Tyler Smith will average 0.0 points for the Hawkeyes in 2007-08

Horrible news from Iowa City today: Tyler Smith is being released from his scholarship at the UI. That's right, the only guy coming back who even seemed capable of leading the team in scoring last year is getting out of town. He would rather spend a year not playing basketball at all than playing for the Hawkeyes.

The situation is indeed dire in Iowa City now. The Hawkeyes lose a capable (if not terribly efficient) scorer, their leading rebounder, and their best defender. Smith has an innate sense of the game that most of the rest of the team just doesn't have; he and Haluska were the only two guys on the team who ever seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

Here's what Iowa can look forward to next year. If you're squeamish, you may want to go here instead.

C: Seth Gorney (7'0", 245), David Palmer (6'9", 240)
PF: Cyrus Tate (6'8", 240), Kurt Looby (6'10", 210), Jarryd Cole (6'7", 220)
SF: J.R. Angle (6'7", 205)
SG: Justin Johnson (6'6", 190), Jake Kelly (6'6", 170)
PG: Tony Freeman (6'1", 185), Jeff Peterson (6'0", 185)

Lickliter's certainly got his work cut out for him. Nobody on the roster right now looks like an all-conference player. The only two guys who have shown any proficiency for scoring are Johnson and Freeman, and both have games that are fatally flawed: Johnson seems barely interested on defense, and Freeman contributes to more easy buckets for the opposition than for Iowa.

If Jeff Peterson has a late growth spurt in him, we'd sure like him to show up at 6'7" in September. Otherwise... yikes. Any chance O.J. Mayo wants to wear black and gold instead?