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Ipsaro. Assuming he can regain even 75% of his explosiveness, he’s the point man.
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Skaljac. He’s earned a spot in the starting 5 somewhere, even if he has to play center.
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Kirby. Maybe a touch small for a 3 man, but he plays big and jumps outta the gym for boards
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Almar. I think he can thrive at the 4 spot without having to guard the opponents Big.
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Robbins. I’ve been high on this kid early and I think he makes a huge leap next year. The summer vids look like he hit his adult puberty or got a little hgh booster
probably giving Copeland a slight edge over Robbins as of today otherwise our bigs are too slow. Robbins does look like he dropped the baby fat and leaned out, would love to see him earn that spot
I see Almar in pretty much the same role as last season. I don’t know anything about Copeland, but I agree he may be the guy to start.
I like to say it’s not who starts, it’s who finishes. Feel free to use that.
I think Copeland is starting but Robbins is going to have to play real minutes as we are very limited on defensive size with any experience. We will need him to rise to the opportunity.
I think in MAC play we’ll almost certainly be playing three guards. Most teams in the conference can’t punish playing small too much.
I think Elam is gonna start or certainly play similar minutes as Kirby. Ipsaro might be limited to begin the season.
I think we will be doing small ball more often than not which is fine by me. With Steele in charge, I am fine with anything.
I think the initial post is probably correct but I’d swap out Copeland for Robbins. Copeland fits a little more in the mold of how our bigs play and has more experience. That being said I think Robbins showed a lot of promise and has the potential to make a jump. Either way, I’m excited to have a true backup center unlike last year.
Assuming Ipsaro is healthy, I could almost see him playing more off the ball and Skally being the primary ballhandler. I think Luke is a more natural passer/playmaker than Evan is, but you can’t go wrong with either guy at the point.
It’s possible it might be Elam over Kirby. I’d be comfortable either way.
Atlason is a natural four (the way we play) and I think it’s the position where his defensive deficiencies can be best masked. He’s not athletic or quick enough to defend on the wing and not big enough to defend in the post, but other teams fours are where he’s going to have the best shot to compete athletically.
One option depending on the opponent could be playing Copeland and Robbins together. With Robbins ability to shoot the three we would still be able to space the floor. We tried it a few times with Potter and Woolfolk back in 24/25.
Rich Rolf is also a great option to play either forward spot. The three if we want to play bigger or the four if we want to go smaller.
If the starters are Ipsaro/Skaljac/Kirby/Atlason/Robbins, that gives us a bench of Elam/Rolf/Robbins/Waltz. That’s a pretty good bench with a lot of flexibility. Wildcards are the true freshmen and Stowers. At least one true freshmen has played meaningful minutes every year Steele has been here. Anyone’s guess if that happens this year. As far as Stowers goes our last redshirt was Brant Byers and that worked out pretty well.
Overall, I like the roster. There’s a lot of positional flexibility and shooting. I think our guards are going to be awesome. Concerns would be Ipsaro’s health and frontcourt depth/experience.
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An interesting wrinkle with the freshmen is the elimination of redshirts. I expect to see all of them sprinkled in and get some minutes, especially in early games before we get into the meat of conference play. No reason not to anymore.