First, I will say that rebuilds don't happen overnight. I don't care what Hurley's track record or timeline is at past rebuilds at other programs. He isn't free of blame here and we all want to see incremental improvement but a good chunk of our fanbase has been in denial about how far we had fallen and how bare the cupboard really was. If people can't tell the massive difference between Hurley's first recruiting class and what we've had over the last 4-5 years then I don't know what to tell them. This will take time, it may take a few more years than we realized. Hurley isn't a perfect coach and enough folks knew that X's and O's were his weakness. When that's the case, you need your Jimmys and your Joes. The biggest thing holding back this program is talent. We get the program full of Hurley guys and we will continue to improve.
Anyway...
Adams has improved.
Carlton has improved but he remains wildly inconsistent. He's a low-ceiling 3-star guy who can take advantage of certain matchups and will be a minimal factor in others. He's not much more than a beefier Gavin Edwards. I view Carlton like I view Brimah: they're both far better than I expected given their recruiting rankings but they aren't great bigs. They'll have good games and bad. No coach in the history of the sport is turning Josh Carlton into a 20 & 10 guy.
Sid Wilson is Marcus Johnson. There just isn't enough there. We talked about it during the summer: he was bad last year. Whaley has improved but not significantly. Same goes for Polley but again, these KO recruits are mid-major guys. If they're going to make a big leap it'll likely be going into their senior year.
This all comes down to a mix of a simple offense and a veteran backcourt that has been bad. Our team isn't that talented and we need a system or playmaking guards to elevate our current talent. College basketball has always been about guards and we've had terrible guard play this year. Al is shooting .306 from the field. Vital is at .381. Neither sets the table well for other guys.
