Speculation on Next Year’s Squad

The new coaching hires have been announced. All internal promotions, as was rumored. Will Burkett and Jackson Gion are assistant coaches.

Burkett is a Bronco who married a Bronco–nice intra-family continuity. Both have been with the program for several years–basically since they were walk-ons/grad assistants.

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Thanks PattyM. Happy for Jason— good dude.

Normand, Cochran, Tadjo, and Oboye listed on teams in current San Francisco Pro Am Basketball league . I saw online video of Normand in recent league game. He is really good.

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Any insight into who may be redshirting this year. There seems to be a large contingency of freshman/sophomore guards. Unclear on what determining factors will play into redshirt decisions especially considering some are transferring after using a redshirt option???

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Tongue also is rostered for the Pro Am. Glad to hear that Normand looked skilled. He will need to help replace quite a bit on the wing with Bryan, Bal, and O’Neil all moving on–with help from Mahi, Ensminger, Badibanga, Normand, and maybe Cochran who all somewhat fit the big-2 to undersized-4 prototype that Sendek loves.

For redshirts, I know nothing. But I can’t see there being much room for any of the true 4s or 5s to redshirt. It’s just Graves, Tadjo, Bukky, and Chukwudebelu solidly in the front court. You can move Ensminger down; maybe Badibanga or Mahi. But the front court starts looking thin quickly with even a small injury.

On the other hand, Sendek addressed last year’s lack of a true PG (other than Knapper) by recruiting 3 and bringing a 4th off his redshirt year. Cochran seems like a scorer and also a bigger body, so my guess is he spends his time as a 2/3. You can’t redshirt Hammond nor, presumably, Gavalyugov.

So I think the redshirt likely goes to Longcor unless he carves a clear niche for himself. He looks like he has a strong frame and could maybe develop some defensive advantages over his slighter colleagues at the PG position. Badibanga would be my other possibility since the wing spot is deep (but untested) behind Mahi. Though given his trip to the US from the French pro leagues, it’s possible that a redshirt is just not part of the agreement.

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