2024-2025 Roster

[gocreightongo]

If we're being honest, Jackson's position(s) likely boils down to where he can best be hidden on defense and rebounding, until he bulks up to a point where he slots into the most natural position for his height + skillset combination of 4.

The disconnect for most fans is that when they project a position for a certain player, they often only look at what their skillset indicates they could do on the offensive side of the ball... not taking into account the matchup that will likely exist when we don't have the ball.

So I think this would be the more accurate statement.... "where he slots into the most natural position for his physicality/athleticism + skillset"

Lots of good comments. The biggest issue that I see with our current roster is that we have 4 talented players who can play the 4 (Miller, Green, Traudt and McAndrew) and one natural player for the 3 (Jamiya Neal). So, either you won’t play one of the big 4 much or one of them plays the 3 primarily. I think that is most likely to be Miller because defensively he is probably the quickest and isn’t as much of a banger as Green or Traudt.

If Miller plays the 3, it will be interesting to see if he starts or if Neal starts. I could see Mac using Jamiya like Farabello last year, playing the 2 or the 3 and getting a lot of minutes off the bench.

I don’t think we will play much small ball - so I don’t see LJ or Knox playing a lot of 3. (I am very pumped to see LJ play but it’s probably going to be at the 2)

It seems like Coach Mac has a logjam at the 4 and it will be interesting to see how he handles it. If any of those 4 guys sits a lot, it will be hard to keep them a year from now. McAndrew could redshirt but he seems way too talented for that.

Thoughts? What did I miss?

I would be shocked if Miller started at the 3 over Neal. He can still develop, but I just haven't seen much from Miller that suggests he'd be a starting 3. Neal seems to have the athleticism we missed last year and can get to the rim. But hey, I could be way off!

McAndrew and Green are the two I'm most excited for at the 4 spot. I loved what Green showed in the tournament and he should be able to develop even more this offseason.

[Jaysfan100]

This is a big season for miller. He’s been here the longest but it seems that green may have been passing him for our best 4 at the moment. With king returning I think that means IssacT maybe returning to the 4 as well, and he is taller, bigger and a little more athletic then miller. Plus McAndrews coming in as well . I can see miller getting left behind if he doesn’t work on his athleticism.

[Chicagojayfan]

This is a big season for miller. He’s been here the longest but it seems that green may have been passing him for our best 4 at the moment. With king returning I think that means IssacT maybe returning to the 4 as well, and he is taller, bigger and a little more athletic then miller. Plus McAndrews coming in as well . I can see miller getting left behind if he doesn’t work on his athleticism.

It's a big season for Miller as he's played 2 years, but mostly been the last offensive option on the floor. He needs to step up and show the offensive skills that gave him that high rating, but it's really a big season for a lot of the guys on the roster now as we have incoming transfers and frosh, and all of them need to show improvement - Green, Traudt, and Miller

Green wasn't really passing him up, at least not based on minutes or data. Yes, Green got 18 and 19 minutes in the last 2 games of the year, but Miller's minutes in the last 3 games were 25, 25, and 19 a bit above his season average even). The minutes Green got were more at the expense of Traudt and Bello whose minutes were a bit lower those last 2 games

I don't know that King returning means Traudt is definitively returning to only play the 4. I've heard he's been working on his quickness to get back to where he was in HS, but we'll see. Both Traudt and Green can play small ball 5 for us, IMO

As for Miller, he needs to work on his ball skills, getting his shot and his handle. He's never going to be a guy to mix it up in the paint and throw people around, but he's very athletic (I love Traudt's potential, but I don't see him as being more athletic than Miller at all) and his D was good this year when he wasn't up against someone who was able to push him around. If Miller was getting passed up, I don't think he'd be back on the roster this year - uncle or not on the staff

Bottom line is that we lost about 95 minutes of time from Trey, Baylor and Bello, but we also lost a lot of offensive usage and production (which is opportunity for all of those guys)

[go_jays]

There is no doubt that there is a LOT of opportunity on this team right now. Other than Ash and Kalk, everything else is up for grabs... not just for starting, but even getting into the rotation. I doubt that Mac will ever deviate from his propensity to play an 8 man rotation other than if we are up by 20 with 5 or 6 minutes left.

