I think often times we expect two things from a returning sophomore: They have a night-and-day transformation and exceed expectations, or they get lost in the shuffle and fall out of the rotation entirely.
Wenyen Gabriel was neither of those things, and that’s probably a good thing. What we saw instead was a steady improvement that didn’t jump off the page but also didn’t really disappoint.
Gabriel’s freshman year didn’t end well at all. He averaged 4.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, and he logged fewer than 10 minutes in each of the Wildcats’ last five games.