So what part of South Carolina do you live?

For the sake of being as accurate as possible, I seem to remember Ryan was more upset about negative team chemistry than the minutes he was getting. As a matter of fact, he started many a game that year and probably would have had even more minutes had he not contracted Mono... He wasn't knocked out of playing like Jerome Tillman but, it did effect him.

Either U don’t know basketball if I think Butler will be a compliment to Kirk . I see Butler being out leading scorer or best all around player by his Junior season at the latest. Butler has all of the tools and will be our go to guy later on when teams figure out Kirk can’t shoot .

I keep hearing that all is well and good once we get the 3 big men back and for Carter, I agree wholeheartedly. However regarding Gareri and Vander Plas, do you guys know something I don't or have watched practice to know something I don't? There's always tons of hype about recruits (or you wouldn't have recruited them), but sometimes it's legit, some times it's not. Sometimes they hit the ground running, sometimes it takes 1/2 a season or a couple seasons for them to develop. Nobody really knows how an 18/19 year old will transition into college ball. But I think we're so desperate to find missing parts, we've got 2 guys I've never seen play 1 second penciled in as saviors. Maybe they are, maybe they're not--but I'm not waiting for Campbell or Leon Williams to come marching in when they arrive.

Ryan Taylor didn't transfer because of playing time. He averaged more than 30 minutes a game. I had heard that he had had enough of the toxic locker room from that season. Shame too, loved his game.

That was Arkley's assessment if I remember. And we don't need all three to be immediate impact players. We need Jason Carter to be Jason Carter and we need one of the two frosh bigs to be able to contribute minutes without hurting us. Mickle coming back will be a big help as well. Doug Taylor was absolutely gassed at the end of the last game and their bigs ran amok in the last ten minutes. He can't keep playing 30+ minutes and be effective in the latter parts of games.

If Gollon will make his shots I'm all for him to get minutes.

OP seems eerily familiar to when we had the codger screaming about Ethan Jacob's playing time (or lack thereof) on a consistent basis.

That guy reminded me of John McCain a little bit.

Butler and Kirk should both play a lot next year. But how can you start the two of them when neither is a small forward, nor is Jordan Dartis, nor do you want to unseat Gavin Block? So I would believe the plan is to give major minutes to both of them as sophomores and then maybe they can start together the next two seasons. That would be some back court--if one or both of them can provide a consistent outside shot to their attack-the-rim repertoires.

We got thru this every season where people scream for more minutes for player X but don't follow it with who should lose minutes. I've always enjoyed the exercise of divying up 200 minutes among the roster as you see fit. It is not easy or fun to slash minutes from guys you support.

I'll start:

Carter - 34
Dartis - 34
Block - 26
Laster - 26
Kirk - 26
Taylor - 20
Mickle - 10
Butler - 10
Gollon - 10
Others - 4

We aren’t gong to lose more games if we pay Butler more . Where do u get that assumption. ? Butler has the highest field goal percentage on the team and those shots aren’t layups . If u haven’t noticed he’s the best in open court with the ball than all of our guards but It’s hard to tell because we aren’t a quick and athletic team and we play slow. If Butler played as many mins as some of the others he’d have better offensive numbers. Look at the 4 overtime’s against Indiana St , Butler sat 37 min of 40 min in the second half included. Why ? When he’s one our best defensive players and wasn’t hurting us in the little amount of time he played. He hit his only shot right at the half and was benched majority of the game when he could have provided a lot more on the offensive end especially since we had players on fumes . The problem is Coach Phillips hasn’t given Butler the opportunity to go play and make mistakes like the others. If u think he’s behind the others like we are being lead to believe u are crazy . Butler has made 9 out of 10 shots over the last 3 games. He’s scoring on his own off of the dribble with jumpers without getting wide open looks . It’s amazing how a freshman coming off of the bench can score 20 pts with limited shots this season over the last 2 games has to sit and watch others shoot a lot more butt have numbers that don’t back up the mins played on the average. Also he can run a team well u aren’t getting a chance to see it because Kirk is playing well also butt where’s Butlers chance ? Butler only has 4-5 turnovers the entire season and others have 14-20 so do the math . We in a strange way brought in 2 talented freshman guards and one has been sitting slot more than the other considering he’s good also . I’ve heard several people that have watched us play say that Butler isn’t getting the same opportunities like the others when he’s the most versatile of them all at the guard position. Don’t be blind !!