Will he play?
Coach Matt Painter has been more and more willing to hand out redshirts. This is a luxury for a coach, an entire extra year to hone a player’s mind and body to the rigors and challenges of college basketball. He used two of them last year on 6’9” wing Aaron Wheeler, and the sharp shooting guard from Crown Point, Sasha Stefanovich.
Basil Smotherman, before leaving the program and school, took a redshirt after his sophomore year because it looked like there would be a log jam on the wing.
Emmanuel Dowuona might be looking at a similar situation in the post this season.