Explains why our name is connected with a few guards in the portal. We will need another experienced guard to replace his scoring punch.

He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

Have to admit I'm a little surprised Cryer is leaving. I thought he still had a very real role to play on a team that will once again be a contender for a deep March run. That said, if he did stay I would not be surprised if he turned into a rotation guy with Walter, Love and Little eating his minutes. In which case it's a MM situation where he's hunting for a bigger showcase.

He's just not a balanced guard, and as lights out as he was from 3, he was a disaster defensively and as culpable as any one person for one of the worst defenses Drew has fielded. I wish him the best and would have gladly welcomed him back, but I can't help but think we may well be better without him.

Big_Pumpin said:

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The good news is that no matter who replaces him, they will be a better defender.

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We'll probably get significantly longer with both Flagler and Cryer (and potentially Bonner) moving on as well.

I like Cryer and will miss watching him shoot a basketball, but I'm not devastated by this loss. I'll take a little less scoring punch if it comes in a bigger frame that can actually stay in front of his man on the defensive end.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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So Grimes, Flagler, Little, Walker, Love, Bonner? That's 6 guards that can play. Are we expecting to lose more?

Flag is gone and it wouldn't surprise me if Bonner leaves.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

I think we will bring in a scoring guard from the portal. Just my hunch.

Gonna get the NIL MONEY!!!!!

Well when he misses 3 games because of a splinter or because he tripped it will be on a different team.

xxx yyy said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

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It's actually Not Good when you're that reliant on two guys for that level of production. Remember the KU game, when basically every first-half point came from Flag, Cryer and Key? What happened when two inevitably got cold in the second half? Nobody plays defense anyway, so without Key/Cryer firing we fell apart. This is essentially exactly what's happened to the Dallas Mavericks this year for the record.

In football terms, we need to be more multiple and unpredictable with our scoring ability. If that means resetting our offense, then so be it. Because as good as our offensive metrics were in a few spots, we all know that was coming from like two or three dudes primarily.

Yeah they probably need to bring in two solid to very good transfers. The defense should be much improved but as you said you have to score the ball to win and they need a lot of offense now. f there isn't a very significant player coming in they will be down next year even with a better defense. The most talented offensive players are unproven freshman and a transfer that hasn't played at this level.

I would expect for transfers to come in but with Bu's strategy and the portal now a major thing.. will be harder to bring in a much proven guy like they need as tons of other teams will be on a proven guy like that.

xxx yyy said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

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You're asking the wrong question. You're asking if three guys can replace the scoring of 4 guys (even though Bonner avg. less than 5 ppg) But even so, that's an average of just under 17 pts a game for three to get to your 50 pts. Can they? Sure if they are put in position to be the primary scorers. Hell, look at WVU, their top 4 scorers avg 49 ppg this past year. I'm sure that Miro, Walter, Grimes, and our #4 could do the same.

I said this on a thread a while back, but I thought Bridges flashed the offensive talent and versatility to be one of our top scorers next year. Toward the end of conference season I was thinking give us less Keyonte and more Bridges. With Cryer leaving, I think that even more.

They're going to need it badly. Now that they know they need a guy that can penetrate and score the ball. Ideally shoot the 3 as well but that is getting to premier tier college player. A ton of programs will be bidding on a guy like that. Will be interesting to see how it all works. Walter and Miro are probably a year away from carrying offensive load like that. If they both were to return I think that team would be special but can't lean on them in their first year.

Team was on the younger side last year and current roster would be on the younger side again with limited returning production. Probably need 2 high level transfers now.

I agree Bridges can up the scoring to about 12 ppg without losing efficiency. Grimes I think will be solid and will score the ball but is new to this level. Need another guard that can really shoot and score the ball. Walter basically as a sophomore would be an ideal type player which won't happen as that's a pro level guy.

Give us a scoring guard, a Vital clone at SF/PF, and a big to split minutes with Josh O and we are set. If Grimes has been balling out in practice and our coaches feel confident in what they have, we might not need an additional portal guard.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Give us a scoring guard, a Vital clone at SF/PF, and a big to split minutes with Josh O and we are set. If Grimes has been balling out in practice and our coaches feel confident in what they have, we might not need an additional portal guard.

