I think we all agree that there are 6'5"-6'7" guys that can adequately play the 4 on defense. The problem is that when you are going up against 6'8"-6'10" guys game in and game out, it takes a toll on a smaller person's stamina, and more importantly on their offensive productivity. Basketball is a two-way sport. If you have to work too hard on defense, it impacts your offense. We need SEC sized frontcourt men like Castleton and Jitoboh who can substitute for each other so that Florida can become unrelenting in the front court like during the days of Noah, Horford, Richard, Moss, Speights, Bonner, et al. Brewer was a small forward and was light, but playing with two 4-5 position players in the frontcourt made his job easier on defense and helped him excel offensively.
You definitely want options so you can matchup when necessary. But two things. 1) Tandems like Noah and Horford are generational. You could play them against smaller lineups because they were so athletic, smart, and skilled defensively. And they seldom hurt us offensively even if the spacing wasn’t terrific because they could pass and handle the ball so well. Very rare to have two post players like that at the same time. 2) The game genuinely is different now. You see double big looks (Gonzaga, UNC), but the pace and space approach really puts a lot on those bigs. I am less concerned with being small at the four than I am being thin at the five, personally.
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I don't think you are saying that if we took our championship team and played them in this year's tournament, they would lose? Because there was not a team in the tournament this year that could have kept within 15 points of our championship team. The fact is, you have to get to the tournament which the past 7 years for us has been either impossible or barely by the skin of our teeth. That should tell us something. That should tell us that the strategy of playing smaller players in a physical league like the SEC, JUST DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!. MW basically lost his job by trying to fit a square into a circle hole. We have not challenged for the outright championship of the SEC or the tournament championship in 7 years playing guys that are 5 and 6 inches shorter than the offensive player they have to defend over a 40-minute period. That is like a 7 handicapper in golf giving a scratch golfer strokes on every hole. He might win a hole once in a blue moon, but over the course of time, it will be dormie before 18. Look, if our program is going to be brash enough to put a championship floor down in our home gym, we should provide some level of intimidation that goes beyond the superficial accommodations of floors and banners. Playing point guards on 6'9" power forwards does not communicate the slightest threat. Let's get some monsters on this squad who will send a message to the rest of the league and nation, that when you come to Gainesville, you come to lose!
Once again, basketball is a two-way sport. Unless you are such a superb defender, who can shut down shooters or neutralize big men throughout a 40-minute period, most programs, including ours, will require you to produce at both ends of the floor. Lane did excel at the 4, but playing an undersized person at that position will impact his offense and his stamina. So you have a person who is sometimes effective on defense and subpar on offense because he has to work too hard on defense. We have seen unparalleled levels of inconsistency over the last 7 years in our teams because our players have to work so hard on defense because they are so undersized. A program that was perennially in the national championship talk a decade ago should not have to struggle to get players the right size to play in the league. Any coach that 1) does not understand that, and more importantly, 2) refuses or is incapable of getting players that are required, has no business coaching in Gainesville.
