Not a big man friendly offense. Is what it is. A guy like JaVale McGhee (long, athletic & mobile) would be ideal. Don't need a guy who's looking to score 20+ per game. Just need a guy who's solid in the pick n' roll, can rebound and alter shots, who's content with getting his points off the muscle.
Don't think people realize the money being doled out on the hoops scene. It's been going on for years and now with the NIL it's on steroids.
Far better ROI with basketball than football. You need to invest less simply because there are fewer guys needed to turn a program around. You could buy 4 elite guys in FB and still have 18 spots to fill. With hoops you may have just bought a ticket to the Final Four.
I guess its too late to bring in any for the 2nd semester for 2024 to play this year? We could use another guard or a big man.
Yup, too late. Disappointing that we couldn’t do more in the portal after the final 4 run.
I do not think that our bench is worst than last year, its probably the same or better.
At this point in the season, we definitely lack the on-court leadership that those two very good/experienced players provided.
I took Wong for granted but he was sort of the top dog here for the last 2 years so he had time to figure it out.
Someone needs to lead. And it's not always the most talented player.
Miami was returning a lot and L believed in the top end guys he already had. There are few and I mean few guys that were willing to come in from the portal and be AT BEST the third guy offensively. Cleveland was one of the few legit players in the portal who could realistically look at the Miami rotation and say "Hey, I can bring something to the roster they don't already have" and it's not an accident that he's had a **** good year so far. Maybe Miami could have found a defensive minded big to take some stress off of Omier, but let's be honest, those guys are extremely rare.
100% Once this team figures out how it wants to play big games and how to win then the overall talent should shine again. Our starters are very good on paper.
There is hope, but besides lack of height and lateral quickness for many, we seem selfish and lazy on defense and rebounds. Too many heroes and too much dribbling/driving on offense contrasts with (Wong&Miller) play-making and teamwork. There IS a reason we are almost 70th in NET, not ranked in polls, and few expect us to be better than a 9-seed. Even so, we could gel and make a run if we again play top-gun come March, even from the 9-spot. But Coach L has some hard challenges ahead with this bunch (and bench.)
I think that a core key for us is going to be Norchad Omier. He fouled out against kentucky and Colorado and we got steam rolled. But when he was in those games, we were in those game. He is 1 of our big 2 this year and may be the most important.