In terms of Wardle, I think it’s undeniable he successfully rebuilt the program. Just in time too, because in today’s world I don’t know how you do that. The guys like Roger Powell and such I feel bad for, because what chance do they have to build a program? You basically need strong recruiting ties, large NIL for your league, and some kind of pre-established success as a coach or school immediately or you have no chance because good players will move up immediately.
However, at this point I would say it’s time to bump up to the next level of success. It’s not that I’m not appreciative or don’t think it could be worse. I certainly don't want to get rid of Brian. I think he’s shown he can grown and learn from past mistakes too. I hope he is here a while. I believe if we are number one in NIL and coaching salary in the Valley, then it stands to reason we should expect to be top of the Valley in success. We are close, but not quite there yet. This is the first year I thought blatantly obvious mistakes were made that prevented us from being great, and that was predictable in the offseason. Still a very good year, but not great. This year was supposed to be the height of the program, and I hope, it wasn’t. So while still a good year, that’s somewhat of a disappointment. Does that mean high expectations? Absolutely. Are those unreasonable? I don’t think so given the things mentioned above. Also, I think Brian wants to get to that next level of success too.
The two things I’d like to see improve - recruiting the best players we can get (given they are good character guys) and not settling for easy or comfortable. Guys need challenged for their spots here. I get that’s a tough balance with how easily they can leave, but it needs to be done. Second, I’d like to see a more cohesive offensive plan with more sets when we get in ruts. We finally got the shooters I’ve wanted this past year, but we rarely seemed to be able to run sets to get them open. We seem to have a lot of one-on-one mentality when in a scoring drought.
I know some have claimed we should hand the keys to the freshmen immediately. I won’t pretend to know how good or not they are until I see them play. I know they were highly rated for Bradley recruits, but that doesn’t always translate immediately. In my opinion, we need a starting caliber 2, 4, 5. I’d like to see something like this where we get another guard to compete with Burch for the starting 2 guard. Burch has shown flashes, but enough to anoint him and compete for a league title? No. He’s not so good he shouldn’t be challenged. I want a Hickman like defensive guy who can shoot a little. We missed his perimeter defense this year. A four who can score at multiple levels, and a rebounder down low at the five spot. Meta is also much improved and better than I thought he’d ever be, but he also is not good enough to just anoint and compete where we want to. Van der Knaap and Atlason can battle out for backup 4 minutes (I don’t think Almar is a 3 or 5, but a 4 and he needs to improve a lot). Meta and Thomas can compete for backup 5 minutes. Could also use Thomas at the four if VDK and Almar don’t step up. I like Almar but he seems like a player that really struggles with the mental part of the game in terms of fighting through when things aren’t a going his way. He needs to work on resilience I think.
My ideal depth chart (goes 13 not 15 - hard to predict how those two new spots will be used):
1- Johnson, Wheeler, Rugaard (I think he can play and assume will get a scholarship of the now 15)
2 - Recruit/Burch, Recruit/Burch
3 - Richardson (if he earns it), Zobrist
4 - Koch like recruit, Van der Knapp/Atlason, Van der Knapp/Atlason
5 - Recruit (Sommerville in a dream world), Meta/Thomas, Meta/Thomas
This gives the freshman a chance to compete and win minutes immediately and also creates good competition for the full rotation.
