(04-02-2021 07:06 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 06:58 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  My point was your point about Ayesa. I never did hear why he was missing at the end of the season. My assumption is that his freshman year may be his best in terms of minutes.

I think you are right. Unless he makes a Burchfield type jump in his game, I think he keeps getting leapfrogged. Burch was always known as a solid defender though. Ayesa, not so much. Who do we want Ayesa taking minutes from? A developing Jake, Yuri, & Connor? A proven transfer like K Rice, or the promising incoming freshmen? My vote is no to all three possibilities.

A tight rotation made sense; it's not like we were loaded with guys who had really earned minutes. We had four guys who looked like they belonged on a CAA court (maybe five, if I'm giving Wight the benefit of the doubt) and everyone else's minutes are purely for the purposes of unlocking their potential. It's most obvious with Yuri. Stone can be a good defender IMO. That's seven and you only really need one more for a rotation. I saw absolutely zero from Milkereit (full disclosure--Luke was terrible his first two years) but he's a year younger than Ayesa and undoubtedly they like guys they had in a full recruiting process more than guys they had to scramble for just to fill the roster.

I'd love for Ayesa to put in good minutes--this team desperately needs a shooter--and he may still yet have a role on this team, but I think the ship on him being a major part of the team's future has probably sailed. There are some lower-ranked prospects, like Fred Heldring and Tom Sheldon, who could get rotation minutes on a rebuilding team but who get leapfrogged when we move towards contention and that's the way it is.