The guards you listed are the expected guards for 2015-16. Not sure if you meant 2015-16 or 2016-17. Either way we are going to be stacked with guards for the foreseeable future. If we were to land Howard and Battle, I think it would be a good idea for Howard and Patterson both to redshirt a year.
I know some other people were mentioning how players can make the leap from their freshmen year to their sophomore years, but you also have to take into consideration Boeheim's loyalty to proven players. We started Scoop and Brandon over Dion and MCW just a couple of years ago. Boeheim will play the experienced players that he can trust over the unproven players. I don't see Cooney losing any minutes to Richardson, Patterson, Howard, or any other guard as long as he can knock down his three ball. Heck, Boeheim still leaves Cooney out there in games this year when he's ice cold because he has confidence and trust in him to bounce back. That's something that a player like Buss hasn't been able to accomplish in a meaningful game. And when will Buss get that opportunity to gain Boeheim's trust? Either with a Cooney injury or when Cooney leaves after his senior year. Same goes for Howard. He would get stuck behind KJ, Gbinije, and eventually Battle. If we do land Battle, Howard would then likely have to wait until 2017-18 until he could even potentially start.
I think redshirting Buss next year and then Howard his freshmen year could help us in the long run. It would be asking a lot out of these kids to sit out a year to work on their games, but if they can envision the big picture, it would help not only them, but also the program.
And while on the topic of redshirting, is it too late to redshirt Coleman cause I just saw he's done for the year.
