I'm curious -- is there a former Bobcat whose first two years looked like Ben Nicol's who then went on to be a meaningful contributor? Can anybody think of one?
-The best example that has been mentioned on this board before that I can think of was Stephen King, which isn't even a great comp because even he saw action in 27 games as a Freshman. Barely played as a Sophomore and Junior, then played 32 (started 4) as a Senior.
-Asown Sayles is another, but his is a weird case where one staff never used him and the next staff did.
-I guess you could say Ethan Jacobs? Didn't do much at Ohio, transferred, and was great at Colgate. Again, not an exact comp. Maybe Nicol has a similar trajectory, but who knows.
I don't know that Sayles was really used as an intended option by Groce, but more like he was usable when the roster needed it. His career was basically:
07 - lots of roster issues throughout the season (Jackson and Ottrix booted, Chatman leaves). By the end of the year we had wings and bigs, but not one true point guard, which Sayles couldn't help.
08 - Orr becomes eligible and Freeman is rotation ready from the jump. We could go 10 deep without him, though he did look decent in garbage time.
09 - medical redshirt
10 - I don't remember us using him much until after Horne left, Coleman broke his hand, and Kinney was booted from the team. After that the rotation needed him and he did well.
11 - He was supposedly done, but then Bassett gets in his trouble, Coleman becomes Stevie Fresh, and the older Kellogg quits. There was kind of an announcement at that point that he was "back"