[waterhead]

Originally Posted by skyblade

I mostly agree with your assessment of the players, but I am less optimistic about our 5.

There are several reasons I have for doubt, but we will see how things progress.

First, I am not confident Vogt will be back. He retained a firm that represents international players pretty much exclusively. He's not going to play in the NBA (or even the G-League) and doesn't really have anything that he can add to his game that will make him look better to the NBA - or even internationally - next year. He can make some small improvements, but if he's looking to maximize his career earnings he's probably better off going to play internationally and not coming back here. Covid may make coming back less attractive as well (potentially playing games with no fans). There's also the possibility that Diarra will take his starting role, will Vogt want to come back to be a backup?

Second, Rap is a pretty major unknown. He had a good year on offense as a Sophomore and a poor one as a Junior. His defense/rebounding (especially at the 4) may be bad enough at times (especially if Vogt is at the 5) that we can't keep him on the floor. He looks pretty capable on offense, but the jump in competition level won't be easy to make. A guy who looks like a star at a low-major more often than not, ends up no better than a role player at a high-major.

An additional issue for Rap (who will be learning two positions), Eason and Lahkin (though I assume he will red shirt) is the late start to practice season. We saw Diarra struggle learning two positions last year, Rap has more basketball experience but still has to learn both positions in Brannen's system, which may not happen by the start of the season.

My main concern with Diarra is that he never really learned to play the 4 last year (or at least never played it well). He was consistently better playing the 5, if that's true this year than we may have issues at the 4. He should rotate well with Vogt at the 5 though, he was our best center for the last month or so and I expect that to continue next year (regardless of if Vogt goes pro or not).

Some of your concerns are legit. Vogt won’t probably get much better value than he has now but if he comes back Brannen loves him. I would also hope Brannen can use the bench this year to get a guy like Rap going all out every play. If he wants to go pro he needs to be on the court. Diarra was not the only one learning two positions...so I think he was just slower to pick things up overall so I don’t think we can project that onto other players. He should see most of his time at the 5 given our roster makeup. We have no less than 5 options who can play some 4 if you include small ball with no red shirt