Why in the hell would we put Elliott on the bench? Who's starting above him with Reef and James now gone?

Well shit...

It's in my synopsis. AJ Brown will move to the backcourt and we'll bring in length, like 6-6 or above, to by the small forward spot. AJ Brown never belonged there in the first place; he's 6-4 at best. We just got SHORTER on the front line with a 6-7 Simmons and 6-8 Hadaway. We were woefully short/small/lacking length up front last year! That's why I want a wing with length; which Ike Cornish was supposed to be a 6-7. This is no knock against Elliot, who I really like. He'll play plenty as the backup point guard (I'd rather him than the 6-0 Shelton), he'll back up Brown at the shooting guard, and if none of the untested players cut it at SF he can backup there, too. Again, as I wrote, I have no problem if he starts. In that case, we better have a backup wing to Brown with length. I'm only interested in building a team that can win the MAC and hopefully make a dent in the Big Dance. As presently constituted, you're looking at a 6-4 starting small forward in a conference where that position now has length and a 6-0 backup point guard in Shelton, who really struggled to shoot the ball last season (although he tried to compensate by playing as tough defensively and as hard as he could, which was commendable). Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't sixth-men kill us all season last season? Let's return the favor. Once again, I have no problem with Elliott starting; he'll probably deserve to. But we don't have a lot of length on the court, much less height. It matters.

I just hope everyone slated to return next year has been in on the strategy all along and no one is blind sided by these additions. Given our interest in some guard and wing prospects, it's hard to tell whether Boals would have said to the team once James and Nicol entered the portal that we are going to address our front court and rebounding with both of these openings.

I have the basketball IQ of a gnat and it seemed to me that we could use some rebounding help.

Didn't Hondo come off the bench for the Celtic great teams he played on at least several of the seasons?

OP FlashGary says we need to add an athletic wing. Clayton did it and down at Duke two freshman started so why shouldn't we think that one of the freshman can be an athletic wing with length? They look good on paper.

It's time to move on from Sheldon.

Some on here rave about how his defense offsets his lack of any offensive production. I am not one of them. Like I mentioned in a game thread midway through the year, while he is one of Ohio's best help defenders, he is not strong guarding other guards one-on-one. He consistently gets beat off the dribble on one end of the floor while being a liability on the other.

I understand why Boals had to give him big minutes with a depleted roster last season. I hope that is not the case this upcoming season.

I'm interested to see Kuany makes his way into the rotation. If it weren't for visa issues, would he have been able to contribute this past season? Especially with the length and outside game that Evans doesn't have.

Can anyone tell me how tall Kuany actually is? We have him listed as 6-9. I've seen speculation that he's really 6-7, and I think there was one post that said he was 6-10. Not sure why his actual height is such a mystery. Could he be our starting center next year?

Well, it certainly is confusing, isn't it? The official OHIO roster from last season says 6-9 forward. Unlike Larry Hunter, I don't recall Boals playing around with "official" heights of players, so I suspect he's closer to 6'9" than 6'6" -- despite the sworn testimony of a BA regular! ;-)

And, he may still be growing, so some observations from two or three years ago might not be accurate.

Good detective work. Thank you!

Wonder what Jesse Burris is capable of.