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I think Grimes will surprise. Would expect him to be a better shooting Shead like player (UH). Little could back him up at point and fill in some spot SG minutes as well. But need another scorer. That is just too young a line up to run when you have teams in the league that play 23/24 yr olds (Tex/Hou/K State).

If Drew is confident they can retain these guys into the following year (not a great bet with portal / league) then maybe play the long game as that following year's team would be one of the title favorites.

Grimes
Walter
Bridges
Jon (if comes back)
?

Love
Little
Lohner
Josh

That roster probably isn't good enough.

They need a very proven scorer to fill in that hole. Ideally one guard who can score and one forward who can rebound and score. But if like you say, then that forward with vital like toughness will need to be able to score. And a big with rebounding and defense. Can't afford a Lohner like project.

Still think they need a proven guard but I see what you mean.

All I want out of next season is to not be one of the worst defensive teams in the nation, and to have an actual ball handling point guard.

Is that too much to ask for?

Chamberman said:

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xxx yyy said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

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You're asking the wrong question. You're asking if three guys can replace the scoring of 4 guys (even though Bonner avg. less than 5 ppg) But even so, that's an average of just under 17 pts a game for three to get to your 50 pts. Can they? Sure if they are put in position to be the primary scorers. Hell, look at WVU, their top 4 scorers avg 49 ppg this past year. I'm sure that Miro, Walter, Grimes, and our #4 could do the same.

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I did not include Bonner as he has another year of eligibility and I have not heard if he is leaving. Flo avg.. 5 a night, combined with the three guards that is the 51 points we are losing.
To be clear, I don't think Miro and Dantwan were brought in to be big scorers. Dantwan's best Juco year was 14pts pg while avg. 38.7 fg% and 35% from 3. Miro has a nice smooth shot, but seems to have gotten about 4-5 shots a night on his High School team this year. That leaves Walter and Langston Jalen and Bonner and Jonathan to make up the slack, which sounds like 2/3rds of our scoring. This is a dramatic shift in our offensive game to pre Jalen era, while at the same time we are trying to find a defense. This sounds more and more like a rebuilding year 2 years after the NC. If it has to be, Im ok with that. I trust Drew to find a way back.

Yeah I agree with you, we need a scoring guard from the portal. I meant we might not need a second guard from the portal especially if Grimes looks starting caliber. Sorry my post was confusing.

I dunno. In the past I would have said that you need continuity for a deep March run. Our defense is based on a lot of trust and five guys all being where they are supposed to be. And not for nothing, the National Championship run had players that played together for years.

Having said that … you look at what Tang did on the fly. You look at the fact that not a single projected first round pick made it to the final four (when was the last time that happened?). You look at the size and length of the final four teams.

And CBB has changed. Stay old and get old is probably the path of the future because no matter how good an 18/19 freshmen lottery pick may be, going up against the age, strength and experience of the juniors and seniors of a San Diego St. is tough.

Disappointed to see Cryer go, but I'm not worried.

I had heard in various Houston bball circles weeks ago that Cryer was in play and available, which is why I said in the other thread two weeks ago we could lose 2 to 3 players as people piled on me for even suggesting Cryer might leave.

Better wait a few more weeks before putting anyone into certain positions. I'll be surprised if you don't see a couple of more names. Hopefully Drew and staff are searching for starters out of the portal. We're gonna need them.

Yup can't afford projects from the portal. Need instant impact big time players

DanaDane said:

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I had heard in various Houston bball circles weeks ago that Cryer was in play and available, which is why I said in the other thread two weeks ago we could lose 2 to 3 players as people piled on me for even suggesting Cryer might leave.

Better wait a few more weeks before putting anyone into certain positions. I'll be surprised if you don't see a couple of more names. Hopefully Drew and staff are searching for starters out of the portal. We're gonna need them.

