Ven-Allen Lubin is a Commodore

[roanoke]

I do think the Florida Atlantic model is consistent with Stack's vision of waves of guys playing tough defense and wearing teams down. While we have shown signs of wanting to do this in the past, we have not had enough players to actually do it.

This squad seems pretty deep on athletes - we just need scorers on the court as well. If Lawrence comes back - I think Stack will have a team he really likes. If we attract one more center - I think we will be dangerous. I think starting Manjon, Taylor, Smith, Lubin, and Dort has potential - but add another dependable big and it becomes dangerous. If Lawrence comes back, we have the capability of going "small" with Manjon, Lawrence, Taylor, Smith, Lubin. That line-up - if everyone lives up to expectations - might be pretty scary. Especially with dangerous guys like Dort and Lewis and, I'm expecting a couple of really good freshmen, in the wings.

Bottom line, things are starting to take shape - I am not in love with the new portal world order, but I do think we are putting together a good roster. In a world where good begets better - we may attract a really good center out there in the ether: a lot of these kids just want an opportunity to win. We will win with another solid center.

[buffy]

Evaluating Stack, no one can argue he's giving less than a 100% for Vanderbilt. I'm grateful for him.

[mathguy]

I like this pickup a lot. But still concerned that 8 or 9 of the 13 players on this roster will be freshmen or sophomores. That will be tough…

Doesn't bother me at all ... as long as we can get most of them to stick around to be sophomores or juniors the next year...

I feel pretty good about the sophomores, but I'd be surprised if we don't lose at least two of the freshmen. At the moment our rotation is almost certain to have the following:

Lose two freshmen? 7 out of 9 returning does qualify as "most" last time I checked.

[Jason94]

Doesn't bother me at all ... as long as we can get most of them to stick around to be sophomores or juniors the next year...

I feel pretty good about the sophomores, but I'd be surprised if we don't lose at least two of the freshmen. At the moment our rotation is almost certain to have the following:

Lose two freshmen? 7 out of 9 returning does qualify as "most" last time I checked.

where did I disagree with "most"? Since you included those who already made it past freshman season, it seems likely that is the case. But also glosses over the fact that it is our freshmen class that is the one we have to pay attention to since that is the class that is the one that is likely to have the most casualties. I don't know that I agree with recruiting so many freshmen knowing that attrition rate is going to approach or exceed 50%.

[UltimateVUFan]

I feel pretty good about the sophomores, but I'd be surprised if we don't lose at least two of the freshmen. At the moment our rotation is almost certain to have the following:

Lose two freshmen? 7 out of 9 returning does qualify as "most" last time I checked.

where did I disagree with "most"? Since you included those who already made it past freshman season, it seems likely that is the case. But also glosses over the fact that it is our freshmen class that is the one we have to pay attention to since that is the class that is the one that is likely to have the most casualties. I don't know that I agree with recruiting so many freshmen knowing that attrition rate is going to approach or exceed 50%.

I understand this sentiment. Though, one could also argue that if you’ll ultimately play a rotation where 7 guys log the majority of minutes with 3 others filling in situationally, you’ll have 3 guys relegated to practice and the bench. Ostensibly, how much can you sell polished transfers on possibly being one of those “relegated” players? Then there are the transfer challenges VU coaches face, which have been discussed in the past. I see some value in gambling on 4-5 freshmen knowing that some won’t pan out, but also seeing the value in developing them in your system early while they are still highly coachable.

[AuricGoldfinger]

One thing I'm curious about is why Lubin's time seemed to fluctuate so much over the course of the season. Notre Dame was a bad team this year, and it may have just been more minutes in garbage time.

[Jason94]

Lose two freshmen? 7 out of 9 returning does qualify as "most" last time I checked.

where did I disagree with "most"? Since you included those who already made it past freshman season, it seems likely that is the case. But also glosses over the fact that it is our freshmen class that is the one we have to pay attention to since that is the class that is the one that is likely to have the most casualties. I don't know that I agree with recruiting so many freshmen knowing that attrition rate is going to approach or exceed 50%.

I understand this sentiment. Though, one could also argue that if you’ll ultimately play a rotation where 7 guys log the majority of minutes with 3 others filling in situationally, you’ll have 3 guys relegated to practice and the bench. Ostensibly, how much can you sell polished transfers on possibly being one of those “relegated” players? Then there are the transfer challenges VU coaches face, which have been discussed in the past. I see some value in gambling on 4-5 freshmen knowing that some won’t pan out, but also seeing the value in developing them in your system early while they are still highly coachable.

I can buy that. I might just require the staff getting better at recruiting HS talent - the players need to be rotation level as a freshman or they are going to likely transfer.

[Jason94]

One thing I'm curious about is why Lubin's time seemed to fluctuate so much over the course of the season. Notre Dame was a bad team this year, and it may have just been more minutes in garbage time.

Who knows - he would get up to 28 or 33 minutes in some games and then 7 or a DNP in others. Part of it was that as bad as they were, they started 4 seniors for most of the year and then a 5th when Starling went down. Their starting PF stood 6'-6", and I would guess if they needed more size then Lubin would play but against smaller teams maybe they stayed small?

Either way, his rate stats are impressive for a freshman and hopefully he will be able to fill the massive rebounding void that we had at the end of the season.