Colvin is going to have to show a lot more to be considered elite. TKR, Furst, Loyer and Heide all have that chance, along with Berg in my humble opinion. I can see Berg with his ability to move outside being a very pleasant surprise.
Twin , Uconn showed us that superior guard play check mated having an Edey in winning a championship, do you see those players with us in the next season to get back to a FF , not sure I do. , because we won't have it at center which won us a lot of games. I would put Loyer and Colvin down as C- defense players and B on offense , we need better all round players at both ends , Heide could fit that , maybe Catchings and Harris their sophomore years....??? Guess I see next year as a rebuild year , with a lot of player development.
My expectations this year are a top four finish in the BT and making it to the second round of the NCAAT. That would be a solid season after graduating the two time NPOY. Anything above that is gravy.
I agree. In fact, I would say that any year we finish in the top 4 (with now 18 teams) it will be considered a good year. With unbalanced schedules and 18 teams, top 4 will be a good year any year.
What does that mean to you in terms of expectations for conference finish and NCAAT performance? Agree with you that a FF seems like a real stretch, i.e. would require some real breakout performances and probably some luck.
I agree that Guard play is what lights the fire, but I also have to say Zach was a different breed of post player. Without Zach, how many do we win? Do the Boilers reach the final game?
I would agree , I feel Heide and Catchings /Harris will add some athleticism, although you right , you just don't know about incoming freshman till they hit the floor and I hope Loyers game on both ends gets stronger. Already miss Jones , not sure who fills his shoes?
Heide/colvin and maybe even harris would be my guess to fill those large shoes left by lance “big shot” jones
I think Heide is the best defender in that group, but he doesn't have the quickness of Jones. Myles may have the quickness, but he's not shown that he can play defense at all.
It will be interesting to see how much Colvin plays the 2 and Harris plays the 3. Aside from 90 minutes being close to locked down between Braden, Fletch and Trey, everything else seems up for grabs.
Yeah no doubt. I think between heide Colvin and Harris, they can play the 2 and 3 and Harris can step in at 1 (for a few min) if needed. The team seems to have a lot of interchangeable guys next year who can play multiple positions, so should be fun to watch how Paint mixes it up
I think a number of 2025 draft boards have him in the 20-25 range right now. Not hard to see a scenario where he hits the ground running (which would be great for us) and plays himself into the lottery.
I don’t think Heide plays the 4…unless him and Catchings are on the court at the same time and they become interchangeable imo. TKR at the 5 all year is what I’d bet…Furst backs up the 4 with Jacobsen and Berg backing up the 4 and 5 too. I think Jacobsen could make a big impact.
No one said a word about being bad. Certain players who were given PT over others this year are going to have to be a good as you believe them, to be.
Agree Colvin seems to "watch" the game and wait for someone to pass him the ball , on defense he was terrible , hoping Heide takes another jump especially on D. Just don't know with 6 ? freshman coming in and Loyer spends part of the game on the floor.....
"Uconn showed us that superior guard play check mated....."
Exactly 0 of TKR/Furst/Berg can play the 3. On offense OR defense, but especially NOT on defense. Berg hasn't shown he can guard 5's, much less 4's. Forget 3's.
B....it'll taste much better when this highly priced non-coached IU team hits the skids next year. Too many stars and not enough coaching. Someone needs to tell Woody and staff that unlike the pro's that he came from he can't just roll the ball out and win.
I think it all depends on how ready the 2 7'ers and Catchings are. If the bigs aren't ready then Furst needs to be backup C. That means we need a ton of minutes at the 4. Until Catchings is ready, I don't see anyone else that could play the 4 in that scenario.
There are going to be lots of options for the right combination to next years team. The only sure starter IMO is Smith. All other minutes are up for grabs.... should be fun to watch.
Smith and TKR for sure and don’t see Loyer being out of the lineup all of a sudden. He may have mins reduced or not start later in the year but I don’t see paint pulling him from a starter before the season starts.
Agreed on TKR and Smith, but I'm not so certain on Loyer. When he is on, he is amazing. His D and inconsistency leaves him particularly vulnerable to being passed up. There are a ton of players on this team that can play the 2-3 (Loyer, Harris, Cox, Catchings, Benter, Heide, Waddell) and only 2 of those get to start. If Catchings gets the D you can't keep him off the court (I guess he could also play the 4), so that's 6 players for 1 starting slot.
Not so sure. He knows the offense, is coming off a 40% 3pt shooting season where he torched from the start of March up until the championship game, has hit big shots and is a great FT shooter. I don’t think Painter will bench him to start. He may later on, but I don’t expect Loyer to be on the bench to start the first half of the season.
I think Heide will very likely get time at the 4 and Catchings with better handles gets time at the 3. Colvin hopefully with a jump gets time at the 2-3 spot.
I agree with this last statement. I don’t see any realistic scenario in which Braden or Trey is displaced. Fletcher is well established and likely to start as long as he’s healthy, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that someone overtakes him.
Agree, I’d be surprised if Cam doesn’t get time at the 4. He and Myles both need major minutes and there are only so many available at the 2 and 3.
With Edey gone, next years team is going to have a different look. We will need players to create their own shot. It's no longer "surround Edey with 4 shooters & spread the floor". I love Loyers game & do think he will be a big part of it, but I think until this team figures its own identity, all bets are off & I only see Smith as a "sure thing". That's not to say Loyer & TKR won't play, but may not start or have the role they played last year. I'm more confident in TKR starting, then Loyer, but wouldn't bet on either, at least by the time BT schedule starts.
I could see Jacobson starting at the 5.... CMP loves size, & if Catchings is as good as advertised (1 & done), I could see him at the 4, especially with reports that he's grown & added weight.
I could see either one of those things happen independently but would be shocked to see both. MP strongly believes in Trey's role as a featured scorer, that doesn't mean that he can't be displaced but it would be very surprising.
TKR is a beast and is ready to go now. He is definitely a great fit at the 5 for a team
Right. It will be interesting on a couple of fronts.
I’m excited to see all the possibilities of lineups and how many players we have that can play multiple positions. I assume painter will play on that and have the offense humming. I also hope he stole some of UConn’s offensive action and will implement some of that this year. So many moving parts and different cuts and things happening…much like plays in football. Anyways, gonna be a fun year with some expected ups and downs
I think it's open season for starting spots after Smith and TKR. Loyer is likely but could certainly be passed by Harris at some point, and Heide will have to compete with Colvin and/or Catchings for his starting spot most likely. All three are athletic, but Heide is the least athletic of the 3. Luckily he plays great D already, and it remains to be seen if the other 2 can do that effectively.
