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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1338126, member: 289"] This is my retrospective look at what I said at the beginning of the season, (we were 4 games in, including the exhibitions), how things turned out and what they look like now. The Team The 2014-15 team might have been the team to satisfy our desire for another championship. We should have had four of five starters returning with the one loss being 6-7 forward CJ Fair who had had a distinguished four year career but could be replaced by 6-10 freshman Chris McCullough , who has the capability to be everything Fair was and more. People were calling Chris our best recruit since Carmelo Anthony, who led us to that 2003 title. Also coming in was Kaleb Joseph, a sculpted 6-3 point guard with dribbling skills we haven’t seen since Pearl Washington a very good jump shot and yet the athleticism to be an excellent dunker. (I don’t recall Pearl ever dunking.) Meanwhile young forwards Tyler Roberson, (6-8) and BJ Johnson, (6-7), who struggled last year, had another year to mature and 6-7 “glue guy” Michael Gbinije, a Duke transfer, would acclimate himself to his teammates and his role better than he did last year. We seemed to be full of talent, size, experience, depth and options. But freshman point guard Tyler Ennis announced he was going to the NBA after only one year, (he’s now in the “D” league). And forward Jeremy Grant, who was rapidly developing into the type of forward his father and uncle, (Harvey and Horace Grant, both with long NBA careers) had been, maybe better, decided to follow Ennis. He’s with the 76ers but has not played due to an injury. Their decisions clearly perturbed Jim Boeheim who said that neither was ready for the NBA yet. He surely also had in mind the impact of their absence on the team to come. Without them, we will be starting a freshman point guard with no back-up for the second year in a row, (and our fourth point guard in four years). JB will also have to use Roberson as the starter opposite McCullough at forward. Last year he was aptly described by Boeheim as “not ready to help us”. With McCullough, that gives us three untested players at the three most important positons on the court: the point guard and the two forwards. That’s where you get your production in modern basketball. Your center, (Rakeem Christmas) is normally a defensive player and rebounder who is an occasional scorer. Your shooting guard, (Trevor Cooney), can score but because he shoots from long range, he’s not going to be consistent. It’s hard for a player to carry a team from those spots. So we’ve gone from being a major national championship contender to an unranked, rebuilding team. But that hasn’t stopped us from becoming a major national championship contender by the end of the season when we’ve been in similar situations in the past. [I]Comments: Thinking about national titles seems far away now. Chris McCullough looked good, then looked bad and then looked painful as his season ended. My description of Kaleb Joseph seems delusional now. I don’t think he’s 6-3. His problem was not being strong enough and his dribbling skills were more like Josh Wright’s than Pearl Washington’s. Rakeem turned out to be more than an occasional scorer. Tyler Roberson was “ready to help us”, although his game still needs a lot of work. Mike Gbinije found his mojo- for a time. Trevor Cooney was Trevor Cooney. [/I] [/QUOTE]

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