A couple years ago I heard this saying a bunch from some of the top coaches in the game, specifically remember Beard at Texas Tech at the time talking about this. Basically using the portal to fill in his roster with very experienced players. Good Experience players resulting in better results typically than having a lot of good inexperienced players. Yes, Kentucky and Duke can be pretty good some years with all top 20 players, but in general the experience is a very good thing in college basketball. With pandemic extra year, a lot of teams have "got old". I think Mooney and Co. did a good job of getting old this offseason, bringing back Grace and Goose, and snagging Quinn and Bigelow.
Here are our key players , and the year post high school, since grade seems hard to gauge exactly how old they are with pandemic years, transfers and red shirts:
Quinn - 4th Year
Grace - 5th Year
Goose - 5th Year
Bigelow - 5th Year
Burton - 4th Year
Crabtree - 5th Year
Dji - 3rd Year
Roche - 2nd Year
Nelson - 2nd Year
Ton of experience, obviously as discussed PG is going to be a key - but Dji in year 3 (not a ton of minutes, but still years of experience) and Nelson (have to think already having a year under his belt to learn the program, adjust to college, and played vs Gilly in practice for a year) still have some experience, not taking over as true rookies.
Even with Bigelow, Roche and Quinn new - all have some good experience and should be able to use that successfully. Haven't looked around at A10 rosters, but have to think we will be one of the more experienced teams.
Here are our key players , and the year post high school, since grade seems hard to gauge exactly how old they are with pandemic years, transfers and red shirts:
Quinn - 4th Year
Grace - 5th Year
Goose - 5th Year
Bigelow - 5th Year
Burton - 4th Year
Crabtree - 5th Year
Dji - 3rd Year
Roche - 2nd Year
Nelson - 2nd Year
Ton of experience, obviously as discussed PG is going to be a key - but Dji in year 3 (not a ton of minutes, but still years of experience) and Nelson (have to think already having a year under his belt to learn the program, adjust to college, and played vs Gilly in practice for a year) still have some experience, not taking over as true rookies.
Even with Bigelow, Roche and Quinn new - all have some good experience and should be able to use that successfully. Haven't looked around at A10 rosters, but have to think we will be one of the more experienced teams.
