We check in on the roster and scholarship availability for Tubby Smith and the men’s basketball team after Smith has added (perhaps) the last member of the 2015 recruiting class in Shawntrez Davis.

Photo via mtsrs @ Flickr.

*A black box indicates a year of eligibility remaining and a grey box indicates a redshirt (medical or otherwise) year available.

I’ve been anxious to take a look at the roster and to see where this team is at in regards to the roster, the scholarship availability and where each position sits in regards to the projected depth chart.

Point Guard

Keenan Evans has a terrific opportunity in front of him to be “the guy” moving forward. With Robert Turner graduating, Evans has the opportunity to take the helm as the point guard for the team. It’s been said that head coach Tubby Smith is especially tough on his point guards, having high expectations for those players. The addition of Devon Thomas helps tremendously because he’s a known scorer that isn’t the best outside shooter, something I think that Evans will be terrific at in the long-term, but has a great mid-range game. I think that Thomas and Evans will essentially split time at the point guard spot and I envision a scenario where Evans is going to be one of the more improved players on the team, so long as he keeps working on that offensive game.

Shooting Guard

This is a senior laden group with Williams and Gotcher both being seniors. We’ve talked before about how Jackson may be an unfinished product and having two seniors in front of him may be the best thing for him. I’d almost like to see Jackson be redshirted this year because I think it will be tough for him to get minutes with Williams and Gotcher getting most, if not all, of the minutes on a game-by-game basis.  Williams and Gotcher should be a terrific combination and if they improve, especially the outside shooting, then this team will go much further.

Small Forward

There’s lots of potential here, especially after only seeing parts of Gray’s game and seeing Smith move to the small forward because there were no options. Before the season, I would have thought that Gray was the best of the incoming freshmen and I think that would have been the case had he not been injured. With the addition of Williamson, I think this position group is better suited to have a bigger impact because now the roster has two real small forwards. I get the impression that Gray is more of a scoring small forward while Williamson is going to be a hybrid player, not a scorer, but a guy that can do a bit of everything . . . score, rebound and distribute the ball.

Power Forward

Smith was this team’s best freshman last year. Playing nearly 30 minutes a game, he wasn’t spectacular, but he was really solid. His defense was great, especially off the ball and blocking shots and rebounding he was just great, especially for a true freshman that was a bit unheralded. With Ross being a guy coming off the bench with some outside shooting and having a full year coming off of knee surgery, I’m hoping that with a second team of Thomas, Gotcher, Williams, Ross and Manderson is really pretty good, good enough to be starters.

Center

Odiase was the surprise of the year for me, with Manderson a close second. I had no idea what to expect from Odiase as the only video I saw of Odiase looked like he was playing against a JV team. Seeing him in person and you get the idea that he’s going to be a force inside for a long time. Same thing with Manderson, although they have different games. Manderson’s has a few more offensive moves, but those need some polish. Still, this position is primed to have a significant impact in 2015-16.