2016-2017 Season
 

Out: Farad Cobb, Coreontae DeBerry, Octavius Ellis, Shaq Thomas

In: Nysier Brooks, Jarron Cumberland, Tre Scott, Kyle Washington

What will be different? We won't have much depth. 4 new players. 6 returning players (3 of which can't be counted on to make a difference). We won't be ranked preseason. Are we going to do the whole "we actually like being unranked" bit again? Gets old. Year after year. Someone tell me why I should be optimistic!

Better all around scorer in Cumberland than Cobb
Brooks will be better on D than Deberry
Washington will be better than Ellis in every possible way
It's time to move on the thought of Shaq actually doing something. Tre Scott will probably give us more.

Cumberland should be better on D after he adjusts to the speed, won't be near the outside threat Cobb is (at least year 1) otherwise yes much better all around offensively

There is nothing to make me thing that Brooks will be better than Deberry in any facet, I expect him to be a body when we have foul trouble, major downgrade here (again at least for year 1)

Washington wont be the defensive presence Ellis is, but Offensively a big upgrade (Him and Clark are gonna be fun)

Tre Scott will be athletic, minimally contribute on O and prob make more mistakes on D than Shaq, thus worse than Shaq (he wont be expected to play as much though)

We don't use Deberry like we should anyways. I think his D is very soft. Love his offense of game though. I just don't see a big difference either way. Washington and Clark will be the show.

Tre Scott can't give us any less than Shaq does on offense.

We're putting a lot of eggs in the Washington basket. I didn't see him play regularly, but the stats don't like him very much. And Cronin doesn't have a very good track record of churning out efficient offensive players. Makes me nervous. If we don't make the tournament this year, I'm not sure why we would next year.

We have a good nucleus of Clark, Evans and Caupain. I am excited to see the development in particularly the first two. If Caupain can work to become more efficient, he has a chance to have a great senior season. He made some really good passes last night and has been good with his A/TO this season. If Evans continues to improve, he can take some pressure off of Caupain in handling the ball. I would love too see Cumberland start and keep KJ as a 6th man. TBH, that is the role he will be the most effective in.

Caupain
Cumberland
Evans
Clark
Washington

That lineup will be our most talented since the Sweet 16 year. All those guys are at least 6'4''. I would love to see Mick pursue a graduate transfer that could play the 2/3 and is a pure scorer to have off the bench as well (or start over Cumberland).

A little better luck in close games and a nice OOC with Michigan, Xavier, @Iowa State, @Butler, and possibly Duke is a lot to look forward to.

My biggest concern is how we'll use our scholarships to round out this class and how well we will recruit for 2017.

I know a lot of people want to wait until this season ends before they do their evaluating. That's fine. I totally get that. I just hope those people don't get caught up in all the talk of "next year" and how we will look on paper...bc the feeling about this program after games like last night is an all too common one. And I don't think we can dismiss it in hopes that "next year" is the year that it goes away for good. It isn't always that we lose...it's how we lose. It is the constant frustration over the exact same things year after year. It's really starting to wear on me. We have these games that are such a setback to any progress we feel like our players are making. Shaq Thomas is a 5th year SR, and he's at square one right now. Kevin Johnson too. Gets old.

As of now we have 10 players next year...

-4 have never played in a game for UC
-5 are combining to shoot 36.2% this year (Jenifer is actually #1 in this group at 38.2%)
-1 is Gary Clark

We desperately need a grad transfer.

You realize though that players can make huge strides there senior year. The best player in the country, did not have a season even close to this one last year

I mean we could potentially have all our bigs with the ability rebound, shot Block and hit long jumpers.

A driver like Cumberland is gonna be huge as well.


I just hope Jenifer doesn't transfer out