The long summer is over, and finally basketball has returned. With it comes the return of Horns in the League, your daily look at how Texas Exes are doing on the professional hardwood. We’ll be back with more features on Longhorn basketball as the final three weeks of the college offseason wind down, but for now let’s get right to the NBA action…

Tonight

Daniel Gibson and the Cavaliers open things up in Boston, where TD Banknorth will undoubtedly be electric as the Celtics raise yet another championship banner. (7 P.M. CDT, TNT)

The second half of TNT’s opening night doubleheader will feature two former Horns when the Blazers and LaMarcus Aldridge face off against Chris Mihm and the Lakers. (9:30 P.M. CDT, TNT)

The 2008 Longhorn recruiting class was up in the air for most of the year, with commitments not filtering down to the 40 Acres until the late spring. And with questions still surrounding the eligibility of J’Covan Brown, Texas fans still can’t be sure if that pair of incoming freshmen will stay intact until the season starts in November. But with temperatures still in the triple-digits and most fans just starting to think about football, Coach Barnes and company got an early start on the 2009 class by signing small forward Shawn Williams of Duncanville.

Williams is slotted 15th in the country by Rivals amongst small forwards in the 2009 class, and 77th overall. The 6-foot, 7-inch prep star is a “sharp-shooting wing” and averaged nearly a double-double in his last season. He is a part of the absolutely loaded Duncanville team that hopes to win its second state championship in the last three years. The Panthers ripped off a storybook undefeated season en route to its 2007 title and lost a narrow four-point decision to North Crowley in last year’s Region 1 semifinals. This year’s team looks to be even more talented, with Williams joining four other upperclassmen in a starting five that has only two blemishes on its record in the last two seasons.

The Longhorns are also still in the hunt for top-ranked small forward Jordan Hamilton of Los Angeles, who allegedly is enamored with the Texas program. It appears that after an off-year for the Texas recruiting machine, things could be back to normal in Austin.

Sure, the University released the full basketball slate on Thursday, and we’ll get around to adding that to the schedule page later tonight. But right now, the absurdity of Baron Davis and Steve Nash on a tandem bicycle in Santa Monica is just too much to pass up. Check it out below.

The Big 12 Conference revealed the 2008-09 men’s basketball schedule yesterday, a slate which includes three Big Monday appearances for the Longhorns. The weekly spotlight on ESPN opens with this year’s contest between Texas and Oklahoma, with Rick Barnes’ crew also playing on Monday nights against Texas A&M (February 16th) and in a home game against Baylor (March 2nd).

The full conference schedule is available on the league website, while the Texas schedule is compiled here for your convenience.

Texas’ 2008-09 Big 12 Schedule
Saturday, January 10th – vs. Iowa State
Monday, January 12th – at Oklahoma (ESPN)
Saturday, January 17th – at Texas Tech
Saturday, January 24th – vs. Texas A&M (ESPNU)
Tuesday, January 27th – at Baylor
Saturday, January 31st – vs. Kansas State
Wednesday, February 4th – vs. Missouri (ESPN2)
Saturday, February 7th – at Nebraska (ESPN)
Tuesday, February 10th – vs. Oklahoma State
Saturday, February 14th – at Colorado (ESPN)
Monday, February 16th – at Texas A&M (ESPN)
Saturday, February 21st – vs. Oklahoma (ESPN)
Wednesday, February 25th – vs. Texas Tech (ESPN2)
Saturday, February 28th – at Oklahoma State (ESPN)
Monday, March 2nd – vs. Baylor (ESPN)
Saturday, March 7th – at Kansas (CBS)

An in-progress composite schedule will pop up here on the site later this afternoon, which will include the non-conference games that have been confirmed, along with any dates that have been announced. Check the top menu bar under “Schedules” to find the 2008-09 slate once it’s added.

We’re just hours away from the 2008 NBA Draft, so what better time to return from an LRT hiatus of nearly three months? The only Longhorn in New York City tonight is point guard D.J. Augustin, but it could still be an historic night for Texas basketball. Nearly every mock draft is projecting D.J. to go within the first fourteen picks, which would give Rick Barnes and Texas their third-straight lottery pick, something no other school has a chance to do. Unless, of course, Chicago shocks the world by taking Washington’s Ryan Appleby with at number one.

While it’s nearly unanimous that Augustin will go in the opening half of the draft’s first round, there’s a little less agreement on where exactly he’ll end up. NBADraft.net currently has D.J. heading out west to Sacramento, while Chad Ford of ESPN thinks he’ll slide one spot lower to Portland.

NBA.com bravely attempted to sort through the mock messiness, combining the top draft projections on the net into one consensus prediction, which sends D.J. to the Pacers with the 11th pick. With Indiana trading for fellow Texas-ex and point guard T.J. Ford just yesterday, this scenario would allow Augustin a chance to once again learn from his friend and mentor.

If you’ll be surfing the Web while checking out the action live from MSG, the good folks at Bizzaro Joe Lunardi will be running a liveblog during the event. And considering how little Bill Simmons knows about college hoops, there’s really no debate over which running diary you should be checking out.