Next year and the portal is now open

I highly doubt Kaluma signed here just for the hell of it. You don't just "nab" a guy who had a bunch of 35-minute games for a good D1 team and say "hey come off the bench and be a role player for us." My thought is that Terry wants him to be Dillon Mitchell, and even though he's a hair shorter and a hair slower than Dillon, Kaluma will be called upon to give up some of his 3-point reliance and defer to the other guys.

I also get the sense that Kent is probably the guy losing out on the most minutes because of this commit. I'm hoping this doesn't deter him from competing, but by the same token, having him back up Johnson might be the best call.

I decided to watch a bunch of Indiana State clips from this past season, and while Kent was good in spurts, Larry was their "Royal Ivey" for the majority of the season. He was ALWAYS out there. And not just because he was a body... he was making defensive plays and distributing and everything. I'm rethinking everything I thought about depth for 2024-25 because of it.

Instead of a traditional lineup, I think we just have Tre Johnson line up from behind the arc (whether he's a 2 or a 3 doesn't really matter) and then a bunch of rotations. He can slash if he wants to, but honestly we kind of need him jacking it up and then playing solid D.

"X" position - Tre Johnson, Mark occasionally, Kaluma occasionally
Combo guard - Pope, Weaver
Distro guard - Larry, Weaver
Wing - Mark, Presley, Pryor
Sorta forward - Kaluma, Kent, Codie
Forward - Shedrick, Onyema, Vinson

When Johnson's not in, it'll look like a typical 12345 lineup. I'm a little worried about guard depth, but I've watched plenty of Mark and plenty of Johnson and I think their attributes spin down when needed.
 
More projections for next year

Article says that the starting lineup (in name only) should be Larry, Johnson, Mark, Kaluma, Shedrick

So, one thing I've kind of been taking for granted this offseason is the pure amount of minutes/game we're inheriting from the portal. If you don't get guys who can handle 32+ minutes, then you don't have a real lineup come March. Therein lies the issues we've had with injury or the doghouse or whatever you want to call it for the past few seasons.

Here are the 2023-24 totals for MPG from the newcomers:
Pope - 35.6
Kaluma - 34.5
Larry - 34.4
Mark - 32.5
Kent - 30.3
Presley - 11.8

So it's kind of a double-edged sword of a problem to have. You know that Johnson is going to get minutes, and you know that a healthy Shedrick will basically have to play 36+ in order for us to have a post presence. On top of that, there's Weaver, who's arguably our most athletic sparkplug out there.

Larry has literally played more minutes than any active NCAA player going into 2024-25. So after watching all those damn ISU clips and comparing him to Royal Ivey (shout-out to the South Sudan team for almost beating the USA), I'm kind of in agreement with the article. He has to be out there, and even though his MVC numbers are probably inflated compared to the SEC, I trust a guy who can eat the minutes.

But I don't think it's going to cost Pope minutes. I think they play together, and I think that Johnson is going to be the victim for playing time. Looking at Pope's increased usage, combined with his improvement from his freshman to sophomore years, AND the fact that he's the guy bringing the most MPG from the portal? He's going to play combo guard and I doubt those minutes are going to be taken away from him.

The other angle to consider for lineups next year is that Johnson might have a growth curve that's not super-conducive to him being out on the floor every waking moment. Does he have "Kevin Durant" moments? Sure... but he's no Kevin Durant overall. He seemingly spends most of his time hanging out behind the arc and then slashing when they need him to show off.
Other recent athletic underclassmen who showed enough to get into the league with minimal effort:
Greg Brown III
Kai Jones
Jaxson Hayes
Mo Bamba
None of these guys averaged more than 30 MPG (Bamba)... in fact, most of them were closer to 20 MPG. All this to say: I think Johnson is the guy who doesn't get his 30 MPG.

I also think we're kind of weak at forward, and will need all of the strength/muscle that Kaluma and Kent can offer to help out near the paint. That will take a physical toll on them.

The other part of the equation is whether Mark plays as kind of a do-it-all wing or more of the same position that Johnson plays.

One thing is for sure: if Terry can wrangle together a lineup and then mess with the matchups of the opponent by going small or bringing in the energy/defense guys on a whim, we're going to be VERY difficult to prep for. Imagine going up against a "fake" Larry Pope Johnson Kaluma Shedrick lineup in practice and then having to change the matchups at the 12th minute to whatever else we can throw at them.
 
Conference schedule posted for next season.


Looks like the "pod" formula is what they're going with. Home-and-homes against A&M, OU, and Arkansas, and 1 game each against the remaining 12 teams.
 
