Last year bigs didn't factor into the OOC slate early. Carter barely played and Doorson gave what he could defensively.
Would I like to have Eugene as a go to low post scorer or person to go to, vs Myles Johnson or Shaq Carter today?? Absolutely, there's no doubt he's a better post offensive player.
The question is whether the OOC games of Drexel, Niagara, Bryant matter in the evaluation of what this roster needs to compete against in the B1G etc....it's whether our bigs can handle or offset Nate Reivers of Wisconsin twice, Matt Paarms of Purdue twice, Jon Teske of Michigan twice, Garza, Wesson, Tillman, Oteru....Giorgi and Kofi at Illinois....the Maryland bigs twice.....those are tough matchups with or without Eugene....we don't hold an advantage trying to ask 6'6" Eugene to outmaneuver those bigs, but we at least have a forward that can pull them away from the basket in Yeboah, who can score from 3.....you give up something to get something.
My point still remains the same...in order to make a NCAA run next year (it wasn't going to happen this year with him as your 1st option on offense) this roster needed Eugene out of the way, where he's slowing the development or growth of Harper and others to become accustomed to leading. It is a longer term viewpoint vs November of 2019.....and the longer the program continued to lean on Eugene as it's 1st offensive option, the more likely this roster wasn't going to reach it's potential next year.
If Eugene was in a reduced role, off the bench for 12 to 14 minutes a game, I could have seen a team-centric place that Eugene keeps Carter to a reduced role....and again, no one knows when he would have broken down physically. There are too many variables that don't support the team dynamics working.
