half way there, Whitlock.

OK, Jason Whitlock is past the whole kerfuffle over the NBA All-Star Weekend, but he's still spewing shite, sadly, this time over Kevin Durant's style of play. I'm not going to go completely Sports Guy on you, but it'll be damn close.

Whitlock's basic thesis in his latest AOL column is that the Longhorns aren't more successful because Durant doesn't get his teammates involved by passing or make them better.

Durant doesn't give the ball up, so his teammates are reluctant to give it up when they get it.

No team in the country fires as many bad shots early in the shot clock as Texas. Augustin, A.J. Abrams, Damion James and Justin Mason -- the starters alongside Durant -- are totally unafraid to go one on five, especially Abrams and Augustin.

Texas scored 84 points on Sunday and recorded just eight assists. Augustin had six of the assists.

There's your problem. It's not necessarily Durant's fault that his teammates are streak shooters, and just as likely to go one-on-one as he is. This is more on Barnes and the rest of the Longhorns -- D.J. Augustin should be dishing more rather than slashing for the basket, number one. Watching those second halves against Kansas reinforced the inability of Texas to play anything resembling a set offense. Whitlock has it right in that sense, but that's not on the individual player. Durant has not been a black hole -- he has given it up when he doesn't have shots, and goes cold. The problem lies with Barnes, who seems to have no clue how to coach teams around the star.

If given a couple of half decent passers around him, this wouldn't be an issue, and despite this, I still like Texas to make the regional final in the East.