Just no realistic way to opine what kind of team we will have next year. We will be counting on too much untested talent at this level. We've got size in Mathiang, Mahmoud, Johnson and Onuaku that needs strength on the back line, but little offensive prowess shown so far. It appears we will be counting on the bulk of our scoring from the from front line with Snider, Lewis, Mitchell, and Lee. That will obviously depend on how quickly Lewis, Mitchell, Adel and Lee adapt to Pitino's system. It could be slow start to the year. Our pre-season trip could NOT come in a better year to assimilate the new guys into our system.
I've questioned your frontcourt as well. I think you all should be fine in the backcourt, you're fairly deep there, kinda curious how it looks when two 5th year seniors get brought in, and both were "the man" where they came from. I'm sure it'll work itself out, but it may take a bit to define roles, being that they got used to certain roles in college already. The frontcourt's lack of production last season (barring Harrell) is probably what hurt you all the most. Seems like the rest of your bigs struggle mightily to score. A couple are long enough to be very tough defensively, but it may take them a couple more seasons to have a few tricks up there sleeves to fall back on. Not sure how many come along offensively, but it's a safe bet that at least one will, possibly 2.
What do you think your rotation will look like next season, if you had to project one at this point?
Also, not a shot at UK, but I don't know who you all have on your upcoming team except for a few like Ulis and Poythress so fill us in on what your roster looks like right now.
Totally understandable, truth be told, some UK fans don't know what to expect since the heavy roster turnover and some misses, so I couldn't expect you to know.
Well, Ulis will see a ton of minutes (which I really wished for last season. I loved what the Andrew could bring when he played aggressively, but he didn't start playing that way until late in the season). Ulis has a certain kind of toughness about him that I like. He can play gritty, but he's astoundingly smart when he runs the team. Just doesn't seem to make many bad decisions, and his assist-turnover ratio shows for it. I'll never get tired of the crafty passes and good shots.
Briscoe will likely be the shooting guard. His knack is, and has always been scoring the ball. When he got on the All-American circuit and was surrounded by talented players, he was able to get 7, 8, even 9 assists in those games. I feel good about his ball handling ability (which is very unique to me), and he's shown the ability to make good passes and score in various ways, so I feel very good about our backcourt.
Biggest question on the team will be at the 3 position, again. Not particularly in a bad way. Charles Matthews (6'6 guard, about 180-185#) was a top 15 player in the class of 2016, but when he had his groin injury and sat out, his rankings took a big hit. He decided to sit out his last 2 EYBL seasons and only play high school ball, which kept him anywhere between a 40th and 65th ranking. His slashing, defensive, and passing abilities didn't really take a hit though. He's not really a consistent outside threat, but once you get about 15 feet in, he becomes very dangerous with some of the step back jumpers and high post turnaround jumpers. Some analysts think he's as elite as anybody in the class at beating his man off the bounce and finishing at the rim with both hands.
The other possibility at the 3 is Mulder. A lot of UK fans pessimistic about him because he's from JUCO, but that's about it. 6'5, 190#, 6'10 wingspan, 40+ inch vertical, shot 46% from deep in his JUCO career (the past 2 seasons). Offensively gifted, but his defense will be a question because nobody has really seen that part of his game in action. With his insane athleticism and length though, I don't see why he couldn't be a very good defender. Very good rebounder (about 7 rpg), and a good scorer for his situation (He played on a dominant team in JUCO, was their leading scorer with 17 ppg, the team apparently went about 8 or 9 deep).
You all know about Poythress and Lee already. Lee has said that he's lived in the gym since the Final Four loss. Been working on his game, and trying to get stronger. I'm curious to see if Poythress retains all of his freak athleticism once he has fully recovered. I think Poy can produce well enough offensively, but defense is his calling card. Before his injury last season, he was holding his man to 12.8% FG%, If he continues to defend like that, and can get a solid 10 points, 7 rebounds per game, then he'll be huge for us.
Skal Labissiere has the highest expectations from me. Virtually every recruiting analysts and NBA scout has compared him to Anthony Davis at the same point in their careers (just out of high school, but they consider Labissiere to be more offensively skilled, and consider Davis to be more defensively skilled. He did very well on the All-Star circuit (21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 blocks in 27 minutes at Hoop Summit, 11 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks in 19 minutes at Jordan Brand Classic, and 16 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks in around 24 minutes in the Ballislife All-American game). He's smooth with his back to the basket, but is incredibly consistent from 18 feet in, and he's comfortable with hitting the 3 from the college 3 point line. His lateral quickness is comparable to WCS, which with his length, gives him a lot of potential for defense all over the floor. Smart player, very eager to learn, so i can't wait to see him in action.
That's a pretty lengthy analysis of the rotation next season. If Jamal Murray decides to go to UK, he'll be in contention to start at the 3, but it could be a couple of months before we hear his decision.
I apologize if the read is unbearably long.
Well, here's a slapd!ck who has already formed a strong opinion about U of L guys playing in that game...
"...Players that weren't even interested enough to go to Louisville to earn their degrees, but instead, earned them at Cleveland State or whatever, and will use Louisville as a platform to even get a glance from the NBA scouts, for whatever reason they'll be watching Louisville next season..." - Rhavicc, on catsillustrated.com (May 10, 2015)
Irrespective of the fact that no one commits to his school planning to stay for more than a few months, while playing for a coach who will discredit the school and its fanbase to land kids with a commitment to nothing more than the NBA draft.
Hey, but the OP's nice enough to be interested in our opinions, so let's give them to him.
These LPT clowns think they're fooling somebody.
"Elite program", my a$$...
On the contrary, zipp. The reason I said that (and I'll own it and won't think twice about it) is because of the number of UofL fans who say the italicized statement above. That does not mean I have formed an opinion on their playing abilities though, it means I have formed an opinion of why they're there, which is irrelevant to this game.
That said, also consider that your coach is hardly fan friendly, and has tried, and will continue to try to land the same exact players that Calipari is landing. If Rick lands one of those players, and they go to the draft after one season, are they simply committed to the draft, or are they L1C4? We don't know their motives either way.
Everyone posting here has seen this act before. A non UofL fan comes here acting civil wanting to start a discussion all the while trashing the Cards on their own board as if they're invisible to all non UK fans while posting on their board.
Stupid is just stupid.
My dislike for Louisville shouldn't keep me from being civilized and hearing things from another perspective when a certain thing interests me, and it won't. If your dislike for a collective fan base keeps you from having a civilized, interesting discussion from anybody a part of that fan base, your ignorance is more glaring than my own. I don't necessarily hate some of you so much as I hate your school, though I won't hesitate to say that I have no care towards some Louisville fans to say the least, but that comes with the territory.
