Eric, CTG, any sportswriter/reporter, blog people, anybody? I guess I better go on vacation because I don’t want to go into next season without enough bigs to finish the season with depth. Any international tough bigs out there? Any Canadians wanting warm weather and girls in bikinis or any Latin Americans that want a first class program to show off their talents. Serbians, Polish, Australians, Greeks, Turks or Ukrainians, come on Coach we got faith in you to deliver. DI basketball in the SEC is war and we need a tough fighter/ rebounder, any scoring talents would help. After years and years of being short handed under the boards, let’s get back in contention in the top of the SEC, that in itself will help you the most. I guess when I read about Duke and Kentucky taking anybody they want with agent help, let’s right the ship, GO Gators!
Relax. Golden has 12 solid players in the fold. He can go to war with what he has, but I expect him to sign another big. I would love to see him get Larry Nance’s kid if he pulls out of the draft today. There is another big kid from Washington State who is available. There’s a kid at Mercer who is available. There’s Keon Brooks, but I doubt that he can play the 5. Fudge should be able to play the 5, if necessary.
No time to relax, this was the downfall of CMW, never had enough depth of bigs to finish the seasons where we wanted to be. I will relax if he can put at least one more 6’ 8” or 6’9” physical big on the floor. Fudge should be athletic but he needs to gain muscle and a little weight. He will have to get comfortable with CTG’s offense. Maybe Tony Livingston could provide a stout player with game that could be the depth needed, I don’t know how tall Tony is, but muscular, agile and has an assortment of moves and scoring ability. I wish CTG would at least welcome Tony and let him try to help the team. There have been some great athletes on the football team that could have help CMW, but he didn’t encourage it. We need to be more physical!
We have plenty of bigs for this year. Next year is the concern. But I believe we are just coming out of a dead period, so don’t expect anything imminently. Should start picking up again soon, though.
12 is deep. The only concern I see is we don’t appear to have any “true” 4’s. That’s fine if Castleton and Jitiboh stay healthy at the 5. If one or both of those guys goes down for any stretch, we are sliding a “small ball” 4 to play the 5 and that obviously is a big ask against certain teams.
Gators will add one more player for the front court to the roster. Be patient, this will be a quality addition to the team. Not using the last scholarship for a project, it will be for a player that will contribute this season. New sheriff in town!
The staff obviously wants to be able to play double bigs, which would ease that problem, but small ball is so prevalent that I think you can work with it. Well, as long as it is Felder, haha (who is plenty long and physical to give you a solid defensive presence at the five, provided he isn’t defending a much bigger, elite big for extended stretches).
Coach Sayre with a nice nugget but after that I would assume the staff is starting to focus on 23 H.S. kids. Starting to see offers go out. Will post a thread soon about them.
I think the answer to "any good/great recruiting news" is hell yes. Golden has hit it out of the park since he arrived. He has recruited a ton of talent. Bringing back CC for another year is a major coup on its own. All we need is one more big, but if Jitoboh comes back in even better shape than last year we'll be fine overall with whomever we bring in for that last spot
Injury and Illness (Covid/flu) are things that should be expected. Either rent a big for a season or have a developmental guy that can learn from Golden and Castleton without expecting too many minutes.
While I think that’s the plan, it’s also worth remembering how seldom Donovan ever had a full 13 available to play. His rosters were normally at 10-11.
