Surprised by the negativity on this board. Kante is at best a 3 star; he is not going to change the arc of this program. Would still like to add him if he wants to be here, but if not we will move forward with someone else.
This team, as presently constituted, is at least 5 wins better than last year's team. Freudenberg gave us nothing, Ellison made most of us crazy for all but a few games of his time here, and Williams surprised us because he made it onto the court when we considered him a medical write off. Simon and Clark will more than make up for the loss of Ellison and Williams -- they are the primary reasons why those two decided to seek opportunities elsewhere, and our freshmen backcourt will be sophomores and among the best in the Big East. Owens and Yakwe will both be a year older and improved. In addition, people will still be added for next season, including an eligible big or two to step in immediately. This roster is not finished yet. Our staff sees everything that we see and is more than aware of what it will take to win next year in the Big East.
As constituted, we are short two PF's and our frontcourt was rough last year. We lost interior players, and haven't replaced any. It's real poor imo that we can't land anybody. We desperately need PF/c's of some type to have this team do anything next year or we will be killed once again on the interior. I can't figure out how we couldn't grab a serviceable big body or two. I'm not even talking studs here. At this point, without having replaced him, losing Williams is a huge loss.
When even MCNPA is being negative you really know we's in trouble.
This is true. He was excited when Lenny Cooke and Darius Miles opted out, because it freed up a couple of scholarships.
Forget Cooke and miles... I'd take an Aaron Spears for one season. Just one big man.. too much to ask?
That depends on what you're asking for. There's not a basketball team in the history of basketball teams that was an Aaron Spears away from contending for anything.
This is how the minutes will be distributed next year
Ponds - 30 minutes
Lovett - 30 minutes
Simon - 25 minutes
Ahmed - 25 minutes
Clark - 25 minutes
Yawke - 20 minutes
Owens - 20 minutes
= 175 minutes
If Missini plays 15 that'd leave 10 minutes for Aaron Spears II.
If Simon and Clark don't stink and Yakwe and Owens take a step forward the team will be pretty good. If that doesn't happen the team will not be pretty good and no graduate transfer from LIU or Quinnipiac or wherever would make any difference. A big body would have been nice and personally I'd have been happy with the JUCO stiff and he probably stinks. But success next year is going to depend on the seven guys up there ^^^^ playing well and if they don't know one short of Walter Berry would make any difference.