I still believe Rob would be the odd man out. I'd hope that Dele see's more time because he is our most legit center. I think our opponents will dictate a lot of playing time too. We can matchup with anyone whether its going big or small. One thing is we should be faster than most teams (i hope).
Based on how Thomas played against most top teams last year, I can't see how he'd sit/ They'll need him to stay in those games. Unless Burrell and Coker come back improved. It's possible Burrell is better as a junior, but I don't see Coker giving us more value inside than Thomas.
Coker couldn't play with any team last year, on any level.
I disagree with your assessment of Coker. Everything isn't going to show up in a boxscore either. Dele was really coming into his own last year but when he stopped going to class and got suspended from the team all momentum was lost.
It might have gone overlooked because we lost a lot of games where he played well but he had a good run of games starting with Rutgers. In 11 min he had 8 boards and he blocked 2 shots. He then followed up that game with an impressive performance in a game many people would like to forget against WVU. He then sat out for the most part against smaller teams USF and SHU but came back strong against Louisville, Cincy, and Marquette. In games where he avg over 10 min he got 2 blocks per game in that stretch(his mpg 13 or so).
He then was in doghouse and eventually officially suspended.
If you want to look closer into the numbers he was very active on the offensive glass, he was perfect from the charity striple(only 3 attempts), and only 2 of those games did he have 3 or more fouls. He didn't dominate the ball by any means on offense, he didn't turn it over, and his FG% was very efficient.
Now on a side note I don't disagree with your assessment of Thomas. He was big for us when we needed him but physically he is limited in terms of what he can offer us. I'm all for giving Rob a few minutes off the bench for some quick points and high energy but over an extended period of time with this team we need Dele to be the man and not Rob Thomas.