I don’t get the full scope of your argument. We have 4 scholarship guys on the roster in the 6’9 range or bigger and most of the teams you mention won’t even have those players next year..are you saying our roster doesn’t have enough bigs to throw at teams? Because 4 seems like a good number in that area don’t you think?
We currently have 1 scholly guy thats a post, Estrella and the other 2 are transfers. Phillips is 197 pounds..of the transfers in Okpara is a slightly smaller Aidoo, Dubar is a tall 2/3, Milicic is a stretch 4. So we have 2.5 true post players Estrella, Okpara and Milicic..which pretty much leaves us in a similar post situation as far as depth as last year. We have 3 guys and after that we are playing guards and PF and center. IF you look at Okpara and Milicic's game logs from last season look at the PF section they are both foul prone. In games where they played high d1 schools Milicic got shut down probably because of double teams. I think both of them will be good players here.. the problem is whats behind them? We still have some slots I am hoping we bring in at least 2 other guys that can play in the post so we are not playing guards out of position for long stretches. We can win 25-30 games with those guys but come tourney time the game becomes a halfcourt game. How many teams in the elite 8 were playing small ball? The answer is 1 UT. Every team in the final 4 had at least 3 legit post players in their 8-9 man rotation. UT had 2 anytime Estrella or Philips got PT it was because Awaka or Aidoo were out or in foul trouble.
Again the point is the history of posts not this specific team.. Yes I used this team as an example and pointed out we likely have similar results to last year... a 3 man rotation in the frontcourt with at least 1 guy playing out of position. The fact I said it will likely be similar results is taking into account the development. That is assuming Estrella can perform at or near the level of Awaka and Okpura can be the Aidoo replacement and Igor and/or Darlingstone can fill in the spot of JJJ. It still leaves us really vulnerable to the same things we were this past season. And it still does not explain the dearth of 7-footers in Knoxville for the past 20+ years.
No, a lot of this is flat out untrue, and you are worrying about nothing. Philips was listed as being 212lbs on last years roster not 197. He will be 220ish next year.
Basketball is different today, and it is more of a position-less game. You certainly need length and height but not like you used to.
the NBA is positionless. College still can be dominated by old school dominant centers. Exhibit 1 Zach Edey. He will probably be an OK NBA player even fringe all-star IF he goes to a team that accepts his playstyle. In college, he was literally the most dominant player we have seen for a long time in the modern game....You cant teach size and if you find size along with just enough footspeed, coordination and conditioning magical things happen.
It wouldn't surprise me if they could offer a bigger NIL deal. I have no inside knowledge, but they're a basketball blueblood. They want to be relevant in football, but that's not going to happen. So, their best choice is trying to restore the glory of their basketball program. Doubt that happens either.
Edey is a generational player at 7’4.” There aren’t many of those around. Fall didn’t have his strength, and Fall had 2 teammates who averaged 16 points per game, shooting 37% and 40% from 3.
