So the roster has now been finalized.
I think Svi returning is bad news for Garrett's playing time. Garrett now goes down to 5th guard to start the season with Cunliffe likely working his way into the line-up when eligible. So Garrett now seems like the odd man out, with the caveat that if he can handle the ball at this level immediately he becomes invaluable as the off-guard when Graham or Newman takes a breather.
Graham and Newman will be minute sinks. I imagine both will be 32+ mpg. Maybe a little higher. One needs to be on the floor at all times.
Who starts between Svi and Vick? I don't think it matters much. They should both pull over 20 mpg and be key players.
Cunliffe is an athlete (Garrett is too, but he's also a basketball player) and Self seems to love him. I'm ready for Jamari frustration here. But fortunately it's 5th guard frustration and not primary back-up/5star not playing.
The post situation is clear by necessity, but it could be a bumpy ride.
Doke will play as many minutes as he can handle, hopefully 30 but it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up closer to 25 due to foul trouble.
Preston should start at the 4. Will Self try to make him bang and potentially have another Bragg situation? Or will he let Preston roam/drift around? The other possibility is that Preston buys in completely and is everything we hoped Bragg would be.
Whitman is the back-up to both post positions. I think ideally he is a 10-15 minute guy, but in match-ups where Self wants to stay big I think we are looking at 20 minutes or so from William and Mary's back-up center.
Lightfoot would have to improve rapidly to play outside of garbage time. I think in foul trouble situations in tight, pressure games Self goes small over playing Mitch. My guess is when we check at the end of the year his minutes will be similar to Chris Teahan's minutes...
Looks like another guard oriented team to me. Hopefully Preston is great because I think he is a big key. Doke and Whitman are both DUNK IT/OH GOD PLEASE DON'T SHOOT THAT 10' JUMPER guys. In situations when they are both in there, opposing teams are likely to pack the paint. Thankfully this roster has the shooters to make teams pay for that. Graham/Newman/Svi are all fabulous shooters. Even in Newman's pretty bad FR year at MSST he shot 38% from three. I think Self will get the best out of Newman. He is a very good shooter, he was just trying way too hard to create his own shot at MSST. This is my one worry for this team, that neither Graham or Newman are great creators. We will see. But yeah in addition to that Vick is a pretty good shooter too. I'm not sold on Cunliffe but he's the 5th guard so it's not a huge deal.
