The idea is to have consistency so that you can build culture. The model is to bring in high schoolers, but use the portal to fill needs. This year Singare wasn't ready to back up Johnson so they picked up Reed to be the #2 center. The knock in Michigan against the kid was that he had a low basketball IQ, but he has really come along and I think you can make the argument that he's our best center.
Similarly, Mahaney was supposed to be a lead guard who could score to share time with Diarra. He on the other hand has been pretty disappointing. Even trying to use him as a shooting guard off the bench has been problematic. I don't like to be too critical of players, but he is barely playable at this point. I don't think he fully understood the jump up in physicality and athleticism when you're playing high major basketball. Plus, the physicality in the big east is its own beast.
Next year we have three freshmen coming in and the hope is that they will be the new core that we will build around. Solo Ball, Stewart, and Ross will all be juniors So we should have good continuity. Hopefully Singare will be ready to play. That will give us Reed, Singare and 7 foot freshman Eric Reibe at the 5. 6'5" guards, Braylon Mullins and Darius Adams are both top 20 recruits so hopefully they can help us in the back court but I wouldn't be surprised if we went to the portal for an experienced point guard. 6'6" Australian Jacob Furphy round out the incoming class. He's listed as a guard, but I see him as more of a small forward.
