I am more pessimistic for this upcoming season than I am optimistic, however ….
Joe was such a liability on defense. The zone friggin stunk. Just the mere fact of getting size and physicality from JJ/Westry in the backcourt will automatically improve our defense 10 fold from watching Judah and Joe at the top of the zone. Size, rebounding, etc - all of it. Then you add in Copeland instead of Symir
Coild Benny be worse than he was in the zone last year? Probably not. But I am on the “Benny figures it out this year” wave. I think he’ll much better defensively and on the boards than he was last year too. Too much over thinking with the zone.
I don’t know how replace Jesse defensively. I don’t think he was a great defense center by any stretch - but Hima is clearly a massive downgrade at least on the boards.
So I think it’s the thought that we can be tough, athletic and physical on defense; with better defensive players and a better defensive system than last year.
Chance and JJ are top 50 recruits. If they can figure it out offensively is the key. The talent is clearly there. Neither of them are is Judah. But I think they can be a good offensive backcourt. We need Benny, Taylor, Bell to be more reliable offensively than they were last year. If that happens along with hopefully those sophomore jumps from both JJ and Westry, we could be better than last year