You are correct, historically we haven't been very strong at Center. Nowadays, it is less critical however given how many teams are spreading the court. I'm a fan of having at least one stud in the post regardless of how tall they are, because when you really need a bucket, usually a much higher % in the paint. If you look at the NCAA champions over the past decade you aren't going to find many who had stud 7'footers. Jahil Okafor may be the best post on a championship team in the last decade and he is 6'10. You will find a bunch of 6'9 to 6'10 post players who were rock solid on championship teams.
Considering our best center ever (and I don't think it is even close) was 6'9 Reggie Johnson way back in the mid/late 70's says alot. Hard to find. One the best 7'footers we had was Steve Hamer and we were under .500 both his Junior and Senior year. I think the case could be made that since 1975, Jonas Aidoo may have been one of top 5 Centers we have had despite his flaws. Guys like Jarnell Stokes, Wayne Chism, Howard Wood....etc....were all good but only 6'7 to 6'9. Tom Boerwinkle was a big man for UT but that was before my time. There was a reason Plavsic only played 14 minutes per game. He had his moments bringing energy off the bench, but he probably would have fouled out in 5 minutes against Edey. UT has had very good recent success under Barnes. Our primary issues ultimately have been not enough players who can get a bucket when it matters. We have to improve our offensive balance and need more dudes who can create for themselves and have the mental fortitude to take tough shots when pressure mounts.
Based on current '24 roster, UT will be good once again and be competitive, but I don't think we have a primary "go to" scorer nor a post offensive player. At this point Dubar has the best resume to be our leading scorer next year. But , we could have a number of double figure scorers...Dubar, Milisic, Zeigler, Mashack, Gainey or Carr. Kinda like the '22-'23 season.