New roster finally dropped:

0 Pope
1 Larry
2 Weaver
4 Vinson
5 Shedrick
6 Kaluma
10 Codie
12 Mark (listed as G)
13 Presley
20 Johnson (listed as G)
21 Onyema
22 Pryor
25 Kent
 
What's up with this weak *** non conference schedule? Looks like RT has settled in nicely with the SEC crowd. I think we scheduled every state school we could.

Houston Christian, Ohio St, NC State, Miss Valley St, Chicago St, Delaware St, New Mexico St, Northwestern St, New Orleans, Syracuse, Ark Pine Bluff and UCONN.

We'll be 10-2 headed into conference play with a whole lot of false enthusiasm.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
What's up with this weak *** non conference schedule? Looks like RT has settled in nicely with the SEC crowd. I think we scheduled every state school we could.

Houston Christian, Ohio St, NC State, Miss Valley St, Chicago St, Delaware St, New Mexico St, Northwestern St, New Orleans, Syracuse, Ark Pine Bluff and UCONN.

We'll be 10-2 headed into conference play with a whole lot of false enthusiasm.
Click to expand...
I'd be thrilled with 10-2.

I think people saw Barnes schedule UNC, Duke, and Michigan State every year and just took for granted that we also threw the likes of Western Carolina and Nicholls St in there as fodder.

NC State and UConn are FF teams. I'd wager that not many schools beyond us feature a nonconference series against half the national championship bracket. While tOSU and Syracuse were NIT teams (or a team that rejected an NIT invite), they were both severely impacted by injury and could just as easily be tournament teams this year.
 
ttt for the new season!

Some thoughts about how last season's group came together:
1. RT is just a mediocre coach and didn't know what to put on the floor. We needed a PG and another big and just didn't have one.
2. The injuries killed us, particularly to Mark and Weaver.
3. I was wrong about Johnson, starting from Game 1. He should have been our minutes leader and did everything he could to keep us in games, but with no one running point, it was a lost cause.
4. When compared to other portal classes from the past few years, ours got outshined due to the emergence of high-flying freshmen and stalwart upperclassmen throughout the SEC. The Indiana State guys didn't pan out like I thought they would. Kaluma gained too much weight. Shedrick was never going to be a game changer like any of our recent strong forwards (Allen, Jones, Hayes, even Mitchell).

On to 2025-26!!

Who's staying?
My guess is Weaver, Vinson, Codie, Pryor.
Weaver - glue guy and energy
Vinson - will turn into a banger with a bit more strength and conditioning
Codie - probably first forward off the bench
Pryor - stretch wing and I doubt he'll play much

What do we need?
Shooters and lots of them.
Speedy guys to take pressure off of Weaver.
Someone as heralded as Pope who can actually play like Pope did at Oregon State.
Someone as heralded as Kaluma who can actually play like Kaluma did at Creighton/KSU.
Someone as heralded as Mark who can actually play like Mark did at Arkansas.
At least two bigs (not just height... strength would be more of a concern).

How about those incoming freshmen?
Oops. Probably RT's fault.

Can anyone follow Miller here?
Glad you asked!
Forward Dailyn Swain looks to be the likely culprit here. He has a lot of the qualities that we need: 6'8" and built, makes most of his high-percentage shots underneath, and if you watched the Illinois game, he dominated to the tune of 27-8-3-3. He didn't play as well against us in the play-in, but even still had a decent output. There are several other Musketeers potentially portaling as well, but Swain would be the clear #1 option from that bunch.

Anyone else that we're familiar with?
It's a tough sell right now because there are so many SEC teams left in the tournament.
LSU - everyone seems to be bailing, so I'm sure we'll put out some feelers, especially for forward Corey Chest.
Baylor - Langston Love is available. Decent shooter and defender.
TCU - Frankie Collins is looking for his 4th team. I wanted him in the last portal go-around. Defense and passing-first PG with an ok shot.

Dream bigger!
Donovan Dent - UNM - 20-6-1-1. Might be one of the best shooters in the nation. People really noticed him come tournament time.
Nick Davidson - Nevada - 16-7-3-1-1. Stretch big who isn't afraid to shoot threes as well, which is something Miller emphasizes for his best athletes.
Jalil Bethea - Miami - 7-2-1-1. Swing guard. Signed with Miami before everyone knew how bad they would tank. Considered just as good a recruit as Tre Johnson. Will improve his shot, especially if he signed here.

Bottom line:
Hate to use a Charlie Strong quote, but we've just got to get better.

Miller is going to emphasize ball movement, so we need pretty much all new guards. Not an issue because we needed that anyhow.

I think we'll get some surprise signings in the portal due to Miller's arrival and the "reinvigoration" factor. It worked with Beard too.

One of the biggest struggles we had was consistency, especially in shooting and half court defense. We can't allow those 5-minute runs of getting beat 14-1 or whatever it was against everyone in our losses. By the same token, we need to take advantage of when we actually get them, like the 1st half of the XU game last week.
 
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