To make use of what I learned this past weekend at Nike EYBL Minneapolis (and previously) I will try to assimilate some of the data into a few potential recruiting scenarios that could play out over the high school classes of 2016 and 2017 or could prove to be totally overcome by events within a month or two.
I first took a look at the projected rosters for 2016-17 and 2017-18 and tried to evaluate what those rosters are lacking from a skills/talents perspective. After that I came up with a few potential scenarios as discussion points for what may or may not work moving forward.
First a couple of ground rules and assumptions for this exercise:
NOTE: there was something like a 10K character limit on posts so this mega-post will be broken into a bunch of pieces.
I first took a look at the projected rosters for 2016-17 and 2017-18 and tried to evaluate what those rosters are lacking from a skills/talents perspective. After that I came up with a few potential scenarios as discussion points for what may or may not work moving forward.
First a couple of ground rules and assumptions for this exercise:
- none of the players on the current roster or verbally committed to play at Villanova will transfer out between now and the start of the 2017-18 season (i know, what are the odds?)
- none of the players will redshirt
- more names will arise, as they do every year, so this is based on prospects known to date - i fully suspect there are a number of guys flying under the radar right now that could enter the picture by the end of the summer (similar to the way Donovan Mitchell popped up last year)
- somewhat recently, Coach Wright talked about roster management and trying to limit the # of scholarship players in an attempt to keep everyone happy by providing a “clear path to playing time” - let’s assume for the purpose of this exercise that 11 is the max # of ‘ships that will be used in a given season (even though the cap is 13 by rule)
- please don’t get too wrapped around the axle debating precise “positions” - at the end of the day in Jay Wright’s line-up one or two forwards will play at the same time as three or four guards - when sets/plays are run there is a player assigned a number 1 through 5 - the 4 may be Josh Hart, the 5 may be Kris Jenkins - everyone is a basketball player and expected to develop as much skill as possible so that they can play as many of the #s and guard as many positions on the other end as possible when switches occur.
NOTE: there was something like a 10K character limit on posts so this mega-post will be broken into a bunch of pieces.
