Texas beats North Carolina 85-67, learns Kabongo's fate

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It was a bittersweet win for the Longhorns tonight at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.  While Texas was busy putting the finishing touches in a win over Roy Williams’ 23rd ranked North Carolina Tarheels, Yahoo’s Pat Forde released this bombshell regarding Texas point guard Myck Kabongo’s future this season at Texas:

Y! Sources: NCAA will suspend Texas G Myck Kabongo for the rest of the season. yhoo.it/RFghtn

— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) December 20, 2012

While Kabongo clapped and continued to coach and cheer his team on from the sideline he had no idea of the news that was released while the game was wrapping up.  It is maddening, primarily because the NCAA took so long to make the findings of its investigation known, but then to learn the negative ruling for Kabongo was even more disheartening for the Texas program.

The Longhorns have to be happy about the win tonight over a ranked North Carolina team and Kabongo’s substitute, Javan Felix, demonstrated tonight that he has the capacity to be a big time point guard at Texas.  Felix scored 8 points and had 8 assists in a solid effort but committed 4 turnovers.  Texas played smart basketball for the most part this evening shooting 40.5% from the field and committing 13 total turnovers.  Sheldon McClellan led the Longhorns with 18 points while guard Julien Lewis delivered a 16 point performance tonight.  Jonathan Holmes scored 15 and freshman Ioannis Papapetrou had the lone double-double on the night for Texas with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Texas improves to 7-4 on the season and remains undefeated at the Frank Erwin Center (6-0).  The team has little time to celebrate as they will prepare to play #20 Michigan State in East Lansing on Saturday.