Bigs getting not so big

Of course it is still very early and as you mentioned above, lots of questions remain unanswered. We also have 6-6 Kennedy Brown and 6-3 Taylor Jones, both are more than capable of playing the 5. I like Jones a lot at the 5. Long, athletic, and skilled goes a long way in the Pac-12 and Taylor has it all. It will be a big adjustment, but I think she is ready. Kennedy at 6-6 is another option. I know she wants to play a 4, but if her options are spending time backing up Corosdale at the 4 or big minutes at the 5, I'm confident Kennedy is going to do what is best for the team. She is very skilled and has great size but still very mobile. I like those two a lot.

I didn't realize it had been announced that neither Andrea nor Jelena would play this coming year. When did that happen? Was any reason given in either instance?

What's that you say? No such announcement has been made in either case?

Then why is four hundred eleven thousand five hundred talking about their 2019-20 seasons in the past tense?

When's the last time we got a 5-star recruit at Center? That should be the question that's asked that was eligible to play. This will be the first time so that is good news maybe a new trend.

411500, You are correct in your statement that no freshmen has ever started at post in recent memory for the OSU, but Ruth came in as a huge project (and 6'4" and 6'7" were ahead of her though neither were great, though good), so, much like Trish, she wasn't at the level of a Pac-12 starter as a freshmen, but Rueck and Co. developed her into everything they had hoped, a tall, strong center that rebounds and defends at the rim, and she had developed an arsenal of offensive moves that helped her become one of the most dominant two-way centers as a junior and senior. Gulich, while she had a nice freshman campaign was not going to start in front of Ruth - who was perhaps the best pure center in the country at the time -as a frosh. Last year, although there wasn't a dominant center ahead of her (much like there wasn't one ahead of Ruth as a freshman), she was too raw for Pac-12 play, but she has all the tools to become what Ruth did, and the athleticism to go further.

I think that Mitrovic, Brown, and Jones come in with a little more polish than Morris and Hamblin did, and there is no dominant post player ahead of them like there was Hamblin when Gulich was there. Morris is still a big question, because she has a lot of potential, and Rueck praises her as a quick, dilligent learner, so I certainly wouldn't rule out a big leap from her. Mitrovic comes in with an extremely unique skillset for 6'9". She has a soft touch, a crazy high IQ for 6'9", and finds the open player like a PG (she averaged 2.2 ASTS). Her only downside is her lack of conditioning and up-and-down the floor speed (which is a much easier fix than lateral and mobility issues IMO). The degree of her injury is still questionable, as is her return timetable. I agree with rmancarl in that it would be helpful for many reasons to have her redshirt (recovery, adapt to new life, condition, and balance class sizes), but it would be nice to have her if Rueck thinks she is a difference maker as a freshman.

As noted in a number of previous posts, Patricia Morris is relatively inexperienced being a 3 sport athlete in High School and not eating and sleeping in basketball. I do not believe she was on any specialty teams playing high level competition around the country unlike most of the other more experienced recruits? Pretty much under the radar. This could be viewed negatively but on the other hand there could be a lot of potential that just requires more experience and some playing time. As suggested by beaverwbb fan, don’t count Morris out.

it requires a lot of flexibility and concentration

I think Maddie did a great job at post last year. Her only real problem was on defense when her opposition was 6'4" or more. Offensively she learned when to pull the ball away from the basket to shoot, and after having a hard time shooting at too short a range by the end of the season she found the sweet spot and was shooting consistently. My hope for the off season is that she works on her rebounding. It's not natural for her, but she can work on boxing out etc that can be much improved by practice. Maddie can get it all done, but she has to have a bit of cussedness that I think may just not be in her nature. Both she and Taya are sweet, kind people who have a hard time with the whole "You shall not PASS" aspect of the game. But they have both shown it at times. Let's hope they both can bring it out more.

Pat is a mystery, but I think she will be what we need next season. Her improvement over the last season was fantastic. There wasn't a single aspect of her game that didn't get better. If she keeps it up over the off season she will be our salvation when the true bigs come along. Someone mentioned that they thought that SR's teams need a scoring post to have the offense work and I completely disagree. So long as someone can drive and score at the basket it's irrelevant as to whether the post is also scoring. What SR really needs for his teams to be really successful is a post who can back up the defense.