Quite a few guys are moving on after our tremendous season. Four seniors graduated and we also ended up losing two non-seniors to the JBL, with one in particular being a heartbreaker. But, we can get over about anything with a championship trophy in our possession.
The
seniors (in alphabetical order)
Jack Amoke, 6'4", 192, Waco, Texas
As I said in the previous post, I probably gave Amoke whiplash from how often he was in and out of the rotation. At the end of the day, he just wasn't aggressive enough to force me to play him. His ratings and athleticism made him look like a solid wing defender, but that's so hard to quantify in a text sim. Repeated 0-1 games from three made it easy to bench him, even when his percentages still turned out solid.
Josh Armstrong, 7'1", 252, Shelbyville, Texas
Came in with another huge center, Travis Tomic. Tomic was cut immediately after his first season, but somehow Armstrong stuck around. He essentially was the 3rd string, emergency center his whole career. And his play time completely relied on the guys in front of him getting in foul trouble. He did have a few spurts over the years where I briefly gave him a few minutes in the rotation.
Wallace Power, 6'8", 206, Glendale, Arizona
A guy with a troublesome attitude that I'm surprised handled his benching as well as he did. He started as a sophomore after transferring in, and had a solid season even if it was on a pretty flawed team. Has great size, defends and is efficient around the rim and in his mid-range game. Just couldn't shoot threes, and it limited him, and me when figuring out lineup combinations. But, did a great job in the national tournament, going 10/12 from the field across 6 games, and a 4-4 performance in the championship game.
Cameron Stutz, 6'1", 182, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Local guy who toughed out limited playing time as an underclassman as well as getting sent back to the bench his senior year. He was solid as a starter (replacing Power) bringing us better spacing and more playmaking ability in the backcourt. But, he was ideal as a backup point guard. Rarely made mistakes, hit a decent percentage of threes, and then sat the other 30 minutes of the game.
And the guys who declared with eligibility left:
Wayne Brown, 6'7", 212, Wright City, Oklahoma
Despite his unimpressive JBL prospects, Brown just didn't have much left to prove. The former 5 star was efficient on the wing, was our best three point shooter by volume, and was just a consistent stud pretty much the entire year. Including in the championship game where he had 5 steals and the game winning block. If we hadn't won the championship I think he probably comes back, but again, it's hard to complain. He was also the captain of the team this year, so we have some major, major shoes to fill.
Mekel Duell, 6'4", 198, Bossier City, Louisiana
This was the stunner. I had already accepted the awesome future of having him for four years, because I just didn't see him going pro. He doesn't have great size at the 2, doesn't shoot the three well (to be fair, I didn't let him), and is just a solid athlete, nothing insane. But, the guy can get to the basket and works the mid-range game like nobody's business. He was the MVP of the tournament, and like Brown, really didn't have a ton left to prove at this level, so off he goes. I definitely think he'll get drafted, unlike Brown who I think is 50/50. I had visions of him being the top dog for the next 3 seasons, but instead I'm looking at rebuilding my entire wing rotation, with Power, Amoke, Brown and Duell all off to other things.
Edit- Looks like when I uploaded photos to the hosting site, I was not consistent in the size that I uploaded them in. Duell deserved the largest photo anyways.