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Message: [QUOTE="Sbucketball, post: 4231933, member: 8555"] 1 scholarship currently available. We have 12 guys (6 freshman, Sy, Joe, Benny, Jesse, Bol, Chaz). Bol and Chaz are nice guys and their teammates like having them around, but man those are valuable spots. If no one else enters the transfer portal, it seems the coaches are prioritizing getting a backup center. I agree with that approach. We can't have the season ride on Jesse staying healthy and staying on the court and out of foul trouble. From what we've seen, Bol isn't a viable backup center (or backup forward, for that matter, but definitely not center). It seems like Peter Carey might be pretty good at some point, but I think he's a project, not unlike Jesse. Maybe Maliq can slide over for a couple minutes in a pinch, but he's a 6'9" PF and probably needs some time to develop anyway. If Jesse gets hurt or fouls out and can't stay on the floor to close out games, we would be in big trouble. Teams would just attack the center and get easy buckets. We saw exactly that this season, and it would be much worse next year if they don't get a transfer. On the other hand, we do have guys who can play forward, albeit an inexperienced group which makes it a complete gamble (Benny, Taylor, Bunch I think are likely to play next year, and maybe Maliq can carve out a role too since he is physically mature and might be good on defense and able to pull down rebounds). I think Taylor gets a lot of minutes at the 3 next year, and then plays the 2 when Joe graduates. Forward will be our weak spot next year, but it would be terrible to not have someone who can hold down the center position for 10 minutes per game, and could take over if Jesse gets hurt. With that said, I don't think this team can go very far with that forward group, unless two of them are way better than expected. It's going to be a tough sell to convince a kid in the portal to come play behind Jesse, so I don't have very high expectations. But we need a big body. If Bol or Chaz transfer out, then we could potentially be in good shape with a defensive-minded backup center and a scoring forward. The best option may be to get a big stretch four who can start at the 4 and is capable of playing the 5 for 10 minutes per game. That would solve both problems, but I don't see that happening. [/QUOTE]

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