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LA Mustang - Durant was actually the second UT player to win college player of the year behind TJ Ford.

DickerJames wrote:I think that any season ticket holder that has actually attended most of the games...

Season ticket holder? I don't know if he buys tickets or not, but he has accepted freebies from friends for years. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - he was a great player and is a loyal follower of SMU basketball, but I'm not sure the notion that the "season ticket holder" creates (i.e. loyally buying them) is accurate.

Another reason to retire Gene Phillips' number: keep the family tree growing at SMU. He's a great-uncle, or something, to one of June Jones' first recruits (Josh Emshoff).

LA_Mustang wrote:You don't think Durant deserves to have his jersey retired?

Absolutely not.
Brilliant player, but one and out? No jersey in the rafters.
Then again, getting your name hung in the rafters in that color isn't much of an honor, anyway! (I'm kidding, LonghornFan68 .... put the knife down...)

The Stampede - you're right. I completely forgot about Ford. Durant and Ford both deserve to have their jerseys retired. If you're named the best player in college basketball....essentially the Heisman for basketball, you deserve to have your jersey retired. I don’t care if you stay one year or four.

How about Maurice Clarrett?

Scoops wrote:Brilliant player, but one and out? No jersey in the rafters.

So he's not worthy of the honor because he's too good? You're saying that being horoned is more about time served, not what you do while you're there? No one as talented as Durant would have returned to college. He loved UT, and loved college, but he would have been an idoit to return.

Scoops wrote:How about Maurice Clarrett?

No, he just got hung out to dry by Tressel and co.

Edit:Did Carmelo Anthony get his jersey retired by Syracuse? After all, he did actually lead them to a national title in his one year there.

Scoops wrote:

DickerJames wrote:I think that any season ticket holder that has actually attended most of the games...

Season ticket holder? I don't know if he buys tickets or not, but he has accepted freebies from friends for years. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - he was a great player and is a loyal follower of SMU basketball, but I'm not sure the notion that the "season ticket holder" creates (i.e. loyally buying them) is accurate.

Another reason to retire Gene Phillips' number: keep the family tree growing at SMU. He's a great-uncle, or something, to one of June Jones' first recruits (Josh Emshoff).

I was talking about myself on the season ticket holder thing, not Ira.

Pony_Fan wrote:That might be the only article that Cowlishaw has written that makes any sense.

Durant shouldn't have a jersey retired for 1 year at school. Ira should have been honored long ago.

Agree on all counts

he's right on the money with this article; anyone who saw Phillips or I.T. play knows they are deserving. Phillips was simply a scoring machine that would have been really scary in today's game (with his range). Funky looking shot, but the man could weave thru traffic and score inside as well. I.T. simply dominated the inside in his era. Some classic match-ups with Tech's Bullock. Both those guys got to play in front of a packed house at Moody pretty regularly. The good old days!

As Coach Doherty mentioned on his radio show, a committee is now in place to consider names and establish standards for jersey retirement. He noted that Krebs shouldn't be the only one, and Koncak won't be the last name selected either. I'm SURE Ira and Phillips are at the top of the list.

LA_Mustang wrote:

Scoops wrote:Brilliant player, but one and out? No jersey in the rafters.

So he's not worthy of the honor because he's too good? You're saying that being horoned is more about time served, not what you do while you're there? No one as talented as Durant would have returned to college. He loved UT, and loved college, but he would have been an idoit to return.

2 things:

(a) Durant would never have gone to college had the NBA changed the rule
(b) The only reason he ended up at Texas was because they happened to be one of the few good basketball programs that had a scholly left so late in the recruiting process. EVERYONE assumed he was going to go pro and then the NBA implemented the new rule.

Neither of these points has anything to do with whether or not his number should be retired, but it puts into perspective that Texas was a backup plan for Durant and really just delayed his NBA rookie season by 1 year.

loved the letter in news today listing all the great texas baseball players that should be honored. when you honor one, you better have a crossrange of people with memories to make sure this type of thing does not happen as easily as SMU and texas had this happen. live and learn.

Caballo wrote:

LA_Mustang wrote:What he did for recruiting at UT will be felt for years. They owe that young man a lot.

I am sure he has been paid sufficiently. Some things don't change. UT is just smarter than others at how they go about it.