(01-24-2023 05:44 PM)rtaylor Wrote: I will admit that I have not watched every second of every game this year. So, this opinion might be completely uninformed. I look at the Cats, and see a couple players who have some potential, but I see no one who would crack the line up of some of our better teams from past years. I guess what I am saying is what did people expect with this group? Personally, I expected what I have seen. We need dudes. We don't have any. It is going to come down to how many dudes Wes can convince to come here. It is obviously going to take a couple years, unless we hit the lottery in the portal for next year.
It's mixed. I think we have three guys that would have started for a lot of our Mick teams. None would have been the guy, but they'd have played.
DDJ could have been a better version of the 2018 Justin Jenifer role, for example. Landers probably doesn't start on that team because it has Cumberland and Evans, but he would have started on many of the other teams. Vik is definitely a starter on most our past teams.
The problem is once you get past those guys. Ody is trying to play the roll of Junior year Tre Scott, only he's not even as good as Sophomore year Tre Scott (who was a bench guy asked to just give some minutes behind Clark).
MAW is having a really nice senior year. He's a 2nd guard off the bench on most of our teams once Mick got it rolling.
JD is a heat check 10-15 minutes a game guy off the bench on our best teams.
Skillings is freshman year keith williams...plenty of talent, but not ready yet. Hopefully he makes a big leap.
Reed is the kind of guy Mick never had to play early, but would start contributing as a sophomore and be a big time contributor when he's an upper classman.
The rest of the roster wouldn't play on any of our past teams once Mick got it rolling.
If you look at the Memphis game, Landers, DDJ and Vik all had damn good games and we're ready to play at that level. The other guys all struggled.
That's the difference with this team. We have 3 NCAA tournament team caliber starters...and 3 veterans who ideally would be your 7th or 8th best player in 10-15 minute bench roles. Two freshman who give you flashes but aren't here yet. And then nothing on the back end.