Samson R. and Scottie Lewis weren't going to stay under any circumstances, IMO. I don't agree with your premise that they'd be here if they had just gotten a little pep talk with playing time assurances. If a player is not getting much playing time and thinks he deserves more (like almost every college player thinks), he's not going to be as inclined to believe any assurances about the next year, even if those assurances are true. Plus, how do you know that they didn't get these kinds of assurances? (Maybe, maybe not; we simply don't know.) Payne has proven that he's a guy who deserves very limited minutes as a backup. He can rebound and play defense (when he gives max effort), and maybe get a couple put backs. But it wouldn't make sense to give him minutes except when your better bigs are in foul trouble or need a short rest. I don't see how he would have added anything to this year's team unless he had been willing to accept a very limited role with a good attitude and work ethic. Sure, he could have helped after our front line became a mash unit. But who saw that coming? And he wasn't willing to accept a limited role based on the slim chance that major injuries would clear space for him to get more minutes. It appears to me that he overestimated his skills, and the grass wasn't greener elsewhere as he'd hoped. Why do you think Appleby would have stayed as a bench warmer? I wish both had stayed, but I think the PG that wasn't assured that he would be the starter was going to leave. You prefer Glover to Appleby. I don't think the difference between them is large, but I still prefer Appleby. Glover's success at a small school is not proof that he can get it done consistently in a major conference. Plus, last year, when these decisions/assurances needed to be made, Appleby was pretty obviously the better choice, IMO. It's only in hindsight that Glover looks good based on his performance at a small school this year. He showed exceedingly rare flashes of being an SEC caliber PG at UF last year. I agree with you, however, that it would have been better for White to give Glover more minutes at the point against poor opponents or mop up duty. I don't think White uses his young players off the bench often enough when games have become non-competitive.
Jack, you forgot one other "I would have", being that you would have (tried) to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The team you speak of might have been decent or even good, but they were never going to be "really good".
We are all speculating here. The primary point of my op was that we should be building from within rather than relying on transfers. However, a lineup of Glover, Lewis, Ruzhnetsev, Payne/Duruji and CC might very well have given us 4 stars on the floor with a serviceable situation at the 4 and solid depth. That to me would be a first-tier SEC team.
If I was in charge, I would recruit physical, players that want to be the goat, not just athletic players that have never been the goat. When I hear the top defensive player in a league coming to UF, I know we won’t get much offense from them. As for bigs, guys that are physical and can score and rebound around the basket. How do you get these guys, you use The NIL. You help get the alumni and fans up to date on how they can get involved. I have not heard anyone other than Applybee swag being sold. At this point, we as a program, aren’t very sexy for top recruits. Seems like we just want nice guys and if anyone has some flair to their game, they have to tone it down. Under our current coach, we wouldn’t have even thought of trying to get the best point guard in the nation at that time, Jason Williams. We have to become relevant to remain competitive. The athletic department is letting CMW and his quite, clean good guy approach, to kill our basketball program by not helping him to help sell the NIL to all our fans. Of course the football program is getting help because they understand, if we use the NIL to our maximum ability, with our facilities, we could compete. The malaise in our athletic program for our basketball program, is why we are where we are. Think recruiting if we don’t win another game this year! Transfers only, a one year death of our program. It feels like we are on probation and not allowed to recruit high schools top players. Our recruiting class of three on paper looks good, but as freshmen, with no point guards looking our way, I don’t know when these guys will be able to shine? Another year of who are these guys!
You lost me at your dad coaching a pro team and your brother coaching high school. Like, what does that have anything to do with anything?
