Brian: The big news on the Heights over the weekend was that the defections continue for the BC men’s basketball team. This time, it is 6'10" forward Kevin Noreen, who had signed a letter of intent back in the fall but has now asked to be released from that LOI. While his status remains uncertain, with Noreen and Heslip both having asked for permission to transfer, it remains highly unlikely that BC’s final recruit - Papa Samba Ndao - sticks around at this point.
The loss of Sanders, Heslip, Noreen and (we’ll assume for a moment) Ndao leaves the 2010-2011 Eagles with 8 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons. Here is what the current BC roster looks like:
Seniors
G Biko Paris (4.8 PPG)
G Nick Mosakowski (0.5)
F Joe Trapani (14.1)
F Corey Raji (11.4)
F Cortney Dunn (0.9)
C Josh Southern (4.4)
Juniors
G Reggie Jackson (12.9)
G Dallas Elmore (3.9)
G-F Peter Rehnquist (1.0)
F Evan Ravenel (3.3)
That's it. That's the list. Six seniors (with one walk-on), four juniors (and another walk-on), no sophomores and no freshmen.
It has been rumored by multiple sources that Donahue has been pushing players to leave rather than them wanting to leave the BC program on their own. Now I understand a new coach’s desire to shape the program as he sees best, but the Eagles’ roster is becoming dangerously thin next season. Not counting Mosakowski and Rehnquist, BC currently only has 8 players that have seen any significant playing time in their career.
Do you remain confident that Donahue will bring in players that will be able to contribute right away? Or with Sanders and the entire original Class of 2010 defecting, can we now pronounce the 2010-2011 season dead on arrival?
Jeff: We cannot pronounce this season dead on arrival. I am confident that Donahue will bring in one freshman who will contribute and that will be enough to win some games this season. Are we going to the Sweet 16? No. But we were not going to do that if Skinner were here, so why would that happen given everything that has happened?
Stop looking at the number of players on the roster and look at who we do have. What we have is the same team as last year when Sanders was out of the lineup. Now was that team going to win the ACC? No. But Roche, despite having two 30 point games last year did not play a ton of minutes and the loss of him to graduation is easily replaced by the 8 other guys having another offseason to improve their games and hit the weight room.
Sanders was really a disappointment at BC. Losing Sanders is a loss because of what everything we had hoped he would become, but not because of his actual on court production. It is likely that whatever group of players earn his minutes will be able to put up the numbers he did as a unit.
Most importantly, doesn't it make you feel a lot better that Donahue is encouraging certain players to leave rather than these players just leaving on their own? We at least know things are going according to his plan so now we have to wait and see if that was a good plan or not.