@LosAngelesWolverine1 wrote:
2013 and 2014. In fact, there are a lot of stats out there every year about how the top teams are almost always highly ranked in offensive efficiency.
This just circles back to the same discussion. Players that are great on both offense and defense are known as five star, one and done recruits. We're not getting many of those guys (and I course I don't think we would be getting many no matter who's coaching). So if the choice is great offense/average-to-slightly below average defense (say a Nik, or a Jordan Poole), versus below average offense and great defense, I'm taking the former.
With that said, one way to really tweak this (that I think we both agree on) is big man recruiting. I don't see us landing any Diamond Stones in the near future. But, JB loves to recruit bigs that he thinks have some face up game (Donnal being a perfect example). To date, that has really worked out poorly for the most part. I'd be all in favor of getting some more athletic, shot blocking types, especially when for the most part, all they're asked to do on offensive is set picks and roll to the basket.
On 2013 recruiting, by the way, think how much better this current team would be with either VJ Beachem or Malcolm Hill (two guys we recruited but didn't offer). Or Demetrius Jackson or Monte Morris. We're after the right guys for the most part, we just didn't get the return we expected from Walton, Irvin, Chatman, or Donnal.