3 pt shooting. We are really relying on Gaffney and Akok and Martin and Adams shooting better, Tyler coming back to form, and Jackson learning how to shoot at all. If we role out a lineup of Gaff, Bouk, Jackson, Whaley Carlton like some have suggested a zone with eat this team for lunch. 0 spacing. A post-injury Polley and Bouk are our only proven shooters at the high-major level on this team we have... the potential for a disastrous offensive season is there. In general, people are assuming a MASSIVE jump in production from Gaffney this year--I am in that camp, but it might not happen. Not everyone will shoot 35+% from 3--but I think we need at least 4 if we want to be competitive at the highest level. My guess is Gaff, Cole, Bouk, Polley end up being our best shooters--Adams low 30s, Akok/Jackson high 20s again on lower attempts. With four shooters we could always have 3 of them on the floor in crunch time (which I believe is a requirement).
Unproven frontcourt. Whaley came on strong late, Carlton MIGHT turn it around, but the rest of our frontcourt hasn't played D1 ball at all.
Lack of experience in big games. I think this might be the one that gets us in the 2nd round more than anything when we make the tournament. This team may be athletic and talented, but no one has proven they are a crunch time winner outside of Bouk.
Perimeter defense. Bouknight was a garbage defender last year. Let's assume the added bulk and hard work this summer has helped him improve on that end. Even the coach is saying that Cole wasn't very good. Gaffney wasn't good either last season. Adams is probably going to be our strongest perimeter defender, but he's more of a 2/3 than a 1/2 defender. How do we stop a talented PG? The Gaffney weight gain and healthy ankle needs to lead to noticeable improvements.
(I think our defense on the wing should be very good though. I have high hopes that Adams/Jackson/Martin/Akok will be able to shut down the 3-4)
Interior defense. Carlton is incapable of hedging the ball and recovering--that was true even before the weight gain. Brown and and Sanogo are not particularly fleet of foot themselves. Sanogo hedged a lot in HS and didn't look like anything special. Young bigs always take a long time to develop good defense so I am not expecting much from Sanogo anyways on that end. I think we end up relying on Whaley A LOT unless Carlton has developed a better PnR IQ.
In general, Hurley's best trait is player development. This summer really messed with player development all over the country. I think this will effect us more than most teams.