2023-24 roster

[sedziobs]

Originally Posted by skyblade

I agree with MAW at PG and hopefully closer to 25 minutes next year. But we don't have a ton of depth, so I definitely don't want him gone. Odds are against Jizzle being a major contributor, Thomas may take a bit to find his footing coming in as a JUCO guys (hopefully he does quickly) and Skillings is our only other guard. We can probably add another guard and still have plenty of minutes to go around.

Right, I never want to push anyone out. I think Wes should be honest about a player's role, and they can choose to leave. I like MAW as a starting PG with his experience. When I say "B12 caliber" I mean guys who aren't just role players. Ideally you have 5 players you can count on to produce, then role players to fill in. With multiple role players playing 30 minutes, you really need an All-American quality player to carry the team, which we don't have.

[TheRealMick]

I'll take Hensley upside over Maw and JD leadership going into next year. If we bring everyone back and only lose Hensley that would be a disaster. We need upgrades @ PG, SG, and C. MAW and JD aren't even role players in Big12. We need bona-fide 3 starters that would make the incoming guys the new role players. My ideal scenario.

PG-portal
SG-portal
Sf-nolley
Pf-vik
C-portal

Bench
Skillings
Reed
Sage
Griffin
James
Day day
Newman
Ody

We absolutely need to swing for 3 starters out of portal.

[Queens_NYC]

Originally Posted by TheRealMick

I'll take Hensley upside over Maw and JD leadership going into next year. If we bring everyone back and only lose Hensley that would be a disaster. We need upgrades @ PG, SG, and C. MAW and JD aren't even role players in Big12. We need bona-fide 3 starters that would make the incoming guys the new role players. My ideal scenario.

PG-portal
SG-portal
Sf-nolley
Pf-vik
C-portal

Bench
Skillings
Reed
Sage
Griffin
James
Day day
Newman
Ody

We absolutely need to swing for 3 starters out of portal.

For once, we're on the same page about the roster.

Our ceiling next year with MAW and JD both in the squad is 16-16 with a 6-12 conference record.

I understand the rationale of sticking with "the devil you know", and I'll trust the staff's judgment on which one they decide to keep, if either, but I'll be very pessimistic if both stay.

I'd rather take a chance on the unknowns of the portal and add as much raw talent/athleticism/length as possible.

Give the staff a chance to develop more high-ceiling players.

[sedziobs]

The portal isn't a gold mine. There will be 100 teams competing for the few B12 caliber starters. If we can land an upgrade, I'm all for it regardless of who gets pushed out. Landing three impact starters would be a huge challenge. I'd focus on a power forward with multiple years left before the guard spots. Right now we're either playing someone with no interior skills (Davenport, Nolley) or someone with no perimeter skills (Ody). And all three of those guys will be gone after next year. At guard we at least have talent to develop.

[sirthought]

Maybe this should be a new thread since we're getting into a new team instead of this last game.

I'm starting to wonder if Wes is going to have a tougher job going into the Big 12 than Cronin did going into the Big East. Cronin had nothing, but we've gotten to a point where the players have more ability to go where they want, and the rich tend to get richer with talent.

It took five years for Cronin to really start to seriously compete, but UC had been winning up to the time he came on board.

UC has been not too convincing since Cronin left, so five years for Wes could be painful. I know it's not going to turn around overnight.

[TheRealMick]

Originally Posted by sirthought

Maybe this should be a new thread since we're getting into a new team instead of this last game.

I'm starting to wonder if Wes is going to have a tougher job going into the Big 12 than Cronin did going into the Big East. Cronin had nothing, but we've gotten to a point where the players have more ability to go where they want, and the rich tend to get richer with talent.

It took five years for Cronin to really start to seriously compete, but UC had been winning up to the time he came on board.

UC has been not too convincing since Cronin left, so five years for Wes could be painful. I know it's not going to turn around overnight.

Mick was one of best if not best recruiter in country. People don't understand the best players from past few decades Mick recruited one way or another.

[TheRealMick]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

The portal isn't a gold mine. There will be 100 teams competing for the few B12 caliber starters. If we can land an upgrade, I'm all for it regardless of who gets pushed out. Landing three impact starters would be a huge challenge. I'd focus on a power forward with multiple years left before the guard spots. Right now we're either playing someone with no interior skills (Davenport, Nolley) or someone with no perimeter skills (Ody). And all three of those guys will be gone after next year. At guard we at least have talent to develop.

As of right now we have 3(vik,sage&skillings) big 12 caliber players on team. We have 3 coming in. At minimum we need 3 out of portal.

[Queens_NYC]

We appear to be making early contact with some shooting guards in the portal.

6'4 Jayden Taylor from Butler (12.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg)

6'4 Paxson Wojcik from Brown (14.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg)

6'2 Nate Calmese from Lamar (17.6 ppg)

[sedziobs]

Originally Posted by Queens_NYC

We appear to be making early contact with some shooting guards in the portal.

6'4 Jayden Taylor from Butler (12.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg)

6'4 Paxson Wojcik from Brown (14.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg)

6'2 Nate Calmese from Lamar (17.6 ppg)

Interesting. Only one of these guys is a senior (Wojcik). The others have 2 or 3 years left.

Taylor does not have good offensive numbers in two years at Butler, but he has a decent steal rate and doesn't foul much. EvanMiya says he's Butler's best defender, but overall he's worse than our top 7.

Wojcik is a balanced scorer, efficient inside and out. He also has good assist, foul, and defensive rebounding rates, so a good all around player. He put up 10 pts, 13 reb against Michigan St and made 4 threes against Northwestern. Again, EvanMiya says he's worse than our top 7.

Calmese showed the ability to score at all three levels in his freshman season. He played for an awful team in an awful league though. Against TCU he was held to 2 points on 1 for 10 shooting. EvanMiya says he's terrible, but I think team quality is too much of a factor there.

Hard to get too excited about any of these guys. I could see Wojcik as a one year rental on the wing. It's extremely early, but interesting to see that we're reaching out to older and younger guards.

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

The portal isn't a gold mine. There will be 100 teams competing for the few B12 caliber starters. If we can land an upgrade, I'm all for it regardless of who gets pushed out. Landing three impact starters would be a huge challenge. I'd focus on a power forward with multiple years left before the guard spots. Right now we're either playing someone with no interior skills (Davenport, Nolley) or someone with no perimeter skills (Ody). And all three of those guys will be gone after next year. At guard we at least have talent to develop.

Completely agree, we aren't adding 3 top 100 guys, which is at minimum what we need to upgrade over MAW and Ody. If MAW transfers, I'd be surprised if he's rated much below 100. There's too much competition and many of those teams are much more appealing landing spots than us. Even if we could somehow pull off adding 3 top 100 guys, the transfer portal isn't a sure thing. My own odds are around 33% that a top 100 transfer will be a bust (and get worse as you get outside the top 100).

The possibility of Lakhin moving to PF has been brought up in the past by Wes. C/PF (preferably with multiple years) would be my top target. SG would be the second one. I feel pretty comfortable with PG (MAW, Day Day and Jizzle), Lakhin, Ody as starter/backup at at PF/C and Newman starting at SF. But we need one more big man to start alongside Lakhin.