Some terrific comments in Creighton game thread about next year and thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on it.

Many have already said it...we need that rim protector. A 6'7 athletic guy who can jump out of the gym and create havoc. That to me is the missing piece heading into next season. We were exposed not having that big-time protector against Creighton.

In a weird way, I think this was the best possible case scenario for us to have Preston return. We won an NCAA tournament and he should still come back. I thought he needed to have two great games to get back into 2nd round discussion. JP was average/good against Virginia (average by JP standards) and he was never in it against Creighton. One thing that stood out to me was how many times he was knocked to the ground in the Creighton game. Come back and hit the weight-room and can you imagine JP with 10-15 pounds of more muscle? Outside shot needs to get better. The NBA game now is guys pulling up from 30 feet and nailing it...JP isn't there. JP is one of the smartest dudes to come through this program and I just don't see how he comes out. Test the waters....get the NBA grade from scouts and then come on back and have an All-American season. If this happens, he's a first-round draft pick in 2022. He also gets #0 retired in the Convo rafters forever.

Dwight Wilson. Praying he comes back. He lost steam these last two games. Just had trouble jumping off the floor and running the court. Not what we saw during that great run where he couldn't miss a shot for three games. I have to believe COVID has been an issue there. Would love to get one more season out of Dwight.

Who transfers? I know it's always a sensitive topic, but we desperately need a scholarship to open up to go after the rim protector we discussed.

Who steps up next year out of this group? White, Towns, Foster or Miguel? At least one needs to provide consistent quality minutes. We can't waste any scholarships.

Schedule. I have to believe we will be in a massive pre-season tournament. Along with that, Boals needs to schedule at least three games against pre-season top 25 teams. I know they will be on the road, but it must be done. The experience of those Nov/Dec games against teams like Virginia and Creighton will be invaluable come March 2022. Would love to schedule at least one of those games in Allen Fieldhouse, Cameron Indoor or Rupp Arena. Of course, the challenge is also going to be who is going to want to play Ohio in non-conference game next year?

Already looking forward to November rolling around. Wish we could fast-forward to it right now. This 2020-2021 team will be remembered forever. Jeff Boals raised a banner in his first March as Ohio's coach and it was a hell of a fun ride.

I wasn't talking starters transferring. I'm talking about bench guys who didn't see the floor. I don't see any guy in the starting five transferring to another school. The bond with Boals seems too strong.

Don't disagree with that at all. Goes back to who steps up next year? Can a guy like White develop? Needs to hit the weight room hard over next 6 months.

Just saw a tweet from Jason Arkley that "Boals will have to re-recruit his entire roster, just like every other coach in the Country."

This is obviously a unique year but with so much up in the air there may be some high school seniors that unexpectedly become available because the teams they have committed to don't have openings. Going to be a zoo.

The mid-majors will be the most negatively impacted by seniors staying an extra year. The extra scholarships don't count against the allotted totals. The issue is athletic budgets and who has the extra money for the extra scholarships. The P5 and BE teams will come up with the money. Can teams like Ohio cover a couple extra scholarships? I doubt it for most mid-major schools that also have football programs.

Oh, I hadn't heard that part of it. That changes quite a bit. In the immortal words of Emily Litella, "Never mind."

I try not to crap on any of these kids by name. Lord knows what people would have said about my game years ago. But every time Granger comes into the game I can only think of Bucky Rumpke.

Bigs are notoriously slow to develop. Devaughn Washington, KvK and Treg Setty all took time to develop.

Nolan's listed at 222 lbs on the roster. I was at the final in Cleveland and he looked more like 240 in warmups at least.

This is the guy I've been looking at. A summer in the gym could do wonders for a guy like him. And that length is something we desperately need.

Pretty hard to quantify, I'm sure, but would you all expect any sort of bump in recruiting given this tourney run from Cleveland to Indy?

I would absolutely think so. The recruiting went up right after the win over Georgetown for Groce, it should be no different for Boals. Especially if kids see the way he cares about each of his players and they actually have FUN playing for him. Most people who watched any of this tournament run or saw the videos that the Ohio Bobcats Twitter page put up would be attracted to this program.

Remember the Kyryl saga? (Ducks and covers)

Hate to hang a gray cloud on today, but I just realized our last five MAC tournament championship years occurred with the majority of the core players as non-seniors. We've had better outcomes in the "setup" years as opposed to the most anticipated years.