Notes on Texas' freshman phenom, plus your mail

	Can you imagine Kevin Durant at North Carolina? His best friend, Ty Lawson, said he thought Durant was going to join him at Chapel Hill. Jim Redman/WireImage.com
	MAILBAG Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

The 'Bag comes bearing apologies this weekend. Thanks to the Nor'easter that struck this week, our trip back from last weekend's soccer extravaganza in Italy turned into a 45-hour door-to-door saga that involved planes (three), trains (three more) and automobiles (two), to say nothing of patchy 'Bag beards and epic poor hygiene.

We don't want to bore you with any more details, except to say that you know something's wrong when Amtrak is the most dependable service provider on your itinerary.

In any case, the 'Bag is arriving a couple days later than usual, but take heart: We no longer look like Marlon Brando in the latter stages of Apocalypse Now and can focus on the important things, like ...

A Few B-Sides From (Shameless Cross-Promotion) Our Story in This Week's SI on Kevin Durant:

• Here's a thought-provoking quote from Texas coach Rick Barnes: "I think people would be shocked at how little we do for [Durant] to get him the ball. Shocked. He has such a feel for the game that it comes to him." Which makes me wonder: What kind of numbers would Durant be putting up if the Longhorns started making a bigger effort to run plays for him? And as we head toward the postseason is there a chance that might start happening?

• When I was talking last week with North Carolina's Ty Lawson, Durant's best friend, Lawson told me that even he was caught off-guard when Durant chose Texas over Chapel Hill. What's more, Lawson nearly went to Texas himself, in which case his spot with the Tar Heels almost certainly would have been taken by ... Texas point guard D.J. Augustin. Food for thought: How different do you think UNC would be this season if the Tar Heels had Durant instead of the also-extremely-impressive Brandan Wright?

• Here's a surprise: Not only does Durant argue that the NBA age-minimum rule has been good for him ("If I'd gone to the NBA I don't think I would have been ready as a player or a person"), but he thinks only three players in recent years were in fact ready to make the jump straight from high school: Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Amaré Stoudemire. "Those guys were just beasts," Durant says. "Dwight was 6-11 as a senior and a legit 240. LeBron was 6-8 and a legit 240, and Amaré was 6-10, 240. And they're all doing good in the League, too."

• A useful tip I learned from SI's Jack McCallum: always ask a player what his real height and weight is. Durant is listed at 6-9, 225, but he told me he's 6-9, "about 217 or 218" right now. "We've been going so hard almost every day, obviously I'm not going to gain as much weight as I'd like," he says. How much does he want to weigh eventually? "Once I fill out I want to weigh about 235, 240." After spending time with Greg Oden for a story in December, I'd say their physical differences are what stand out the most right now. While Oden has already filled out and looks like he's 40 years old, Durant is a total string bean who looks like he's 15. Oden will no doubt mature even more as a player, but the scariest thing about Durant may be how good he'll be once he's finished growing.

• If you ask Texas assistant Russell Springman (the guy who landed Durant for the 'Horns), he'll tell you one of Durant's biggest areas of improvement this season has been his rebounding. "We told him you'll accidentally find your way to seven or eight rebounds a game because of your length," Springman says. "But if you start putting yourself in position and making a second effort instead of being blocked out, you can get 13 or 14 rebounds a game. He's been pretty consistent from that point on." No kidding: Durant is averaging 13.0 boards a game in Big 12 play.

• As Luke Winn mentioned earlier this week, Durant is fascinated by, of all things, the weather. "I like the bigger storms: tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, all that stuff," he says. Which brings us to this breaking news alert: Durant wants everyone to know that he's turning pro after the season, but not in basketball. "I'm going to be a meteorologist," he says. "Less pressure, man."

• Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations for getting posterized on the cover of Sports Illustrated? Poor Maurice Joseph. It was tough enough that the Michigan State sophomore had to be a side-prop (along with Matt Hill's 'fro) and go eye-level to the soaring Durant's shorts in the Spartans' win last Nov. 16. Now he has to see the image being resurrected for national consumption three months later. His pose reminds me of the one Gary Payton had on a LeBron James SI cover last year, which should be a lesson for you kids at home: Beware trying to play good defense and take a charge; you might be made to look silly for a national audience.

One last question before we open up the 'Bag: What are some of the lost arts of the game that you wish we'd see more often? (And are there any guys you've seen in college hoops this season performing a lost art?) Send in your suggestions and we'll take a look at them in next week's 'Bag.