This is the new college basketball (sports). New players every year from now on. It will take most of the season to gel and teams like Florida will be on the bubble every year. Team is fun to watch, but the inconsistency due to turnover will keep us humble from now on.
It’s been like that the last couple of years, but it sure isn’t Golden’s plan. Lots of those kids at SF last year, and thriving this year, were kids he brought in and developed over multiple seasons. That’s what he will do here. He had to turn over the roster to fill it out this season, but only one Lofton is done next year. We (theoretically) have Bonham for two more years, Richard and Fudge for three, and Kugel for four. That’s a core to develop. The portal is here to stay. So is NIL. Player movement should be expected. But Golden wants to build his core through preps who can play immediately and younger transfers with a longer horizon.
Let's just hope all these kids with a few years to play together actually stay together. I much more enjoy watching teams develop over the years than seeing guns for hire come in every year.
Teams in the middle and bottom of the pack are most likely going to have attrition problems so I don't expect any change in the current churn of D1 teams, here or elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
