Yeah, I’ll be pretty surprised if both are still on our roster next season.
Furst isn't leaving, his brother just joined the team. Neither will TKR as long as Zach doesn't use his Covid year of eligibility as he will most likely slide to the starting center position.
Y'all are projecting a full career of failure based on one game of small ball that isn't designed to feature players at the 4 position. The Furst two games (see what I did there?) weren't either. Xavier's biggest player was smaller than Furst and TKR both and they run run run like jackrabbits.
Just be a little patient. Big 10 season is coming and the 4 position will have much more fundamental matchups that are suitable for their style of play. The beauty of depth is Painter can use whomever matches up best. When he dissects the film there is a lot to learn from this game and what stands out most is that we have the players to run with the rabbits. We already knew we could battle with the giants. I am really looking forward to next week. I hope we can beat the #11 Zags (I think we will - we did last year and in theory we are better then last year and they are worse).
I'm also rooting for #7 Tennessee over Syracuse. That will be a REAL test as they also play fast and play small ball. They don't even HAVE a starting center. Xavier was a great warmup for that style of play.
IF... (not to get ahead of myself, but I'm a fan and I'm allowed to whereas this team and our coaches are NOT) we beat Gonzaga AND Tennessee (presumably) then we likely face Kansas or Marquette. We beat Marquette last year but they lost nobody (neither did we).
They don't have a lot of depth but their starting 5 is solid. Outside of 6-11" 235 Ighodaro and his backup 6-11" Ben Gold they are generally a guard and small forward team. David Joplin could pose matchup problems at 6-8" as he scored 21 against us in the second half last year. We will need Lance Jones and his defensive prowess if we are going to succeed. He was such a blessing if he can just stop shooting from Crawfordsville.
Kansas is the pinnacle of competition though. You thought Hunter Dickenson was tough at Michigan, surround him with a cast like he has at Kansas and that will be our biggest challenge of the year. Even if we lose, that will be so good for this team as we prepare for Arizona, Alabama and the Big 10 season.
I'm excited to watch Marquette and Kansas play tonight. Indirectly I get to see Kentucky and Illinois in the same breath. Gonzaga plays today, Tennessee, Alabama, Duke v Mich St., Creighton, Baylor, USC, UConn, FL Atl, Texas A&M, Colorado and Baylor. I signed up for the 7-day Fubo trial so I can pop in and out of all those games. It's a great basketball day. Lots to learn.