This might be the most competitive off and pre seasons ever. But Miller will get every opportunity to be a part.

[Angry Dan]

UCONN was in this position last year, lost three leading scorers so they got picked third in the conference preseason.

They had role players step up and kicked ass again. “Development” is the key word here.

Hopefully we can see some major development this year on the Hilltop

[slaw]

How did Sterling Knox look on the scout team last year? Might he log some (non-mop up duty) minutes next year?

[JacobPadilla]

How did Sterling Knox look on the scout team last year? Might he log some (non-mop up duty) minutes next year?

Barring injury, it will likely be tough for him. Ashworth, Isaacs and Johnson should fill most of the guard minutes. If he was 6'7", he might have a better chance at cracking the rotation with the lack of true wings on the team. But he's 6'4".

That being said, still having a tough time wrapping my head around how they're going to figure out the rotation with four natural fours and only one true wing on the roster. Perhaps we see more three-guard looks if none of the guys at the four prove capable of sliding up and playing some three.

[bleedblue]

How did Sterling Knox look on the scout team last year? Might he log some (non-mop up duty) minutes next year?

Barring injury, it will likely be tough for him. Ashworth, Isaacs and Johnson should fill most of the guard minutes. If he was 6'7", he might have a better chance at cracking the rotation with the lack of true wings on the team. But he's 6'4".

That being said, still having a tough time wrapping my head around how they're going to figure out the rotation with four natural fours and only one true wing on the roster. Perhaps we see more three-guard looks if none of the guys at the four prove capable of sliding up and playing some three.

I imagine they will attempt to move Mason and/or Jasen to the 3 at times. A whole offseason to work on changing their bodies similar to what Kalks trying to do could result in some big changes. Traudt seems like he would keep getting reps as a 4 and backup 5 and I would think McAndrew will only learn the 4 to start off this year.

[Chicagojayfan]

How did Sterling Knox look on the scout team last year? Might he log some (non-mop up duty) minutes next year?

Barring injury, it will likely be tough for him. Ashworth, Isaacs and Johnson should fill most of the guard minutes. If he was 6'7", he might have a better chance at cracking the rotation with the lack of true wings on the team. But he's 6'4".

That being said, still having a tough time wrapping my head around how they're going to figure out the rotation with four natural fours and only one true wing on the roster. Perhaps we see more three-guard looks if none of the guys at the four prove capable of sliding up and playing some three.

I imagine they will attempt to move Mason and/or Jasen to the 3 at times. A whole offseason to work on changing their bodies similar to what Kalks trying to do could result in some big changes. Traudt seems like he would keep getting reps as a 4 and backup 5 and I would think McAndrew will only learn the 4 to start off this year.

That's my thinking. In particular, I think they would love for Miller to show that he can take on more of a traditional wing role with more ballhandling and just being more aggressive with the ball. IIRC, the game in the Bahamas where Trey was off to do something for his shoe contract, Miller didn't start, but came in a bit later and played a lot of the 3 on the floor with King and Traudt alongside him and put up 16 in a half

with Neal, those forwards should have a lot of flexibility as well. Traudt and Green can play some small ball 5, Miller can play 3, Neal can fit into a variety of slots from 2-4 depending on the opposing team's lineup, and I think Neal and Miller can be a pretty good combo of forwards as well

As for Knox, competition will be difficult, but I remember a few reports where he had some great practices and showed a lot of ability last year

[LJay]

McAndrew seems to have more wing skills than the others in the little I’ve seen of him. Can any of them guard a traditional 3 though? Especially true in the 3 guard era we seem to be in today.