I was going to start the exact same thread today.
Great minds.
I’m going with:
Oweh
Aberdeen
Quaintance
Williams
Garrison
Quaintance is projected lottery, so like you said, he’s gone.
Williams has the length and shooting to play in the NBA. Even if he is a second rounder, I think he bolts.
Pope said that Garrison was on a two year plan, so I think he plans on leaving. He might stick around if he doesn’t get a guarantee and the money is right at UK, but with all the size Pope has stockpiled, I feel like he is planning for Garrison’s departure after this season.
Jelavic is another possibility, but he is hard to project until we see him in college. I think he stays for a second season, unless he proves to be way better than I expect.
Johnson is another one that might jump, but I think he’s like Pettiford and Philon this year, he will test the waters and come back.
Lowe and Dioubate has some of the same size issues as Oweh and will make more coming back to college.
The rest should be back, barring some of them deciding to find more PT elsewhere or blowing up unexpectectedly.
So, for our early projection of our top 10, I have 9 returning and we will add a good HS player at PG. I’m thinking Kinney, but maybe Crowe. If not, we go to the portal for a backup PG.
Starters
PG Lowe
SG Johnson
SF Chandler
PF Dioubate
C Jelavic
I feel like Johnson and Chandler both have to start. I think that would give us the shooting and scoring punch we need on the perimeter. Jelavic will be a 23 year old Sophomore wanting to get to the NBA and could be a force inside once he gets acclimated to the college game. Dioubate will be the heart and soul of that unit.
Bench
G Kinney (or Crowe or Portal)
F Noah
F Hawthorne
F Moreno
F Potter
I feel like Hawthorne, with a little more meat on his bones, could be a significant player by then. Probably our sixth man. Moreno and Potter would give us some massive size off the bench behind Dioubate and Jelavic. Moreno might start some. Dioubate might slide to the 3 some and Pope could play Dioubate, Jelavic, and Moreno together.
Pope probably grabs 1 or 2 bench guys from the HS ranks and 1 or 2 from the portal to fill out the rotation.
That’s a strong team, if everyone I have returning comes back. No guarantees in the portal age, but I was really impressed by the loyalty shown by most of the players. I was kind of shocked by Perry leaving, but he was the outlier. The rest seemed pretty content to remain Wildcats. I expect the same next year.
