Hawk you're seriously downplaying Mag's influence on this team. He's our best or 2nd best defender this year and his offense and rebounding have been ticking up. The loss is going to hurt but we still should have enough to absorb in most of the remaining games.
These are words that in the team concept, are not reality. Cliff is the most important defender, because he alters shots and grabs rebounds to prevent 2nd shots.
Caleb is the more adept and experienced defender in the team defense or 1 on 1 ability to defend multiple positions. Mag can also do that, but he is the 5th option, in terms of offense.
Mags offense is typically reliant on defenses focusing on Cliff inside and Cam requires attention. Caleb, Mulcahy and Mag all benefit offensively because of Cliff and Cam.
In the team concept. I'm being asked to replace a very good defender and the 5th option on offense. That is not irreplaceable based on the numbers.
RU is attempting to hold teams, under 60 or 62 points to win games. Irregardless of what anyone says, that's not a sustainable formula against better teams. And better teams aren't going to be stopped cold, because Mag plays 25 to 30 minutes.
The team needs more ability to space the floor and help reduce the workload of Mulcahy. That is solved by allowing Hyatt more minutes and playing Simpson more minutes.
This concept that Mag played 20+ games of error free basketball is simply not the case. It's a team game and there's more upside by expanding the offensive options. That's not anti Mag or taking away from his development.
At the same time, there is enough evidence based on 20+ games, that RU will be more likely to beat the more talented teams on the schedule, IF we expand the offense and 3 point shooting. That is much more likely to be fine with Simpson or Hyatt as the 5th option on the scouting report, without a huge dropoff on defense/rebounding.
It just seems like some RU fans are looking for every item as the end of the world. From a pure basketball and ability to expand how we play, if Spencer continues to be taken away by opponents, there are more options than just Mag, that are capable of taking advantage and playing good team defense.