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It's all well and good to throw offers at 3 and 4-star players, but at some point you have to make sure you have minimally competent players at the right positions to fill out a roster. Last year we were last in the league in rebounds, and near the bottom just about whichever way you figure it-- last in offensive boards, last in defensive rebounds, eighth in rebound margin, and ninth in conference-only rebound margin.
If you can't get a superior frontcourt player, the only other stategy to compete is by throwing a bunch of big bodies at the opposition, and we can't do that, either. We got Marlon Jones, Montel James, and Julius Rajala to replace four departing forwards with six combined seasons of D1 experience (and two years of juco/Red Shirt experience), and then Jones-- who was known to be on the borderline-- didn't qualify. Put another way: already at or near the bottom of the league in rebounding, we lost more than 900 pounds of experienced frontcourt players and replaced them with 430 pounds carrying zero D1 experience.
Christian Thomas is a reliable player both offensively and defensively playing the role of a very undersized 4, but he will be gone after this season. We'll have 6'7" Montel James for only two years. 6'9" Maurice Kirby comes in next year as a junior, and 6'7" Pernell Adgei as a freshman. Beyond that, there are very few offers out for big men. Any competent players over 6'7" are likely to get all the playing time they can handle. So why not widen the net on recruiting big guys?
In a league with players like Seth Tuttle, Egidijus Mockevicius, Reggie Lynch, Mike Shaw, Auston Barnes, Bola Olaniyan, Justin Gant, Nate Buss, etc., etc., etc., it simply isn't possible to compete playing an undersized, undermanned frontcourt playing out of natural position most of the time.
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