Texas was already going to be in trouble this season. They have had to deal with Sheldon McLellan transferring to Miami and Julien Lewis transferring to Fresno State, losing Myck Kabongo to the NBA Draft, and in the process losing the three best players off a team that was pretty bad to begin with, finishing 7th in the 10 team Big 12.
Now Texas is losing Sophomore to be Ioannis Papapetrou, who signed a five year deal with Olympiacos of the Greek league today.
Papapetrou wasn’t great in his Freshman year in Austin, but he showed signs of promise. He shot 36% from three, and at 6’8” was potentially a matchup problem for pretty much any perimeter defender in the league. He chipped in with a 13% defensive rebounding rate and was one of the better shot blockers on the team as well. Papapetrou probably wasn’t ever going to be a star, but there are worse things to have than a 6’8” guy who can score inside and shoot threes as well as rebound fairly well.
Papapetrou probably was going to be the team’s best player in 2013-14, but now that role will likely be filled by incoming Freshman PG Kendal Yancy-Harris or possibly Sophomore PG Javan Felix, who had a 32.6% assist rate – but 37.8% eFG. It’s going to be a long year in Austin.
