A couple of Bleacher Report articles on teams that are rebuilding...
A review of the 144 projected NCAA tournament fields that BracketMatrix.com tracked last season had Tulsa in exactly one of them, which made it quite surprising when the Golden Hurricane earned a bid. Maybe the selection committee was throwing them a bone, knowing that head coach Frank Haith's 15-man roster featured nine seniors.
That mass exodus took with it 80.6 percent of Tulsa's scoring, 87.7 percent of the rebounds and 91.7 percent of the assists. Needless to say, playing time will be available for Tulsa's few returning players, which includes Rutgers transfer Junior Etou and Haith's son, Corey.
Corey Haith has played 25 minutes in college, those coming in 2012-13 and 2013-14 when playing for his father at Missouri.
It's a safe bet that the Golden Hurricane are going to struggle unless Haith is able to whip something together from the leftover pieces and what he's bringing in. But don't bet on it.
"Maybe Tulsa survives that type of turnover if it's still in the WAC or C-USA, but there are too many quality teams in the American to be able to tread water while replacing that much production," Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller wrote.
Graduated: Shaquille Harrison (483 points), James Woodard (477 points), Rashad Smith (218 points), Brandon Swannegan (212 points), Marquel Curtis (206 points), D'Andre Wright (167 points), Rashad Ray (131 points)
Transferred: None
Declared for Draft: None
Noteworthy Additions: Junior Etou (Rutgers), Travis Atson (freshman), Corey Henderson (JUCO)
Returning Player Who Scored 100+ Points: Pat Birt (383)
It's fun to have a team with seven seniors who have been playing together for multiple seasons. Despite the public outcry over Tulsa getting into the dance, I was glad to see these guys get one last chance to win a NCAA tournament game before moving on to the next stage in their lives. (They didn't get it done, but they had a chance.)
What's not fun is trying to win games the year after having seven seniors among your eight leading scorers.
Heck, forget about "leading" scorers. Aside from Pat Birt, Sterling Taplin (75 points) is Tulsa's only returning player to have scored a single point in 2015-16. Maybe Tulsa survives that type of turnover if it's still in the WAC or C-USA, but there are too many quality teams in the American to be able to tread water while replacing that much production.
At least it appears that head coach Frank Haith is going to stick around for this rebuilding season. That's better than what he did to Missouri.
A review of the 144 projected NCAA tournament fields that BracketMatrix.com tracked last season had Tulsa in exactly one of them, which made it quite surprising when the Golden Hurricane earned a bid. Maybe the selection committee was throwing them a bone, knowing that head coach Frank Haith's 15-man roster featured nine seniors.
That mass exodus took with it 80.6 percent of Tulsa's scoring, 87.7 percent of the rebounds and 91.7 percent of the assists. Needless to say, playing time will be available for Tulsa's few returning players, which includes Rutgers transfer Junior Etou and Haith's son, Corey.
Corey Haith has played 25 minutes in college, those coming in 2012-13 and 2013-14 when playing for his father at Missouri.
It's a safe bet that the Golden Hurricane are going to struggle unless Haith is able to whip something together from the leftover pieces and what he's bringing in. But don't bet on it.
"Maybe Tulsa survives that type of turnover if it's still in the WAC or C-USA, but there are too many quality teams in the American to be able to tread water while replacing that much production," Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller wrote.
Graduated: Shaquille Harrison (483 points), James Woodard (477 points), Rashad Smith (218 points), Brandon Swannegan (212 points), Marquel Curtis (206 points), D'Andre Wright (167 points), Rashad Ray (131 points)
Transferred: None
Declared for Draft: None
Noteworthy Additions: Junior Etou (Rutgers), Travis Atson (freshman), Corey Henderson (JUCO)
Returning Player Who Scored 100+ Points: Pat Birt (383)
It's fun to have a team with seven seniors who have been playing together for multiple seasons. Despite the public outcry over Tulsa getting into the dance, I was glad to see these guys get one last chance to win a NCAA tournament game before moving on to the next stage in their lives. (They didn't get it done, but they had a chance.)
What's not fun is trying to win games the year after having seven seniors among your eight leading scorers.
Heck, forget about "leading" scorers. Aside from Pat Birt, Sterling Taplin (75 points) is Tulsa's only returning player to have scored a single point in 2015-16. Maybe Tulsa survives that type of turnover if it's still in the WAC or C-USA, but there are too many quality teams in the American to be able to tread water while replacing that much production.
At least it appears that head coach Frank Haith is going to stick around for this rebuilding season. That's better than what he did to Missouri.
