Sellers

My recruiting strategy in this day and age if I'm a MAC coach: Forget high school kids, you're just wasting time developing players for other programs. Go hard on the portal and JUCOs, maybe overseas kids if you can make those connections.

It seems to be proven time and again in college basketball that experienced guard play wins ... so I certainly don't recruit high school guards. I recruit transfers guards who have the attributes that fit the team I want to create. I'm going to get them for 2-3 years at the top of their game, as opposed to a good high school guard who I'm going to have for 2-3 years while he learns enough to be interesting to another school. The same is true for big kids; if they're good you're just going to have them long enough to make them interesting to a poaching program.

I devote maybe 4 scholarships to ugly duckling high schoolers. A chubby Peyton Sparks. A undersized Ray McCallum. These are players I'm going to recruit over every year, but every now and then one of them - or two - are going to surprise me and be extremely valuable by the time they're a junior, or sophomore ... or maybe even freshman. Maybe, if they're like Sparks, I lose them after a couple of years. But none of the big boys will likely come after my sub 6-foot guards, so if I strike it rich there I probably keep them for 4 years. 

He will be a role player and it may be a bad move but thats tge risk

It appears where ever sellers lands its going to be a P5 which makes me feel better. If it had been a lateral move or god forbid Toledo Akron or Kent we would have had to ask serious questions

Bailey looks like a good replacement for Sellers. Good shooter, 6-4, maybe a better ball handler. Not proven, but he's going to get a chance for big time PT, not just a reserve.

DJ is replaced well by Jalin Anderson with similar game and stats in slightly better conference. Probably not the shot blocker, but reputation as a good defender.

Coleman would complete a 3 guard lineup.

B-Watts is similar to, but at least a small upgrade in performance in all areas to Bumb as a guard off the bench.

Sellers, a proven player, is a big loss. But if any one or a combination of Adams, Bell or Brown can step in, we may be equal to last year in the backcourt.

Had he returned we would be better there, with almost certainly more depth. A chance to be in the top group has probably become less likely unless we make a good addition late. Hard to replace Sparks and Sellers.

Your thoughts are good on paper but i keep going back to why no one else was offering these guys

I think I am basically in line with that assessment of the roster.  Probably wont crash and burn, by which I mean we wont end up down in the 300's with the real refuse of the conference.  

However, last season you might say we were a "borderline contender" which means we weren't by any means a favorite, but were talented enough to go into the MAC tourney with a puncher's chance.  Next year's roster now lacks top-flight talent with the possible exception of Boogie, who is always something of an inconsistent wild card, and in any case is not good enough to carry a team on his back.  So, not even a borderline contender at this juncture.  

Of course the transfer portal is still open, but we would need a real impact player, probably a big, to be a contender.  And Lewis has not yet recruited a single such player  So, it doesnt seem too likely to happen yet this summer.  

In other words the roster will be worse than last year.  In other words Lewis has moved the program backwards so far.

If we can flip Seller's scholarship for a front court player, especially that Seton Hall transfer from Indy, Deante Tae Davis, I think we could still salvage something of benefit from this. Basically trade some of our guard depth for more front court help.