Ryan Woumn appears to be the latest victim of Bartow's addiction to a 7-man rotation. In two years, we've had Anthony Johnson, Curtis Wilkinson, and now Ryan Woumn (presuming he's leaving) leave the program largely because of lack of PT. This is not even counting Anthony Breeze, the much-discussed 5th year player who bailed at the last second for Bethune Cookman (he's averaging 11 & 5 this season). Although Breeze (obviously) didn't bolt because of PT, it is clear that Bartow et al. have erred at some point in the recruiting process with all 4 of these guys. If Woumn, for example, isn't a D1 PG, then who mis-evaluated him? The same could be said for A.J. and Curtis. And what about Breeze? Did Bartow's 'boy' Buzz mislead Bartow about Breeze?
It appears that Bartow is a better salesman than developer and leader. Something that most of you have said for years.
From what I understood, Johnson was kicked off the team for a behavioral issue. I distinctly remember Bartow alluding to Johnson's departure in an interview well before the end of last season.
The problem with developing players is that you can't develop guys that don't get minutes, because they don't have any chance to apply the lessons you teach them in practice. Woumn played 13 minutes this season and appeared in just five games. With Cooley's future in doubt, he has a chance to play some big minutes as a sophomore. Bartow might disagree. I guess we'll know in about two months.
This graduating class was the last bunch to come in and make an immediate impact. Brown played 19 minutes a night and Sollazzo played 18. Jones played 11 minutes. Belmont wins games, and, by extension, championships, because they get contributions from everybody; when they bring in freshmen, they play, even if it's just 10-12 minutes on average, and that's enough to give them a feel for the level of play and give the vets enough rest to stay fresh deep into the conference season. Bartow knows this, because he has done it before, but for whatever reason just refuses to do it now and instead plays a ridiculously tight rotation. I don't know if that's a lack of faith in his freshmen or if he simply isn't recruiting the same level of talent that he did 4-5 years ago, but it's frustrating to watch the guy bring in all this supposed talent and not do anything with it.