Idk that you (referring to Boals and co) can pencil in Evans as the starting 5 next year. He hasn't shown anything that he can handle that.

I'm all for competition, but if Boals is telling potential portal bigs they'd come off the bench then I think that's huge mistake and limits the quality of not only the portal big but next year's overall roster.

Yes, you'd be insane to pencil in Evans as a starter. What do his rate stats suggest he does well?

Bottom line is that there were many points this year where we were desperate for size, and Evans couldn't crack the rotation despite that. How somebody was rated in high school is far less relevant in my mind than how they actually perform in college, and everything we saw from Evans suggests he's a ways away from contributing.

I agree. He isn't ready and he needs to earn his minutes like everyone else.

That being said he's got massive potential. He was highly rated and recruited for a reason.

He's tall and long. He has hops. He's athletic. He is going to be a stud shot blocker once he learns rotations and positioning. He's a smart kid. He'll learn so he's not out of position and looking lost/fouling like he did this year. He has good touch out to the 3pt line. We all know Boals covets bigs than can pick and pop or face up to create mismatches. Don't think he'll ever reach BVP status but even if he hits a couple jumpers per game. Then, just let the kid rim run. We saw his highlight reel dunks.

I absolutely could see him becoming a Jon Smith mixed with DeVaughn Washington and a side of AJC.

We don't necessarily need 18 and 10 from him. If he becomes a 10 and 6 guy with 2 blocks a night that's a win.

I have not seen this in his game at all. When did he show that touch?

FJC, I think you prove my point. If the middle of mid majors NIL is $290,000, we are almost $100,000 below the mid point and much further away from the top 20-25 percentile. We may be trending but we do not appear really competitive in the NIL market.

I'm not sure how deep you dove into the article, but it references the Missouri Valley Conference as a mid-major with the $290K average. The MVC is a superior conference to the MAC. So while we might be in the lower echelon nationally, it still doesn't explain our discrepancy against top MAC schools.

#1 none of that is actually public record. So you all getting excited over nothing. But my golly, when we get UMass in the league, do you think we get two bids or three?