With another game in the books, it's now becoming clear that the freshmen big men will not be much of a factor. Campbell started a smaller team, but did play a 6-10, 230lb big off the bench for 19 minutes. Up comfortably most of the 2nd half this would have been an easy spot to play either a few minutes if they were capable players. Pinedo again was the 3rd big off the bench logging 15 minutes in the game while going 0-2 with 0 points, 3 rebounds and +1 on the night. That was the 2nd lowest plus-minus on the team that won by 14 (LaCount -2).
In the spring, I curated a list of transfers entering the portal, of those heading to mid and low-major destinations. Among them, a multitude of proven shooters far surpassing ECU's 315th ranked 31% team average last season. The abundance of talented shooters made it impractical to enumerate all those names. The outside shooting still seems to be an issue (31% vs Campbell), but the absence of a Ludgy remains the bigger issue to focus on when they play better teams.
When considering big men, a total of 33 were part of my compiled list. Proven shooters may be abundant, but the scarcity and higher demand of productive bigs usually carry more value. Focusing on those who played on the east coast, had connections to the region or the ECU staff, or were foreign players with no affiliations, these individuals fit the caliber of players ECU could have competed for in recruitment last offseason.
On numerous occasions over the past year, there have been explanations from ECU fans and others asserting that such transfers are not attainable for ECU, often attributing this limitation to a blanket excuse of NIL. However, there is a list of several dozen
The listed transfers I personally favored represent only a fraction of the available talent. For instance, players like Igor Milicic, whom Dooley recruited went to Charlotte, along with Dishon Jackson, who began in the Pac-12 and was re-recruited by their interim coach after he reenterd the protal, indicate opportunities that were there. Furthermore, there are numerous other players like Szymon Zapala going to Longwood who either did not receive opportunities in competitive teams or moved to different destinations I didn't have on my list. The landscape is abundant with such examples who were bigger and would have been more ready than freshmen or teenagers like Pinedo.
Some were advocating today for a wait of 2 or 3 additional years for the development of these freshmen . The portal analogy is that of a supermarket filled with readily available talent, frequented by almost all other programs more heavily than the approach of ECU. The likening of ECU to the Amish, choosing to cultivate talent internally like farming seeds for an extended seasons. The frustration is compounded by the belief that, ultimately, most of the internally developed talents will most likely end up in the same "supermarket" if they ever are eventually farmed up from a farm team.
This team will be at as severe size disadvantage anytime Ausar or BJ are off the court, and perhaps defensively even when they are on the court in most conference matchups. There was hope that the unknown bigs would be a factor less than a week ago and now that seems to gone. There are a lot to like about this team but the obvious weaknesses of shooting or a back up big could have been addressed with proven players.
