From Twitter, Mitch Harper:
In the postgame press conference, #BYU guard Jaxson Robinson said, “This loss sucks. I want to get back here. I’m already thinking about it (returning).” Mark Pope then stopped him and said, “We can make that happen right now.”
If they all return that played a lot, with the new additions, we could finally maybe make it out of the one and done group.
If everybody comes back who has eligibility then it would appear BYU is loaded next year even with the usual injuries that happen. So you have 7 of the 8 rotation players who played every game when healthy.
Hall
Knell
Robinson
Waterman
Saunders
Khalifa
Traore
You also have Stewart and Atiki who played a fair amount.
Then you add Chandler, the highest rated recruit in BYU history, Adams, Davis, and the return of Dawson Baker and you have 13 players who could contribute. That means reduced roles for some.
Stewart and Atiki move to primarily mop up roles unless there are a bunch of injuries and a few players leave.
Knell should probably see his role reduced to that of a 3 point specialist. I could see Hall and Chandler playing together quite a bit. Anything more than an 8, and sometimes 9 man rotation is hard to manage. If everybody returns it would be a good problem for Pope to have. Even if Waterman and Robinson both leave BYU could potentially be better next year. They would still have potentially 9 good to very good players and a couple of serviceable players who could slip into the rotation in the event of injury.
That would be my hope. As Tom and I talked about during the game knell would either have to move on or take a much more reduced role. He is hardly a D1 basketball player if he can’t hit higher than 30%
We also talked in detail about how foos should be the starting center. He was well on his way towards a 20-10 per game average before the hammy. Got reduced to back up to Khalifa who was basically the walking wounded by the end of the season. Think about it you are on track to be 20-10 guy and you get reduced to backup role that’s got to be hard on your mentality.
I realize that Knell has been a team captain and is probably coming back, but he is certainly the Achilles heel for this team
If Robinson comes back, my starting five would probably be
Saunders-Robinson
Hall-chandler
Baker
Waterman-Adams
Foos
Robinson over Saunders and Adams over Waterman. But, both play a lot in rotation.