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Yeah, someone (maybe it was you) made the comment that Josh O is probably getting some calls. I bet he is . . .

xxx yyy said:

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Chamberman said:

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xxx yyy said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

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You're asking the wrong question. You're asking if three guys can replace the scoring of 4 guys (even though Bonner avg. less than 5 ppg) But even so, that's an average of just under 17 pts a game for three to get to your 50 pts. Can they? Sure if they are put in position to be the primary scorers. Hell, look at WVU, their top 4 scorers avg 49 ppg this past year. I'm sure that Miro, Walter, Grimes, and our #4 could do the same.

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I did not include Bonner as he has another year of eligibility and I have not heard if he is leaving. Flo avg.. 5 a night, combined with the three guards that is the 51 points we are losing.
To be clear, I don't think Miro and Dantwan were brought in to be big scorers. Dantwan's best Juco year was 14pts pg while avg. 38.7 fg% and 35% from 3. Miro has a nice smooth shot, but seems to have gotten about 4-5 shots a night on his High School team this year. That leaves Walter and Langston Jalen and Bonner and Jonathan to make up the slack, which sounds like 2/3rds of our scoring. This is a dramatic shift in our offensive game to pre Jalen era, while at the same time we are trying to find a defense. This sounds more and more like a rebuilding year 2 years after the NC. If it has to be, Im ok with that. I trust Drew to find a way back.

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As soon as I'm reading "Flo averaged" as part of our offensive losses I'm moving on from the rest of the comments.

Hopefully not Bridges. Bonner and Love wouldn't be shocked. Josh O hopefully not but I could see that one. A whole new world.

Possible UH, Tech, or Illinois as well which is surprising. Strange fits but he is good enough on O for heavy defensive minded programs to give him some slack bc he will not be able to play D at Techs or UHs level.

Everyone will have to make compromises to remain competitive

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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xxx yyy said:

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Chamberman said:

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xxx yyy said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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He and Key both leaving will collectively be a huge benefit to our defense. I don't know much about Miro's game yet, but Walter and Grimes will be massive backcourt upgrades defensively no matter what else we do in the portal.

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I don't mean to rain on the spin brigade, but losing LJ would, combined with the other losses, mean that 65.9% of our offense is walking out the door. I think Miro and Walter and Grimes will be wonderful additions, but do you really see them replacing 50 points a night? As important as defense is, we still have to score more than the other guys.

---

You're asking the wrong question. You're asking if three guys can replace the scoring of 4 guys (even though Bonner avg. less than 5 ppg) But even so, that's an average of just under 17 pts a game for three to get to your 50 pts. Can they? Sure if they are put in position to be the primary scorers. Hell, look at WVU, their top 4 scorers avg 49 ppg this past year. I'm sure that Miro, Walter, Grimes, and our #4 could do the same.

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I did not include Bonner as he has another year of eligibility and I have not heard if he is leaving. Flo avg.. 5 a night, combined with the three guards that is the 51 points we are losing.
To be clear, I don't think Miro and Dantwan were brought in to be big scorers. Dantwan's best Juco year was 14pts pg while avg. 38.7 fg% and 35% from 3. Miro has a nice smooth shot, but seems to have gotten about 4-5 shots a night on his High School team this year. That leaves Walter and Langston Jalen and Bonner and Jonathan to make up the slack, which sounds like 2/3rds of our scoring. This is a dramatic shift in our offensive game to pre Jalen era, while at the same time we are trying to find a defense. This sounds more and more like a rebuilding year 2 years after the NC. If it has to be, Im ok with that. I trust Drew to find a way back.

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As soon as I'm reading "Flo averaged" as part of our offensive losses I'm moving on from the rest of the comments.

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His numbers may seem insignificant, but, when added to our 3 leading scorers leaving, add a little more dirt to the hill we have to climb, offensively. I don't think a lot of fans appreciate the offensive talent we are losing, and how unlikely it is we will find full replacements in the portal. One good sg or pg, yes. But we face a downturn offensively, and unless there is a significant improvement on defense, we do not look like a team capable of a deep run next year.