|
Tonight at the NBA awards show: “There’s a lot of big guys in the world today but a lot of them can’t play.”
-some dude who played in the backcourt with Bucky for the Cincinnati Royals
Look, if you have a 6’4” guy and a 6’9” guy who are equally skilled, you want the 6’9” guy. If you have a 6’9” and a 7’0” guy who are equally skilled, you take the 7-footer. But as the Big O says, a lot of big guys can’t play.
I don’t understand where this obsession with getting a big man came from. We have Josh who can be just fine playing as our big. He’s probably gonna play 32+ minutes a game, and he can be more aggressive on D knowing we have a little depth and foul trouble won’t crush the team like it would have last year.
Yes, we “lose” guys who were 6’8”, 6’10” and 6’11” from last year, but one of them literally played 3 minutes, one was not with the team for senior day, and one had visions of a different role, and just got drafted. We add 6’6” Matos, 6’7” Mikesell, 6’8” Toppin (+20 lb from last year), and 6’9” Policelli. Would it be nice to add a skilled 7-footer? Sure. Do we “need” to? Nope. Would this hypothetical 7-footer be coveted by 150+ other schools? Yep.
We are recruiting a bunch of big guys in the 2019 and 2020 classes, so of course we are recruiting to replace Josh at some point.
It is pure opinion that somehow you can only be a good recruiter if you get bigs. In my opinion, that is actually pure fiction. We beat out Ohio State, Texas, West Virginia, and others for Cohill. We beat out Cincy and Texas Tech for Policelli.
Again, would it be nice to have a 6’11” agile strong big with good touch and good rebounding/shotblocking skills? Uh, yes. Get in line, because Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, UNC, UCLA, Michigan, Villanova, Florida, Tennessee, and about 145 other schools want that guy too. You want that guy but a late bloomer so the big schools haven’t snapped him up in June? Well, ok, I’m sure the staff is working on it. If they find a good player or players for 2018, they will take them. But after last year, Coach Grant is not going to take a guy just to fill a spot. We need guys who want to be here, are willing and able to play the way Grant wants, and fit with our culture. If there’s a 7-footer out there who fits those criteria, I’m sure the coaches would love to bring him in. But again, it is just untrue that we haven’t tried to get any bigs for 2018, and it’s also untrue that we must have one in this recruiting class.
The way basketball is going, you’re better off having a bunch of guys 6’4” to 6’9” who can switch, guard the 3-point line, and be versatile on the offensive end as well. The days of dumping the ball into the big man in the post are going away.
Put another way, would you rather have another Trey Landers or another Jordan Pierce? I think the answer is pretty clear.
Posted via Mobile Device
|
