Rebuilding; yes and no. They are rebuilding their focal points and star power along with where they are going to get leadership from and that can be a problem. Talent is going to be there but talent without chemistry is chaos and that has not done Holtmann any favors in the past. If he finds a floor leader early and can really lean on him come game time, the youngsters get time to come into their own. If not it leads us to an underwhelming season but Holtmann has pulled some magic out before. Injuries need to stay the hell away from this team though they've been through more than their fair share.
Yeah. Losing EJ and Malaki, by far the best players on last year's team, leaves a big hole; however, they have a number of experienced college players which should vastly reduce the learning curve for this team. I feel like they have the makings of a top-25 team, just worried a bit about perimeter shooting. They will need more than just McNeil to be hitting from 3. To me, Holden, Thornton and Sensabaugh are the x-factors - if a couple of those guys prove to be reliable 2-way starters, this team will be near the top of the B1G. You kind of know what you're getting with Key, Sueing, Ice & McNeil - those four guys are gonna be good, solid core contributors just not all-B1G type of players. Whether the freshmen Thornton and Sensabaugh are ready for prime time is to me the key to this team making a deep tourney run or just winning 20 games and making the tourney again.
(There’s a lot of D1 Bball programs now)
