banquet was over, a table was set up for fans to meet with Durant. There was a limit of two autographs per person in an effort to keep the line moving, but nearly an hour after the ceremony had ended, there were still folks waiting to talk with the superstar. From Phoenix to the end-of-year banquet, KD has truly been a rock star. A completely humble, gracious rock star, who doesn’t do coke on a tour bus while hooking up with a random groupie named Mitzi from Trenton. But otherwise, the term “rock star” is accurate.

Don’t forget to listen to 1300 AM, “The Zone,” to hear Kevin’s presser at the top of the hour. I wish him the best of luck in the League, and hope that the lottery works out to put him in Celtic green. It’s been a real pleasure watching KD take the country by storm, and this is certainly going to be a season I’ll remember forever.

Here are the other award recipients from last night’s banquet:

Mike Wacker Comeback Award: Matt Hill

Solid Citizen Award: Damion James

Jack Gray Award: Connor Atchley

Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award: Craig Winder

Jay Arnette Award: Justin Mason

Earlene Fulmer 3-Point Attack Award: A.J. Abrams, D.J. Augustin

Assists Award: D.J. Augustin

Blocked Shots Award: Kevin Durant

Field Goal Percentage Award: Damion James

Free Throw Percentage Award: AJ. Abrams

Rebounding Award: Kevin Durant

Hustlin’ Horns Award: Ian Mooney

Spirit Award: Harrison Smith and J.D. Lewis

Outstanding Defensive Player: Justin Mason

Most Improved Player: Dexter Pittman

Team Captains: Craig Winder and A.J. Abrams

Co-MVPs: D.J. Augustin and Kevin Durant

Senior Award: Craig Winder

It’s not quite a basketball game, but this evening the Longhorns will get together one more time for the annual basketball banquet. And while it probably won’t match the excitement of a double-overtime win over A&M, it’s our last chance to relive the season and celebrate the accomplishments of this young team. I’ll be heading over there shortly, and will have a report later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

As for everything happening with the NCAA coaching carousel and the NBA stretch run, I will attempt to touch on all of them beginning tomorrow. And with a couple of former Longhorns having punched their playoff tickets, we’ll have a lot to talk about for the next couple of months.