Comparing our portal adds the last two seasons is apples and oranges to our situation this coming year.
For 22/23, Floyd and Diggins bailed, Gaffney wasn't really cut out for the new offensive Hurley was moving toward and probably nudged out, and Cole decided not to use his last year, so we were left with a big hole at PG and no bench. Plus Akok moved on. We had to pick up some transfers, but only one of which (Newton) was a starter, with the rest just depth pieces (Joey, Alleyne, and Hass), but otherwise our traditional recruits started and were the core of the team.
This last year, we had a great freshman class, but none other than Castle were ready for big minutes. So with Hawkins and Andre going to the NBA, we did need a strategic portal addition at guard so we brought in Cam (after Timberlake thankfully didn't work out).
This coming year, assuming Karaban stays, we have a battle tested core of Karaban, Hass, and Johnson. You can probably include Stewart in there too. Then we have two other talented sophomores in Ball and Ross, and newcomers Nowell and hopefully McNeeley, both of which will be in the mix from day one. We then added the depth we needed at center with a transfer Reed. I don't understand why people look at this and don't see a deep quality team, and feel that we need to add more transfers (other than a depth ball handler piece). Yes we need to have some faith that Stewart continues his ascent and that Ball and Ross make an good jump, but I think that is all likely, at least as likely as transfer fitting right into our system and being what we want them to be.
Lets face it, we have been lucky with the transfers we've brought in, especially Newton and Cam. Granted credit goes to the coaching staff for identifying players who work and buy into in our system, but they also wanted Timberlake which if we got and didn't bring Cam in, I do not think we would have been a top 5 team and winning the championship this year. You could argue he would have been different/better coached up here, and maybe that's true, but based on what I saw of him this year for Kansas, I don't really think so. Transfers are not a sure thing, even for our coaching staff. And remember, the coaching staff recruited and brought in our freshmen because they saw something in them and coached them all year long. I have as much faith that they'll step up as much as some of the transfers we are looking at.
I am absolutely not against bringing in transfers when it makes sense, we have used the portal well, but the grass is not always greener there
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