I agree to an extent, but how much different does this team look/record also if Lamonte Turner is junior Lamonte Turner? You would have your alpha, another ball handler, a great perimeter defender...a lot of problems would be solved and I think most would probably agree this team with healthy Turner all year is playing in March.
So the question is more how much do you blame Barnes for not having alpha leaders, and ball handlers, behind Turner and Bone (who they built the roster to have) and went the year without either? I’m sure if you told Barnes he wasn’t going to have Bone or Turner he probably recruits differently for this roster this past March/April, they probably push for a graduate transfer guard to add to the roster.
If Fulk had gone down with a season ending injury instead of Turner we are probably bashing Barnes for not recruiting more quality post guys...you can only have 13 on scholarship, you start mixing in early departures, injuries, transfers etc. and just about any team in the country is going to struggle to meet expectations.
He’s the head man, I’m not excusing him at all it ultimately falls on him and he has said as much, and if this becomes a trend going forward then I will be concerned...but with their mindset of recruiting to oversign by 1 going forward that gives me some optimism that they are trying to avoid this exact situation from occurring again if possible.