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There would be major question marks in the front court even if those guys had returned, no doubt.
But I think this board would be surprised to learn how generally unproductive freshman are aside from a handful of players. Even high-end four star guys are typically non-entities early in their careers - it takes most guys until their junior year to become consistently productive. Losing four underclassmen - Durham, Jackson, Enoch, and MAL - doesn't sting because of how good they were so much as it sets the whole process back. If we end up replacing them with similarly regarded kids who are a year or two younger, I don't see that as some net positive, especially when we watched this whole season expecting those freshman mistakes to turn into something better a year down the line. Now we're hitting the reset button at a time where we have an all-American point guard ready to win now.
With regards to Durham, it wasn't only me or this board who had a love affair with him. The scouting services kept him in the top 50 even after the second ACL tear, and Ollie raved about his potential like no other prospect he's coached. Even in a year where he was ginger, rusty, and raw, he demonstrated skills that you could project into a system down the line. I suppose, though, that I have a fundamental disagreement with much of this board regarding what a big man is supposed to provide in the modern game. Jordan Bell is 6'7, 190 pounds and he was arguably the best center in the NCAA Tournament. I don't understand how more people don't see, conceptually, after our last two titles, how that type of player - long, rangy, bouncy - at the center position is essential to our success. This isn't 2002. Defenses are sophisticated enough to function at an elite level despite conceding size and bulk at certain positions. Nova had one of the best defenses in the country this year with Kris f ing Jenkins playing center for a lot of the time. This idea that everybody who plays center here needs to look like DeJuan Blair or Jeff Adrien is outdated.
We won't know whether Durham would have changed things or not. There's a good chance he wouldn't have. Ultimately it doesn't matter. It matters that we were counting on him to play a big role on next years team. You can't replace that this late in the game, because it's not just about finding talented guys and recruiting them, it's about identifying the right player.
