I think a lot of our fans look at this too traditionally. Our zone requires us to have two athletic forwards that are versatile enough to cover several different threats--on the same possesion many times--rotate quickly and efficiently, and also compete on the glass. How many possessions did Moe have to body a center, rotate out to a shooter, and come back and defend a PF?
I expect us to have an eight man main rotation of Branch, Harrison, Greene, Wood, Pointer, Garrett, Sampson, and Sanchez. Bourgault and GG will be next off the bench to fill in for specific needs. I don't expect this to change much if we add Chandler and/or Nolan. Chandler would give us the luxury of slowing down the game, switching up the defense, and he'd give us a go-to scorer down low if we hit a rut.
Lavin's recruiting couldn't be any more clear. It's like he asked Dunlap what he needed for his blueprint and went out and got that type of player. There is a reason why we haven't been involved with many big men, but we've been involved with more wings than any team in the country. Do you think Lavin signed four top 75 wings last year just for depth? Then he follows that up getting Hooper, Wood, Sanchez AND Bourgault?
I'm sure we'll see plenty of Garret and some Pointer at the four. There will be plenty of lineups with three out of Garret, Pointer, Sampson, and Sanchez on the court at the same time. There will also be a ton of three-guard lineups--especially towards the end of the season when Wood gets his sea legs.
This team is going to pressure the hell out of the ball this year...defend the entire length...and race the ball up the court in secondary transtion to get as many looks with one and two man advanatages as possible. Over the course of 40 minutes that makes a huge differene. We could have some rough patches early as the new guys learn a very complex defense, but we've got five returnees to lean on early.
Metro State averaged 93.4 points per game for Dunlap's second championship team.