fair question. the reason I suggested taking out Ace and Dylan is because they are so darn talented that there is just no way this years team is going to compare at their positions.
but if makes it easier - and frankly a more complete/ accurate comparison - lets do a position-by-position comparison WITH ACE AND DYLAN included in that. for example:
PG: where do we stand at PG this year vs last. obviously we will have no PG that remotely compares to Dylan but will the incoming players create at least a decent and deeper PG position?
SG: we basically had NOTHING at this position last year. will this position possibly be better than last year with the incoming players including that European kid?
SF: similar to PG. no player is going to remotely compare to Ace but with the freshman/ transfer might we have a decent (and possibly deeper) batch at SF?
PF: similar to SG. we had NOTHING last year. will this position possibly be better than last year with the incoming players, possible development of existing players?
C: we lost Lathan and his offense but his lack of defense and rebounding was lacking to say the least. People have already started to opine on whether this position may be improved or not overall
the overall purpose is have a discussion of whether there is any chance we MIGHT actually be better next year without Ace and Dylan. I think many (most?) automatically assume we will be worse without them. but considering that we had virtually no talent to support them I wonder whether the overall turnover of the team MIGHT result in an overall deeper/ more balanced/ more well-constructed roster?
I dont have an opinion but I would like to hear what people think and think doing a position-by-position analysis would be a good way to do it.
Thanks for this breakdown. PG, a lot worse. Obviously Dylan was an nba caliber pg. JMike is JMike. I like his a to to ratio but we’ll see how much he can improve. Francis will be thrust into a lot of mins and I think folks will be disappointed by his lack of size and his turnovers. Mark, good prospect. But we’re coming off a year when so many at the end said, you can’t trust even nba caliber frosh, they’re too young. Now we’re expecting Mark to be a savior.
SG is a push. We never saw JWill return to his first five games in a RU uniform, but no one knows how the European kid will be. A lot of programs wanted him but I’m sure they wanted him for less mins than we will use him. There’s hope though.
SF, same you’re not getting anywhere near Ace offensively. However you’ll get better D and hopefully less long 2s. A downgrade but not as much as folks might think
PF. Grant will improve. Upgrade here
C, similar to SG. A push. EO is EO. If he started throwing his muscle around maybe. But he’s too timid and has poor hands. Often kids don’t realize they were being too timid til their careers are over. Lathans offense sure, but his defense. Eyeroll. Can Fall be better overall, sure, but he hasn’t made an impact in two years and the big ten might have the strongest (physically) centers.
It really comes down do they buy into Pikes system. He can coach d but last year he showed he can also get walked all over by his players. What attitude do the kids have this year. You can’t assume they’ll be either way right now.
The problem is, yes, we’ll have rock fights. But when we were successful we had Geo or RHJ to pull out a rock fight with a clutch shot. I don’t see that player on this team, no go to guy.
In the end I think we lose a lot of lower scoring close games. I don’t think our record will be as good as last years. But what do I know.
Listen, last year expectations couldn’t have been higher. We started scraping by cupcakes and seeing it’s not so rosy.
Toni’s year expectations couldn’t be lower. Maybe they’ll surprise us. It still rewards mediocrity, which sucks, but maybe they’ll show promise. Hope they do.
