I don’t think anyone is “blaming” the freshmen. To me, it’s the team as a whole. The build of this team just didn’t work. It never meshed. Looked great at times and poor at others. That’s what individual talent looks like. A great team (like the Admiral and Grant teams) look good/great pretty much all the time. The issue with this team, and the freshmen specifically, is that we can’t shoot from the outside. Springer and Keon are great at driving to the paint but that doesn’t do anything when the opposing team just clogs the lane rendering the drive ineffective and the kick out ineffective (missed open 3s). The freshmen are great at what they do, but for their game to be successful they needed consistent shooters around them to stretch the defense, or they themselves needed to be good, consistent outside shooters. Early on we saw some really impressive performances by them (ie kentucky) where they got downhill to the bucket and scored easily. Then teams adjusted and clogged the lane, basically saying “we aren’t gonna let you drive it down our throats. You’re going to have to beat us from the outside.” And we couldn’t do that. Occasionally we would get hot from the outside (Kansas, SC) and we’d deceivingly look like we have a good offense. But in reality, it was just a lucky shooting night.If the elder statesmen on this roster were that jealous of the younger kids then they are mentally soft and wouldn't have won anything of merit anyway.
I honestly can't believe how many are blaming the freshmen for our woes this year. They aren't without fault, but if you are to list the 10 reasons this season was disappointing, Springer and Keon are not on that list.
Sadly, this trend will continue until Vescovi, Bailey, 3J or a new addition become consistent threats from the outside. Chandler will be great at creating open shots for other players but if defenses continue to clog the lane and we can’t make them pay...it won’t matter.