You may be right to an extent, but you have to remember that basketball players play AAU ball in the off-season. So while he's playing A or 2A ball in Tennessee against a bunch of small schools, he plays some of the best around in AAU.
For any player there is a major adjustment between high school and SEC action though, and from what I hear Buckner played a lot of the 3 with his AAU team, which tells me he's used to handling the ball and being a face to the bucket guy. Therefore, even if he is able to adjust to the speed and strength of the game, I expect there to be even more of a learning curve if he's going to be asked to come in and play the 5 as a back to the basket guy. I could see Buckner helping us some next year at the 4 maybe, but I really doubt he'll be able to do much to offset the lose of Malcolm White. That job will fall on Cranston and Cantinol and possibly Henry if he gains 30 pounds. That's not reassuring.
We'll still have some success, but we're going to have to be a team that relies on hitting outside shots, creating turnovers, or driving and kicking to get our offense going. I can't see us being able to do the inside-out thing at all. It wouldn't shock me to see us run some line ups out there where our we don't have anyone taller than 6-6.