I think Teyvion is our starting PG next year.

I think Butler ultimately ends up as a SG but he should be able to play PG minutes as needed. With that said, I'd go best available.

I think if it were me, unless there's a transfer they can grab, I'm holding that 13th scholarship for next fall's signing period.

I wouldn't fill the scholarship just to use it, but we will have two more scholys available come fall so I am not too worried about holding this one back.

Maybe a grad transfer PG who could come in for a year to mentor our freshmen PGs? Who knows, I don't have a clue.

That statement just jumped out at me. Seems like this staff is all about fit first. In the past I have heard, "best available" and "where is he in our scheme". Groce, oddly enough changed the tenor and recruited kids from good families. The section went from Ms Tillman and the Walthers to Kelloggs, Taylors, Offutts, McKinley, Baltics...even Kinneys who had a son who stumbled and a slew of people who are still part of the program to this day...Now comes Saul and Co who really look at a recruit to see if they are going to fit in with the team and be a part of the locker room.

So....your question intrigued me, as, my perception is tinted.... when standing at a weekend tourney or ball game I have gone from watching a kid like Des Bane on the court to keeping watching him as he goes to the bench...how he treats his team mates, his manager, his coach and after the game who and how he interacts with the public. I don't think watching a kid or reading a stat line and going after "best available" as some staffs in the past have done is gonna get it done...got to dig a little deeper if the kid is going to be a Bobcat.

Using this thought process, it wouldn't seem to be a coincidence that there haven't been any notable off court "issues" within the basketball program since Saul's staff arrived.

I would think that Butler and Kirk will play right away and one of either Vander Plas and Gareri, although Vander Plas, from what people say on here and from his film, looks more ready physically as a stretch 4 than Gareri has a primarily inside player. Gareri needs to add some muscle and he will be just fine. But...a lot of us said that about Carter last year and the kid was outstanding when Tone went down. Wouldn't it be nice to allow Gollon to ease back into the rotation this year and let Ellis continue to be a great teammate? A 10-man rotation would not be awful.

PG: Kirk to Butler
SG: Dartis to Laster
SF: Block to Vander Plas
PF: Carter to Gareri
C: Taylor to Mickle

Obviously some of the pieces are interchangeable but I still love Laster off the bench playing starter's minutes. And we haven't even met the new player with the open scholly yet so who knows? I do like our depth after having four schollies out injured last year.

When have we ever had more than a nine-man rotation?

In 2014 we had 10 guys averaging at least 20% of the game played. Up until Ricardo got hurt at least.

Also in 2013 as mentioned we had a 10 person rotation.

Groce talked in the early days about wanting to be able to play "10 deep" in order to play fast. He liked the idea of pace and tempo being sped uo

If that's the case, here's hoping they grant that scholarship to one of the walk-ons for the year if Campbell isn't granted the waiver.

I recall looking at the average minutes guys got for Saul at NDSU when we hired him to determine if he favored large or small rotations... I couldn't find a trend. It seemed to me Saul varied it entirely year to year based on what he had.

I think the shell shock of all these transfers has a lot of people overlooking just how much depth we have returning. Dartis averaged 35mpg as a true sophomore last year. Block averaged 28. While I loved Culver's potential and thought he would develop nicely for us, with Laster getting the bulk of the minutes over the last 10 games and really cementing himself as our lockdown defender, the writing was on the wall that next year wasn't going to be the year Culver would get his shot for big minutes.


Dartis: 35
Block: 30
Laster: 25
Carter: 25
Kirk: 25
Mickle: 20
Taylor: 15
=175: I think most of these are self-explainatory. The reason I think Mickle averages a little more than Taylor is because Mickle already appears to be the best low-post defender on this roster. If Block is able to add a little more bulk, I could see Saul running with Block at the 4 a la Kaminski. If we do that Mickle and Carter create more matchup problems for opponents while Taylor gives us more of a traditional center. I could see each of those guys contributing at varying levels based on the matchups.

I could see any of the other 3 freshman contributing next year. Each gives us some options we wouldn't have otherwise. Who knows with Gollon and Dozier. Don't forget Dozier has a 7-0 wingspan. In addition to his redshirt year, he went to prep school for a year. He will be 22 before next year and only a sophomore for us.