But next year with who we got coming back will be a disaster.
Assuming all seniors leave but Devoe stays we have a the potential for a fairly solid line up coming back. Don't get too focused on what position I put the names or what order. Just more listing. I'm also going to act as if the non eligibility counting status doesn't exist because it gives a better idea of how much experience they actually have/will have.
PG - Sturdivant (Jr),
SG - Devoe (Sr), Maxwell (Soph)
SF - Moore (Sr), Kelly (Fr)
PF - Meka (Soph), Didenko (Sr)
C - Saba (Soph), Howard (Soph)
With room for a couple more recruits/transfers.
Devoe is a proven stud and Sturdivant and Kelly are both top 150 type of guys to go with him. Maxwell isn't quite as highly rated but there are a couple of legitimate (non gold tinted glasses related) reasons to believe he is underrated. First is he was mr. Basketball in the state of NC and the past 12 winners of that award were 4 or 5* top 150 types. The last one we received was Anthony Morrow for comparison. Those 4 guards alone make up a pretty well talented, if a bit unexperienced, group. We also have a good chance, final 3, to land Deebo Coleman who would really bolster our outside. Moore adds some more seniority, and while he was a bit disappointing last year he's a very good defender and could hopefully develop. With Kelly, Maxwell, and hopefully Coleman, along with Devoe, we might not need Moore to score as much and so the defense will be very useful. Obviously losing Jose would hurt. There is no way around the impact of losing a 4 year starting PG. But looking at that group above I don't see disaster in the back court. In fact, I see a lot of potential.
In the front court, with a year of working with coach Rev I think Saba and Howard will be more than ready to hold their own down low. So far we've more or less been getting by with one center the past 4 years and Rev has done wonders every year. There is no real reason to believe that position will be an issue in my opinion.
PF is where we look to be the least prepared. Meka is a good prospect and Pastner recently mentioned how he has surprised everyone in practice. His senior year started with an injury and that affected his ratings a good bit. How completely he recovered from that is something to keep in mind and we don't look to have much depth there, but his strength is defense and with long arms and good physical development all ready should allow him to contribute on that side as a sophomore.
Lastly, right now everyone looks at those names in the current time, but if we're talking about next season we're going to play them with an extra year of development, practice, and experience and it's hard to impossible to accurately predict what kind of changes (good or bad) will happen in the next year because of it.
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