the Football team's January and Febuary. coming off a 5-7 season and 3 blowout losses to end it up, we bring in
4 good ass'ts and 4 4 star kids (two in the portal). Here is the fix for us, we bring in Mintz. i love what I see from him.
We keep Cole and bring in a really good athletic forward. Or Cole does leave and we bring in 2 really good athletic
forwards. Benny, Bunch, Taylor and Brown all vie for reserve time with Symir and Frank. We bring synergy back. Our
sums are greater than our whole.
I like where your head is at.
With Cole
C Edwards/Anselem/Carey
PF <transfer>/Benny/Brown
SF Cole/Taylor or Bunch
SG Girard/Taylor/Mintz
PG Mintz/Girard/Copeland
Carey and Copeland might redshirt.
The transfer would ideally be an athletic guy able to cover a lot of ground on defense, get some weak side blocks, serve as a strong rebounder and have the ability to score inside/hit some mid range jumpers. Rebounding and defense are really important. Scoring is a nice to have.
Without Cole
C Edwards/Anselem/Carey
PF <transfer>/Benny/Brown/
SF <transfer>/Bunch/Taylor
SG Girard/Taylor/Mintz
PG Mintz/Girard/Copeland
Without Cole, we really need to add a proven outside shooter that can shoot 40% from the 3 point circle. That player needs to be athletic enough to cover a lot of ground playing in the 2-3. It would be great if they could rebound well and could get to the basket. But shooting and defense are the most important things we need from this player.
The second transfer would fill the role of the prototype SU power forward. This guy needs to be athletic enough to cover a lot of space on defense. They ideally would be good at blocking shots coming from the weak side. Excellent rebounding skills on offense and defense are a big key. Scoring would be nice but good defense and rebounding are the must haves here.
Benny might well develop into a solid player his sophomore season. I could see him getting 13 ppg and 7 rpg if he gets 30 mpg. But he hasn’t proven he can deliver those kinds of numbers as a starter and there are no guarantees he is going to stay with the program. Like Dash says, in this day and age, we gotta add at least one forward from the portal.
My guess is that if Cole leaves, it will be pretty easy to get a really good forward who can shoot (and hopefully slash and play defense). We could sell them on playing the role Buddy played this year (and Cole as well to a limited extent). Our offense is a good showcase for a talented scorer. Pretty sure we would get a lot of interest from good players.
The PF transfer (I am assuming we take one regardless) is a harder sell. Might need to get someone from the MAC, the IVY or a lower level like these to fill this role.
To me, the key is to be proactive on getting these players. Get a decision from Cole ASAP, get the word out regarding what we are looking for and get the player(s) we want ASAP. Don’t let this drag into the summer. The best players are going to get taken quickly once the regular season ends. If we want to get good talent, we need to get word out very quickly.
Maybe our season ending quickly could be a blessing in disguise in that it gives us a jump on some other teams pursuing some of the best players in the portal?
I fear we will wait until April or May to get serious on this. If history means anything, at least one or two players on the roster are going to leave, and make the task of filling out the roster even tougher. I think it is really important to be proactive and get the key spots we need to complete the roster filled as soon as possible.