Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Hoops - The Paul Hewitt Rosters

I put this together at lunch and thought it would be an interesting way to look at the change in Coach Hewitt's rosters since he has been here. You can see where he's had to deal with adversity. In studying this chart, it becomes clear to me that this season is year 1 of a new era. We knew that already, but having the current crop of soph's on last year's team doesn't really count. The core of Luke, Ish, BJ, T-Mac and Will was out and this is the first full year of a new crop. You also notice that only 1 of the 4 signed in the class of 2002/2003 actually made it to their senior season - the other three all went pro prior to reaching senior status.


So once again, it only visually highlights what we already knew - this is a new era for Coach Hewitt. This is a brand new team with individual talent learning what it takes to play as a team. They didn't quite "get it" this season, but there glimpses of something more. So don't jump ship and prepare to jump back on the bandwagon next season if you're off for the moment.


Another interesting point - Coach Hewitt has yet to figure out how to actually have 13 guys on scholarship in a season. He's varied between 10-12 and actually only had 12 one season. So while everyone's wondering how the numbers are going to work out, just know this - they will. He may be working closer to the line than years past, but that's a good thing. His first class consisted of all 4 year guys. His next class consisted of 1 4-year guy, 2 NBA players and a Swedish all-star. Where is the Dickey/Fredrick/Smith/Morrows class? Probably mostly 3-4 year guys again - to stock the cupboard, then next year's class - about half-and-half with 1-2 year guys and 3-4 year guys. It seems to me Coach Hewitt is figuring this thing out (after getting burned a few times) and he'll carry closer to the limit and he'll recruit to reload.


Click the image for the large version.