Your definitions of average, dreadful must differ from mine. Richardson is a nice player. I love his toughness and I feel like he is an overachiever which I think all fans love. That said, he is limited. And I'm not just picking on his ability to score. I think he is a better scorer than most give him credit for. Is he an above average player for THIS year's UT team? Absolutely. And I wasn't necessarily speaking of Richardson. I think Trae is an average SEC player, all things considered. I think he has games where he plays well above average. I think the team feeds off his play (good or bad). But all things considered, his play has been average at best this year. He is slower than many opposing guards and has been really off shooting this year at times. His FT% has dropped as well.
The SEC is going to put at max 4 teams in the dance. Maybe just 2 teams. Auburn, Vandy, Georgia, Miss St, South Carolina, LSU, Arkansas are bad basketball teams. We have been pretty lousy ourselves. This league sucks this year.
All this "Hubbs won't start" talk is people trying to hedge against those that will call him a bust if he doesn't meet their expectations. My expectations are that he will play a huge role for this team. Does that mean he will be Michael Jordan? Absolutely not. But there's a big difference in being MJ and gaining a starting spot for a team that is currently 5-6 in a bad conference.