This may be stupid, but are we sure we are actually going to play in the NIT? That is, will we want to play in it?
I don’t really care to. We’re not gonna play our young guys and Reece and Shedrick can only get hurt
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This should be emblazoned on a wall in a high school or something. Important life lesson.
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You act like our public schools have the funding to do any emblazoning
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I want to play in the NIT personally, and think the players would, but who knows. While the Ms may get no run, it could be semi-helpful to Reece, Shedrick, and Gardner. Yeah there’s some injury risk, but it’s just a couple of games. I’d be into it, unless there’s some scenario where we can make history again (What’s the biggest upset in NIT history? Fewest points every scored in the NIT?)
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Center - Caffaro/Shedrick split 40 minutes, hopefully more like 30-10 than 25-15 - agree with you on them
PF - Traudt can’t get 10-15 if Gardner’s getting 35. I’m hoping for something like 30-10, but given Tony’s recent substitution patterns…
PG - Reece plays until he drops and Franklin/McKneeley/Poindexter pick up the 2-5 minutes he’s not in the game. Poindexter never played sole PG without Clark or Beekman on the floor with him. I don’t think he’ll be the primary backup here. I don’t think he plays at all if Johnson commits and reclassifies.
SG/Wing - Franklin 30-35, 2 or 3 of McKneeley/Murray/Milicic/Bond/Dunn/(Johnson!)/McCorkle split the other 45-50 (and the other guys won’t see the court since Tony hasn’t used more than 8 in his rotation in half a decade - I really can’t envision a scenario where McCorkle breaks the rotation - Dunn seems raw and inconsistent right now - Bond I have hope for but he’s also been described as raw)
I was really looking forward to next season back when it seemed like we were going to get Taine and Igor minutes this season. But now I’ve done a total 180 and am worried that we’ll be worse next season. Assuming no transfers into the program, who is going to elevate their game enough for us to be better? The fact that Poindexter and Franklin are being penciled in to meaningful minutes is depressing to me. Unless we see unprecedented contributions from the true freshman and from a few guys who didn’t play this season, then I really don’t see how we can be better next season
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I agree with all of this. Honestly could see Bond getting fast tracked to PT because of his defense though. Expecting Dunn to redshirt but if Traudt, Bond, and McKneely all get run next year that sets up for an exciting watch. Only issue is with the 5 other projected players getting minutes, that leaves Milicic and Murray once again on the outside looking in. Hopeful we expand the rotation but just not betting on recent trends
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I think we’ll see Traudt take some if not all of Papi’s minutes at the back up 5. He’s a small ball 5 and when he sets screens for reece he can roll to the perimeter and reece and actually pass to him as a threat rather than it being papi and papi’s defender just sticks with reece.
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Here’s my optimist take on how we’ll be better:
- Continuity will allow us to avoid early season losses that doomed us this year
- More playable depth to get shooters on the court (lineups with McKneely and Traudt for example)
- Franklin has his every other year good shooting from 3 (longshot but hey, we can hope)
- Reece continues his ascent and without Kihei can be the guy to run the show
- Kadin continues his ascent and this is the year we typically see bigs in our system start to really assert themselves (plus another much needed offseason with Curtis)
- Replacing Kihei in the starting lineup with another shooter will give us more space to operate. This will especially benefit Gardner who had to settle for too many jumpers this year with the paint clogged (Kihei shot well this year but teams still sagged off him)
- Traudt and/or Igor getting more run in certain lineups to give us maximum spacing
Let me know if I’m missing anything but I think it’s a high floor, low ceiling team next year that makes the tourney but doesn’t have “make a run” potential
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Bond and Dunn give us the potential to be back in that top 20 defensive team/versatile wing defender options. Not sure if they’ll be that ready next season.
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I’d take high floor/low ceiling tourney team in a heartbeat. I’m just not ready to trust that the true freshman will make enough of an impact to get us there, but it’s certainly a possibility
True but we don’t need them to be gamechangers from day 1. Just provide spacing and be capable enough to round out the roster. We have enough talent in Reece, Gardner, Shedrick, and Franklin to at least have a decent floor. I’m factoring in player development for returning players like Reece and Shed and to a lesser extent Franklin
What’s a high floor? Tournament team? NIT team?
I think the floor is this season’s performance, give or take. You’re replacing Kihei’s production (yes, inconsistent, but still 35% from 3 with decent other production) with 1) a guy who hasn’t played and 2) improvement from the 4 returning starters. Franklin and Gardner seem to be what they are. Reece will improve, but he’s already made one leap, can we reasonably expect another the following year? Shedrick will improve too, but he was already productive and our system gives less weight value to the center spot’s production.
The bigs need to do some WR drills with the football team. I can’t handle more dropped passes around the rim. Our left tackle vs VT had much better hands than Shedrick & Papi.
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But remember, we went through this a few weeks agoZ we looked at the Elitr Eight teams from the year we won the Natty and only 2 of them have clearly done better than us (Zaga and Texas Texh). If we’d snuck into the NCAA’s this year as a 10-see, weMd have EASILY been in 3rd and might have even challenged TTEch for 2nd.
People forget that other schools are WAY more up and down than it feels.
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Are you being serious? The Elite 8 teams that year were Kentucky, Purdue, Auburn, Duke, Mich State, Gonzaga, Texas Tech and UVA.
You’re saying we’re better off right now than how many of those programs?
The answer is none and it’s not even close
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While I agree, it’s not like we can’t get back there. Adding London Johnson to an already very solid class could have us well on our way to getting back to these levels in short order. It’s just a shame we’re having to build back up after winning a title but it is what it is
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The path is there but after watching Igor and Taine sit on the bench while Kody dribbles off his feet does not instill the confidence that they will see the floor