I believe USCar is pressing, feeling some pressure to win it all this year with their window of opportunity slowly closing. And this year, we can be pretty sure they will not be able to run the FSU-ND-UConn gauntlet. They aren't even a match for MD right now.
When you compare who UConn, Tenn, ND, Baylor, Louisville, Texas, etc, add to their rosters next year to that of USCar, it doesn't bode well for them. They also graduate half their post players. And replacing the contributions of Welch will be difficult.
It could be difficult for them to get a #2 seed in next year's tournament.
I agree with you for the most part. For all the SC hype, and yeah they got Wilson, White, and Cuevas in their freshman class, they have only 1 player from 2015 and she's outside of the top 100. You simply can't go an entire class and land no one. And even worse for them, I'm not sure who they are still "in" with for 2016, but fully half of the top 10 have already committed. Of the top 11 kids in 2016, 6 have committed to UCONN, ND, Baylor, Texas, Washington and Vandy. I don't see SC landing Cox, Holmes, McCoy or Ionescu, so that leaves Odom in the top 10.
And in the rest of the top 20, only 5o other kids are uncommitted at this point. The window for a top 20 kid for SC is closing fast. Stanford, ND, Maryland and OK State have landed kids from 12-20.
You are correct - next year the lose Welch, Gaines and Ibiam. They have no one else like Welch. I certainly think Coates and Wilson are up to the task becoming starters next year and they will still have a solid bench, but let's be honest - UCONN is flat out better. and without reloading, like UCONN, ND Baylor, L'ville and a few others seem to be doing, SC has their best shot this year. Next year not so much. The following year, forget it.
To add to what Sarals said, I could see if they landed a potential AA in every position, but really they landed a solid guard, a solid post player, and a potential AA post player in Wilson. It's not like they landed the TASSK force and in the class following, who would want to play behind them if they are really good?
Even after we landed Stewie, Tuck and Jefferson, we managed to land Chong the following season, and 2 years after that we got Nurse, Williams, Ekmark and Butler.