He scored more per 40 minutes than Starling of course he'll get some looks. If reputable insiders hadn't leaked the offcourt stuff and if he hadn't had his worst game of the year against NC State people would be losing their minds over him leaving.
Still has a lot to work on but he can get to the hoop at will and find guys even when the D is in position. I'm sure he will use Red pushing him out as motivation to get better as well.
There is no upside to this Starling doesn't play D and Copeland can play the same position Taylor, Judah, and Benny play. Its 4 guys who have to be replaced and internally you have Westry who hasn't played in years and two complete defensive liabilities in Starling/Bell. Is the goal now to try and win games 100-90?
Portalling a center better than McLeod isn't a certainty. I'm sure we will try and it might work out but realistically a pre injury Hima might be all we can get. Brown playing 30 per night at the 5 the next 2 seasons may end up happening. 2 nice freshmen but our class isn't ranked top 25 anywhere. I actually think the freshmen might be who would have benefitted the most from playing with Copeland.
For a portal center, we have to stop looking at bench players on Top 40 squads.
There are tons of guys playing a level or two down who are good enough to be the center we need.
Get me a guy who is 6-8 / 6-9 and goes about 240 and can step outside and hit a 3.
That kid Southerland for LeMoyne is almost what we should be looking for, except he's about 20 pounds light. The Canisius kid would be a good candidate as a pure center, but I don't think he shoots the 3.
Here's a list of the kind of player I would be looking for as our Portal Center:
DaRon Holmes, Dayton, 6-10, 235 junior, 20 pts, 8 rebounds, 38% from three (!)
Rokas Jocius, LaSalle, 6-10, 260 soph, 8 pts, 5 reb, 38% from three
Rasheer Fleming, St. Joe's, 6-9, 230 soph, 11 pts, 7 reb, 33% from three
Javan Simmons, Toledo, 6-7, 235, 12 pts, 5 reb, 32.7% from 3 as a freshman.
Owen Lobsinger, Western Michigan, 6-9, 225 junior, 9 pts, 6 reb, 37% from three.