Youre being a smarta$$ obviously...but again, if they dont land any underclassmen this year then yes, 2019 becomes a pretty important class. And if they dont land any underclassmen in 2019 then 2020 becomes a program defining class one way or the other...as long as they continue to add underclassmen then its hard for me to think the 19 class is going to be much more important than the 15/16/17 classes.
I can try to break down the 2019 class's importance as thoroughly as possible in this post.
The 2015 & 2016 classes were building the foundation for the team, the expectations were low, and the players had
2-3 years to develop before they were
expected by the majority of the fan base to make the tournament (the expectation was this upcoming season).
The 2017 & 2018 classes were/are classes centered around building depth at some positions and adding some experience to our guards.
Now that our team has made the tournament, this becomes the expectation for the team, and improvement should also be expected.
When the 2015 class were sophomores and the 2016 class were freshman, our team went 16-16. In 2020-2021, when the 2019 class are sophomores and the 2020 class are freshman, a 16-16 record would not be well received. The expectation will be an NCAAT, if not more.
If we sign no freshman in the 2018 class, our 2020-2021 roster will look something like this (assuming every player currently on roster pans out, Johnson moves to SG):
Code:
2020-2021
PG 2019 Signee (SO) 2020 Signee (FR)
SG Jalen Johnson (SR) 2019 Signee (SO)
SF Yves Pons (SR) 2019 Signee (SO)
PF Derrick Walker (SR) John Fulkerson (SR)
C Zach Kent (JR) 2019 Signee (SO)
This depth chart shows the impact the 2019 class will have. It will be a similar class to the 2016 class (in size after transfers), but the expectations will be higher coming in. Using average MPGs from previous seasons, the 6th-10th man in rotation should have around 32% of the minutes. If you add the fact that a PG from the 2019/2020 class will be starting in 2020-2021, I'd guess the 2019 class itself will have around 35-45% the MPG that season.