If we don't tie ourselves to an athletic 4, we're going to get absolutely destroyed defensively, whether it be because of a lack of quickness, a lack of physicality, a lack of explosiveness, etc. It's great to have skilled guys, but ultimately, basketball comes down to speed, agility, size, strength, attitude and of course ability.
Not sure if you watched last night's game, the Final Four of the Elite 8. Defensively, I don't care if John Wooden was the coach, we would have gotten absolutely obliterated on the glass on both ends and we wouldn't be able to stop anyone in the paint. The pure athleticism and strength would have run us out of the gym.
I look back at the Michigan vs Auburn Sweet 16 game. Michigan was big, tall and skilled, which is great and they played with Auburn for about 60% of the game. There was a point where you could tell that they(Auburn) were fed up, guys that were getting cute got reamed out and they locked in. Michigan got absolutely destroyed at that point. They looked to be stuck in mud and Auburn just unloaded. They went on a 24-4 run(or something insane like that) and they coasted home.
That happened to the great and fan anointed as the next coming of coaching greatness, Dusty May. He saw what happened and look what they've done in the portal. They've loaded up on physical and supremely athletic players that are more equipped to handle that. Now, the one kid may end up in the NBA, but you still see where the focus is.
I'll always support who we bring in because they chose to be part of the family. That said, next year is going to be extremely disappointing if we don't add 3 or 4 plus plus athletes to the roster, with at least one being a 4. A plus plus 2 and 3 HAVE to happen.
There are a lot of people who wonder how we weren't better given the fact that we have two first rounders on the roster. It's because neither guy was prepared physically or athletically to deal with better teams. I was there at the game versus Kentucky, six rows off the floor. The ONLY guy who looked to be able to physically at with them was Boswell. His size and physical development were apparent. Outside of him, I looked at Morez and even he wasn't anywhere near strong enough or physical enough to deal with that.
This next month is going to be critical for us. If our athleticism, physical maturity and mental maturity doesn't increase a lot.... we'll be worse than last year. No more Euros and no more youth. We need experienced, explosive and players coming out of winning domestic programs to make a next level jump.
