2024-2025 Roster

[Chicagojayfan]

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.

Miller guarded the opposing 3 a good bit last year, but Baylor mostly took the more difficult matchups. He struggled more against bigger guys who could get into him in the paint. My guess is Neal is our defensive stopper this year and takes the toughest guy to guard and we fill in the rest of the assignments depending on the opposing lineup

For McAndrew, I don't know how much of his wing skills will translate immediately, but the potential is there, but I can't see him playing D on a wing or on quite a few physical 4's right now. But, we've also seen Mac swap matchups defensively/offensively to protect a guy who wasn't ready to defend yet (Patton and Hegner, for instance)

[SeattleJay]

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.

Chicagojay, I don’t see Neal playing the 4 because we have too many 4’s already. I think he could play some at the 2 but that blocks LJ.

I think Miller is most likely to get a lot of minutes at the 3 but also hoping McAndrew can play there. I’m hoping McAndrew is so good that Coach has to play him. Same thing for LJ

And, I’m sure there will be folks that say that Miller and McAndrew need to develop skills to play the 3. I don’t disagree but we don’t have a perfectly balanced roster and Coach will have to adapt.

I see the 4 as primarily Green and Traudt. McAndrew is a wild card.

It will definitely be interesting.

[Jaysker12]

I guess I don't agree with others here. Neal is a prototypical wing who has the size and agility to guard smaller, quicker players and slightly taller, more physical players as well.

Freshmen are always unpredictable, but I see LJ fitting in that mold as well. He is 6'4 and LARGE. Watch his highlights and see how he can shrug off defenders driving to the rim. He looks ready to play Big East defense.

This is just my guess, but I predict Neal and LJ will take 85%+ of the minutes at the 3. Steven, Pop, and Ty Davis will somehow split up the minutes at 1 and 2 (likely leaning heavily on the first two).

Edit: to build on Ljay's comment, it's also not just a matter of who defends the 3. Our 3s need to have ball skills to keep the offense flowing..I think this is why I'm somewhat remiss to pencil in Miller for minutes at that spot. He just didn't show the ability last year.

Agree w/ Ljay that McAndrew seems to be good with the ball...in high school. Remains to be seen how we will handle the physicality of the BE.

[SeattleJay]

One amplification on my prior comment: my guess is that Miller is most likely of the four guys who are natural 4’s to get minutes at the 3 in addition to Neal who could well be (and probably is) the starter at the 3.

I hope Jaysker is right about LJ but playing the 3 in the BE requires pretty good size. It’s why I disliked the Bello/Ashworth/Alexander combo last year except when we were playing against smaller lineups or end of games with a lead.

[go_jays]

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.

See, that's the key and something I commented on a couple days ago. Fans tend to look at the offensive side of the ball when they project position. But if they put up 16 and the guy they are defending puts up 20... that's a net negative. Depending, of course on who else is on the floor at the time. Just ask Ashworth. He really became valuable once he understood how important and necessary it is to defend. So did Baylor for that matter. I don't know for a fact, but I have a pretty good idea that his defending was something that he was told he needed to work on in his NBA eval. And I think Mac is leaning towards also having more balance in a player in that regard.... Neal?

Haven't seen any Pop highlights, but I bet there's a little more "resistance" in his game as well.

[JacobPadilla]

Don't love the idea of an Ashworth-Isaacs-Johnson backcourt from a defensive standpoint outside of certain matchups. I'm sure we'll see some of it, but I'd prefer if that wasn't the primary plan B for when Neal sits. Ashworth and Isaacs is already a small backcourt to begin with.

I think there's a chance Green might be best equipped to guard wings from those other options. If he's capable of doing that, him playing alongside Miller or McAndrew or Traudt off the bench could be a workable option for when Neal rests while also getting PT for those guys at the 4 spot. You could potentially piece together a lineup with enough offensive skill that way.

RE Miller, I wouldn't describe it as him guarding wings this past season when Creighton crossmatched with Baylor so much as he took the lesser threat between the 3 and 4. This season I think we're going to need the 4s primarily guarding their own position anyway with Neal taking the toughest perimeter player.

I also don't know what kind of minutes load to expect from Neal. He did play 32.7 MPG last year at ASU, but I'm not sure he'll be as indispensable in as many areas as Baylor was to necessitate playing close to 40 so often.

[LJay]

I guess there had been no official notice so Ash has now confirmed the obvious.

[Tdjay114]

Fanta replied on Twitter that Trey is staying in the draft.

[Realhoops]

Fanta replied on Twitter that Trey is staying in the draft.

Fanta: "Trey Alexander told me he is staying in the draft regardless of what happened during the process."

[BellevueJay]

Fanta replied on Twitter that Trey is staying in the draft.

Fanta: "Trey Alexander told me he is staying in the draft regardless of what happened during the process."

Not sure where he's at academically in terms of how close to graduating, sounds like he will be an undrafted FA if he stays in the draft. Being a 2-way player, with majority of the games in G-League sounds rough compared to what he could/would have coming back and potentially getting his degree. Good luck to him, hope he has a long career as a professional athlete.