Is it possible Dan Hurley was so focused on "athletic ability" that he didn't even look seriously at guys like Filipowski and Karaban until recently?
No idea. If I were to guess, this last season probably just made him realize we need more shooters than he thought. Getting our asses kicked by teams like 'Nova and Creighton because they could shoot is tough. Another couple of shooters when Bouk went down would've given us a couple more Ws, potentially. You get the idea. Shooters are insurance for when your stars don't play well. Shooters help you score when everything else is going wrong. Shooting is the #1 #2 and #3 most important skill for any player under 6'10.
I want us to maintain our dominance on the offense boards, and to be bigger and badder than everyone else on defense still. It's our identity and it's a hell of a lot of fun to watch. But the reality is that in 2021, you need more shooters than we had. Making sure that we can throw 3-4 35%+ shooters on the floor for 40 minutes a game will make us that much better. Guys like Andre and BAdams are going by the wayside in the modern game (though I do think Andre has so many other skills that he can still be an asset)
It SEEMS like Coach has figured that we need shooters with the direction our recruiting has gone. Next step will be to do a better job with the hard hedging. Seems like we plan to add a better press as well from recent interviews. We can't fit square pegs (Sanogo, Clingan) into round holes like we can with Whaley or Johnson or Akok--those guys are great at the hard hedge. Scheming so that bigs who do thrive in the hard hedge can do that, and then keeping our slower bigs out of foul-inducing situations that pull them from the hoop is important for us next year. You do that by ALSO teaching drop coverages, and manipulating matchups to our benefit in the game, etc.
Later in the season when Sanogo was abusing the big east but needed to stay out of foul trouble, it looked to me like coach had started that process with him. Hopefully it continues next year--we need him for 25-30 minutes a game in the post.
IMO, with more shooters and a sensible plan for defense, coupled with our excellent recruiting, I don't see why we can't be a staple in the AP Poll for the foreseeable future.
