Why do we need/want anyone to transfer. This group has clearly grown together and we have an open scholarship for a potential Thon or Ferguson. Honestly, I doubt we get either one (Thon my best bet though).
But even without them, our team next year is very capable of making some noise. We have the top recruiting class in the conference and that's not including Lovett who I know we recruited last year but is coming in this year. So I TECHNICALLY consider him apart of this class now. We aren't going to be world breakers and we shouldn't expect so high. But we lead the conference in blocks and are adding Owens. We are top 5 in rebounds (surprisingly) and are adding Owens. We are top 5 in field goal attempts and are adding Ponds, Ahmed, and Freudenberg who are shooters (this fixes how we are in the bottom 2 of shooting %). Lovett improves our ability to force turnovers and I think he will cut down the amount we turnover. Not to mention guys like Ellison will improve (he'll work on his strength and ability to finish around the basket) Mussini will improve through strength and conditioning.
We were 7-6 heading into conference play this year with beyond dopey losses to NJIT, Incarnate Word, and Fordham. Make those W's and we are 10-3 heading into conference paly (9-4 if you want to give back the Cuse game for reversing the other 3 to wins). Going 7-9 in conference play puts us at either 16-13 or 17-12. This is roughly what Creighton did this year and we would be very capable of beating Seton Hall with the roster coming in.
We should be able to make the NIT and perform well in that tournament. And I'm not sure how many scholarships we will have open for the 2017 season, but I think there's a very good chance to land Bamba, Preston, and Diallo (I think this staff HAS to land Bamba and Diallo with maybe Jordan Tucker as well in place of Preston).