Something I think for the most part we overlook every single year is the player Improvement seen under Sampson, especially as the program has evolved under his tenure. Universally players have tended to improve year to year and sometimes even as the season goes on, basically nobody regresses.
This about the difference from Shead from last year to this year, especially in the second half. Sasser made a similar leap from his sophomore to junior year. Grimes from his first year to second. Francis, Roberts, Jarreau, Gray, Fabian, Wilson, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few all saw massive improvements year to year. Also one and done players like Carlton and Taze made leaps in their one year, especially as the season went on.
It’s easy as fans to look at the team and think we need better players at xyz spot. I think about last year’s debate of needing a rim protecting center because we had no experienced centers on the roster, then Francis cemented that spot and became a very good defensive force.
I would not be surprised to see big improvements from players like Sharp, Cryer, Tugler, and Francis (Arcenaux is the wild card due to the injury, maybe he picks back up where he was and improves or maybe he struggles to regain his athleticism this season, let’s remember that achilles injuries used to be career enders). And there’s a lot of players that we just don’t know about like Jefferson, Miller, and McFarland who could contribute in limited minutes. Also Uzan who is coming in as a Junior and could really step up his game under Sampson assuming he is willing to embrace the culture.
All of that to say that I am REALLY excited for next season, it could be our perfect storm season with the amount of seasoned vets we have mixed with talented youngsters. We have the shooters, defense, rebounding, grit, and experience to go all the way!
I think most see it. The improvement from Sharp from year 1 to year 2 was incredible, especially on the defensive side. Javier looked like a different player too.
You could go through a very long list of guys that got better here. It’s the biggest strength of the program.
Yeah, we definitely see it but in the off season, especially portal season, we always forget about it, or write it off because it’s an unknown, but at this point it’s become a proven asset to the team. We never see drop offs from players year to year and that’s massive!
We do. Every year we complain about holes in our roster and “we can’t replace X player”. Then Sampson just goes and wins the conference again lol and gets us to at least the sweet 16. This year is so different because Sampson has never had this much production returning. If everyone takes a step forward like Sampson tends to do. This team will be the team to beat next year.
With Roberts he is already a great player. His improvements will be with marginal things, think Fabian’s senior year, not worried with him. With Cryer his will probably just come from a full season here but he will probably improve as the season goes on. Tugler is unlikely to miss the entire off season, his was a foot fracture and he had surgery a month ago, I’m not a doctor but I would imagine the recovery period for that is not gonna be 6 months. Arcenaux is the one that concerns me, not because of him as a player/person but mostly because Achilles injuries are really tricky and take a while to recover from, a lot of people also struggle to regain their explosiveness. I imagine at least the first half of the season will be recovery, then we will see from there.
TA had surgery on or about Dec 20. Once procedures was completed, CKS consulted w Dr’s and said recovery time would be about 5 months. He prob wont go through much of Summer workouts( will be 5+ mos) beginning on June 3, but i expect to see him sometime in August to go through full workouts w Team or as much as Coach will let him go.
5 months seems low, was it not a full tear? Was it partial? Either way he will probably need a good portion of time to regain his form. Probably more like December before we see him fully fit at a minimum
Again you’re going off general situation when these injuries happen. Which I can appreciate. Maybe I should have put in CAPS— " SAMPSON SAID 5 MONTHS".
He didn’t obviously just throw that timetable out there…for wishful thinking. Once Surgery was performed, this is what Dr gave him for expected recovery. No problem going w 12 mos if you wish, but I’ll side w CKS & Dr’s n go w 6-7 mos. So come August I expect him to be able do whatever workouts are allowed through NCAA Guidelines and fully participate as allowed.
Like most doctors, orthopedic surgeons will always give the WORST CASE scenario. If the MD said 5 months then take his/her word for it. TA will have to be careful with the other leg too.
I expect to see every big man significantly improve.
Cryer should really blossom if he decides to improve his overall game. When Shead went out against Duke our offense struggled so Cryer playing point a little more will help him.
Reports are we are getting the PG from OU so that will help us too.
Just like when Sasser needed to play some point cryer will do the same and be ready for it. An issue with Cryer running the point vs Duke is he no longer had Cryer to kick the ball out to for the shot.
Achilles tendon surgery, tendon injections and improved rehabilitation protocol has improved so much. Documented studies have seen tendon ruptures in basketball athletes return to pre injury levels as early as 3 months.
How recent are we talking? Kobe took a full year, Durant took 18 months, Klay Thompson took a year, even the recent Kirk Cousins is expected to be at least 6 months. 3 months would be unprecedented from everything I’ve seen. But you’re right, the timelines have seemed to be shorter recently.
It should be noted that Kobe’s was quoted at 6 months, Klay’s 8 months, and Durant’s was quoted at 9 months. So there is a precedent to longer than quoted recovery times.
However all of that seems to be specific to the individual and how badly it was torn. It seems that recovery times for older players are more significant than younger players. I have seen many quoted instances where recovery time was pretty quick (Ewing and Wilkins were cases I saw).
I think scale of the tear, and level of activity would be the big differences. Either way I don’t see any of our major surgery players getting rushed into anything TA may in fact be ready for basketball activity but I could definitely see them bringing him, and the others for that matter, along slowly. Instead of pushing anything too hard