Next year to back up or play with J Williams. I know this is obvious but where is this guy coming from? J Will is playing a lot of minutes last few games and I’m worried about him holding up in the NCAAT. Last night showed we need another big body to bang inside for rebounds and contribute. KJ is trying and CV is too much of a liability on D for pick and rolls, plus he gets shove around under the goal?
We need some dudes down low! I love this teams gritt.
Can Kimani develop into that?
Not unless he grows 2 or 3 inches.
Next year’s front court roster looks a lot like this one. Jaylin and a whole lot of 6-6 guys. And CV at the end of the bench, assuming he comes back.
I don’t even think about Lawson Blake, who is parked next to CV at the end of the bench, but I suppose it’s faintly possible that he could be developed.
I didn’t realize Kimani was that short. Looks like the transfer portal it is.
Can we go there? Seriously. Every list of our roster for next year has about 15 scholarship names on it already, so two people that we’d maybe rather not leave will have to leave. KK? CV? Moore? Toney? And that’s just with the signing class we already have.
My quick and dirty roster analysis:
Absolutely gone: Wade, Umude and Lykes
Could come back: Toney and JD (my guess is we split these two)
Senior to be: Kamani, Vanover
Junior to be: Devo, JWill, KK, JRob
Soph to be: Moore
Freshmen: Walsh, Smith, Dunning, Pinion, Ford (Black?)
If JD leaves and we sign Black, that’s still 14. Which means two other people have to leave to bring in a big.
In Muss We Trust.
I guess we kinda have to.
Kimani is an ultra high effort mauler who is undersized to play as a true big but has shown he can still mix it up in the SEC with taller 4s and 5s. He does have some quickness to go with strength and energy, which helps. He’s a great guy to come off the bench and fight inside to get rebounds, and quite often, keep balls alive that his teammates can grab.
What he’s not, at least for now, is a threat to shoot the ball accurately from more than about eight feet. That means if you sub him for Jalen any team that scouts us is not going to bring anyone out close to the three point line to guard him, which creates some difficulties for our offense.
Kamani will definitely go in there and bang, but he’s extremely limited offensively.
I kinda get the impression that Muss thinks we don’t necessarily have to have that big guy in the middle, that he can win without. We did do that last night. . jwill went out and when we had what, a 5pt deficit . . . . . . . . Maybe it has just been the luck of the draw on recruiting. Time will tell.
kw
CV needs to move on. He does not fit into Muss’s type of play. He won’t get any minutes next year.
I suspect there will not be a serviceable big in the portal willing to transfer to Arkansas that will be better than Kamani. There will certainly be some quality bigs in the portal, but they will not be looking for a situation where they will likely be a backup to Williams. Maybe someone from a Mid-major that is looking to move up and has some eligibility beyond Williams?
Quite possible
Do we ever need a big man
ASU, apparently has a very good big man. I’ve never watched him play, but he’s from a foreign country and leads the team in scoring and rebounding in almost every game.
I assume he’s not in the portal now, but can’t imagine that he would feel much loyalty to ASU.
Too many minutes has been addressed by Muss multiple times, he likes a 7-8 man rotation, what he believes in. He smiles laughing under his breath when asked about 18-22 yr. olds having too many minutes playing two games a week.
J Will been playing a lot of minutes the whole season by the way.
Everyone looks for a good big man.
I think lack of 2nd decent big COULD cost us a Final 4 type run next year if the other FR develop like all these play have under Muss these 3 years here.
I agree w the other poster…CV should move on & perhaps the FR Moore & TAMU transfer bc guard minutes will be hard to come by next year
LSU has 3 or 4 really talented bigs that they regularly rotate in and out and they still couldn’t beat us with JWill fouled out becuz the Tigers are the dumbest college basketball team in America. Will Wade squanders more great individual talent than any college basketball coach I’ve even seen outside of Stan Heath.
I agree. Another forward to play spot minutes would be ideal. I lean towards the probability that we get another role-playing forward in the portal for next year, to team with Kamani and provide valuable minutes here and there. There will almost certainly be roster space for such a player, since we have multiple guards currently getting next to zero floor time…. and one or more (of the guards) will likely want to play elsewhere.
(My guess is, next year’s roster of 13 scholarships will include:
J Will, Devo, Toney (oh, please), Connor, Kamani, Nick Smith, Walsh, Ford, Pinion, Dunning, a portal forward described above, and probably 2 of KK, Moore, and Robinson. If JD wants to return, then you just figure out the numbers)
Or John Calipari.