Gerry Hamilton of Orangebloods is reporting this morning that Gary Johnson has been cleared to practice and is taking part in workouts with the team. Hamilton reiterates the fact that Johnson has not yet been cleared to play during the 2007-08 season, but that the university is monitoring him during practices.

Good news for Gary and Horn fans as we approach the start of the season. I certainly wouldn’t expect the coaches to use him in the “cupcake” games early in the year, but one can only assume that if things keep progressing at this rate, Gary Johnson might see the floor before the season is over.

On July 27th, the members of the 2007 NBA draft class took part in an eight-and-a-half hour photo shoot donning their new uniforms. Photog Fernando Medina snapped shots of the players at the Knicks’ practice facility in Tarrytown, NY, while John Schuhmann live-blogged the event for NBA.com’s Rookie Report.

The full photo gallery (47 shots in all) can be found on NBA.com, while the ones of former Horn Kevin Durant are thumbnailed below. Click on any one to open the gallery in LightBox.

The NBA Draft Lottery went down last night, and with it came the most shocking of outcomes. Memphis and Boston, the two worst teams in the league, were both completely shut out in the drawing. With the top three slots filled by better teams, the Grizz and Celtics slid down the board to fourth and fifth.

The winners in this shocking turn of events were the young Portland Trail Blazers and the possibly soon-to-be-nomadic Seattle SuperSonics. Barring any trades in the next month, that means that Oden and Durant will both be heading to the rainy Pacific northwest, playing games when half of the country will be asleep. Awesome.

As a Celtics fan, I can’t even begin to explain how irritated I am over all of this. After last year’s debacle of trading away Brandon Roy — who would become Rookie of the Year — for Sebastian Freakin Telfair, I didn’t think it could be worse. I was very wrong. In Danny Ainge’s defense, this time he wasn’t the one screwing the pooch. But he did give Doc Rivers a contract extension….

I honestly just feel bad for KD. The Celtics will continue to suck, and I’m used to it. They have not been dominantly good since I was in preschool. But KD had a chance to keep his star shining brightly in an east coast market, and instead will be playing in (relative) obscurity in cities that do anything but scream “rabid fan base.”

For now, there’s a ton of workouts and evaluation for all the prospects not named Durant or Oden. But for Texas’ own Basketball Jesus, I really hope a trade goes down between now and June 28th.

The University of Texas announced today that Dogus Balbay finally signed his LOI and will be playing on the 40 Acres next season. The coaching staff had been forced to wait and see if Balbay would qualify for the 2007-08 season, as the Turkish guard had to score acceptable marks on the TOEFL exam. The signing closes out the current Longhorn class at four members, including another foreign-born player in Alexis Wangmene.

Getting Balbay on the court for 07-08 is huge for a Texas team struggling with depth in its backcourt. Last year’s team would often grind to a halt on offense when D.J. Augustin needed a breather or was in foul trouble. The ability to bring in Balbay to spell the overworked Augustin will provide immediate help for the Horns.

Checking in at 6’1″, Balbay will also add a slight bit of height at the guard position. A.J. Abrams is listed at a generous 5-foot, 10-inches, while Augustin stands at 5’11”. And, according to Coach Barnes, Balbay is also going to provide a lift defensively.

“Dogus is an important pickup for our program, as he will provide us quality depth at the point guard position,” Barnes said. “He has a clever international game and good athleticism. Dogus is a strong perimeter defender and a good playmaker who has the ability to score in the lane.”

Fans of last year’s Texas squad know that perimeter defense was a huge liability. Hopefully the signing of this young guard will begin to turn that tide when the new-look Horns step on the court in just over five months.

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