There's a theory that some coaches follow when it comes to freshman and that's start with lowered expectations and to make the freshman earn it....or to make it painfully obvious that they belong on the court.
I don't have any doubts about Mathis or McConnell frankly...as in none, but i would not worry about who starts, there's plenty of minutes to earn.....same could be said about what I was told last year about Baker and that we would not miss Nigel Johnson much....not because Nigel couldn't play or be a good 4th guard, but because Geo was just better for the long term growth of the program. We are rewinding the tape again and will allow the growing pains for Mathis and McConnell.
Same concept applies here...Kiss has been here since May 2017...that is almost a year and a half in our system and lifting running, working and is a 3rd year college player.
I think it would he somewhat obvious to fans to stake their claim to the highest ranked recruit on paper. But to build a program, it has to step beyond the one player being viewed as the savior.
The program ( to me) has a longer term approach while improving during that process. That means making Mathis prove with his play, practice that it's obvious that he's one of the 5 best players and if that's the case, he will play plenty of minutes.
I feel it's better for Mathis and McConnell to earn their minutes vs the last decade or so when depth or talent off the bench wasn't comparable to the starters.
And we should save this same message for next fall when fans who want immediate stardom and don't get it right away, start to focus on Mulcahy and Jacob Young as next year's saviors, if Mathis and McConnell dont immediately flash as potential or immediate starters averaging 10 and 5.