We are likely going to finish with 5 portal additions to replace the 5 departing players.
Derkack is better than Simpson and both are current juniors.
We are targeting a 40% 3 point shooter in PJ Hayes, who at least for this coming season, is a more proven shooter from distance than Gavin Griffiths was last year.....is Gavin likely going to be better in year 2 than last year?? Probably, but I don't think getting to 40% on almost 200 attempts like PJ Hayes, is something Griffiths was going to hit next year.
We are adding a proven scorer in Tyson Acuff, who is a grad transfer, to replace the departing grad transfer in Fernandes....anyone with eyes on tape, clearly sees Acuff as an upgrade off the bench or spot starter vs Noah.
We are getting rid of a net negative in Mawot Mag, who frankly, was given a lot of leadership responsibility and was trusted to put forth a honest effort last year.....so much so that we didn't recruit over him in the portal AND paid him NIL to stay last summer.....he sulked most of the start of the season by not playing when he could have, then eventually decided to play, then had a couple of impact games, before shutting it down, in the remaining games in mid February ....getting rid of Mag is a net positive, irregardless of what Martini does.....Martini isn't a good defensive player like Mag, but frosh Grant and Dortch are positive impact defenders....that upgrade at that spot is huge.
Chol is a departing player we are upgrading with at forward with the frosh Dortch and Grant
Woolfolk is being upgraded with adding a full offseason of Ogbole..we just need Ogbole to make a modest jump and he upgrades over Wolf, especially in the paint on defense and rebounding. Neither provided offense, so no downside is there IMO.
The additional big we will add, combined with Sommervilles play at center, will combine to give RU, more firepower than Cliff provided on offense, with more conversions in paint with better passing/fewer turnovers.. The 32 to 34 minutes with the incoming 2 bigs, will exceed Cliff on offense BUT, will be worse on defense......
Then you add Ace, to replace the production of Hyatt AND add Dylan Harper and a full off season with JWill.....it's hard to argue this isn't an exciting roster on paper, with options.
