Last week I speculated as to the final roster and late last week, we received confirmation that the two players who would not make the roster was PF/C Paul Cooper and PF Hershey Robinson, who will play at Tyler J.C. next year.
That means that the roster is set at 13 players and as part of some posts that I hope would generate some discussion as I'm gone for a week and a half. First things first, I want to point you to a handful of links that will help you familiarize yourself with the new players. Make sure and check out all of the new players DTN profiles as well as the positional reviews:
Prior Position Reviews
Point Guards | Shooting Guards | Small Forwards | Power Forwards | Centers
| POSITION | PLAYER | HEIGHT/WEIGHT | YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| PG | Mike Davis | 6-2/200 | Junior |
| PG | Javarez Willis | 5-11/171 | Sophomore |
| PG | Ty Nurse | 6-1/180 | Junior |
| PG | Kevin Wagner | 5-8/145 | Freshman |
| SG | Toddrick Gotcher | 6-3/185 | Freshman |
| SF | Jaye Crockett | 6-7/200 | Sophomore |
| SF | Theron Jenkins | 6-6/215 | Senior |
| SF | Jaron Nash | 6-7/180 | Sophomore |
| SF | Terran Petteway | 6-5/200 | Freshman |
| PF | Jordan Tolbert | 6-7/225 | Freshman |
| PF/C | Daouda Soumaoro | 6-10/220 | Freshman |
| C | Robert Lewandowski | 6-10/260 | Senior |
| C | Kader Tapsoba | 6-10/200 | Junior |
1. WHERE ARE ALL OF THE SHOOTING GUARDS? During the Pat Knight era I never really worried about having enough guards and/or wing players. With an almost entirely new team, that looks like it's about to change. The only true shooting guard is Gotcher, who played shooting guard while in high school as I believe his high school point guard was Chris Jones a pretty darned good player going to North Texas. In any event, Gillispie is going to have to swing some players between point guard and small forward to cover the shooting guard position. Who else do you think gets time as a shooting guard. I think that Jenkins could be an option, but I'm not sure that Nash is an option as he wasn't the best outside shooter while at Tyler J.C. Could Gillispie go with a two point guard lineup, with Nurse and Davis? The problem with that is that Davis doesn't have much of an offensive game, while Nurse is more of a distributor than a scorer.
2. ARE THERE FINALLY ENOUGH BIG MEN? One of my criticisms of Pat Knight was that I never really thought there were enough quality big men on the roster. Granted, there's a ton of questions as to whether or not Soumaoro, Tolbert or Tapsoba will be able to play at the Big 12 level, but at the very least there are options. Of the three that I mentioned, who do you think will have the biggest impact along the front line?
3. WHO STEPS UP AT POINT GUARD? There are a bevy of options available at point guard. Each has their own specific ability. Last year, Davis was viewed as more of a glue-guy, but couldn't hit an outside jumper. Willis was okay as a true freshman, was supposed to be a pretty good shooter but never really showed that last year. Nurse is supposed to be an excellent leader on the floor who doesn't turn the ball over. Wagner is a jumping-jack point guard who lack the size you'd like to see at the point, but can make up for some of that with his leaping ability. Who do you think make the most impact next year.
4. DOES BIG LEW FINALLY HAVE HIS CHANCE? I've always thought that Lewandowski had a really nice offensive game and I thought that he improved from his sophomore to his junior year. Gillispie is a coach that likes to run a lot of his sets inside-out, which means that Lewandowski should get an opportunity to be the center-piece to the offense. Last year there were times that Lewandowski asked to be taken out of games because he was gassed. I'd have to imagine that we'll see a more slimmed down Lewandowski and a guy that has the ability to play 30 minutes a game. Is that a realistic expectation?
| POSITION | PLAYER | HEIGHT/WEIGHT | YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| PG | Luke Adams | 5-9/--- | Freshman |
| PG | Pierre Hayden | 5-8/145 | Freshman |
| PF | Clark Lammert | 6-8/--- | Freshman |
| PF | Zach Jones | 6-8/198 | Sophomore |
5. WILL ANY OF THE WALK-ONS MAKE AN IMPACT? It's probably unfair to even make this suggestion and it may be unfair to even dedicate one of the five questions to the walk-ons, but why not, we're just shooting from the hip at this point. When the three freshmen walk-ons were somewhat announced I rounded up a bit of information on each of these players:
San Antonio Churchill SF Clark Lammert (Rivals profile and video)
Big Spring PG Luke Adams (Rivals profile and video)
Skyline PG Pierre Hayden (Rivals profile and video)
We saw a little bit of Jones last year, but I didn't really see enough to make an informed opinion other than he was just a guy, but I like giving walk-ons an opportunity. With what we know, do you think that any of the walk-ons will make an impact and if yes, who do you think that will be?
Questions are after the jump for easy copying to answer in the comments.
1. WHERE ARE ALL OF THE SHOOTING GUARDS?
2. ARE THERE FINALLY ENOUGH BIG MEN?
3. WHO STEPS UP AT POINT GUARD?
4. DOES BIG LEW FINALLY HAVE HIS CHANCE?
5. WILL ANY OF THE WALK-ONS MAKE AN IMPACT?