I try not to worry too much about starting lineups this early for a couple reasons. One, injuries can happen and resolve those questions for you. And two, if we actually do have more than five guys good enough to be starting quality players in the SEC, that would be a welcome change. Last year, we had Kobe and then Goodine starting. That was a weak spot all year, and Miles is also someone who would have ideally been a second unit guy. And we started a five who was below replacement level value, to borrow a baseball phrase.
If we are healthy and if everyone lives up to their potential, this is where coaching comes into play. Brown and Pack seem obvious starters. At the three and four, figure out guys strengths and weaknesses, figure out which guys work best together, figure out a way to always keep a balance of offense and defense on the floor. We had too many times this year where you’d look at the five guys on the court and wonder who the heck was going to score (when Fears was on the bench or in his midseason slump). NBA coaches are much better about rotations. Porter still has a tendency to seemingly experiment with random combinations that make no sense. That stuff needs to be ironed out in November and December.
I’ve seen lots of Twitter announcements this week about noncon games that various teams are playing. Believe I saw that Texas is playing Duke on a neutral floor. Props to them. And Arizona is putting together another unreal slate. Meanwhile, I can’t help but think Moser is making daily calls to all the teams ranked 300 and below in the early rankings. Boy would I love to be wrong about this for once.
