Sorry but Tommy's value isn't just in his shot. He is easily the best player on the team at passing the ball quickly. The six games that Tommy played 20 or fewer minutes came between 12/6 and 1/20. We went 5-8 in the stretch where Tommy's minutes were cut. From that point on Tommy saw the court 27 minutes or more in all but one game and our scoring went from 68.3 ppg in the 13 games stretch where Tommy's role was dimished to 77.4 ppg in the final 19 games (we went 13-6 over that stretch).
I understand that Groce is going to try to find time for his recruits but the results show that he would not be wise to do it as the expense of Tommy's minutes.
5-7 from 12/6 to 1/20
Let's see. It must all have been about Tommy's lack of minutes. Not:
Armon Bassett making his first field goal on 12/6 (in his 2nd game ever with the team)
Steve Coleman not playing after 12/22
Kinney leaving the team
The team just as a whole being at a crossroads
I mean, you are making it sound like Freeman was the cure for a team battling to stay out of last place in the MAC to 2nd round NCAA tournament. It's just one of the many things to help it all eventually fall into place, but I don't think that'll give him much more than an opening day pass to get significant minutes. Even back-to-back poor performances by him I think would mean Groce throwing in more athletically gifted players to run his system. I think one of the new guards will emerge as a pretty good shooter anyways and will be better matchups defensively.