I agree wholeheartedly, RockSand. We haven't been this inexperienced since Dudley, Walker, Meade and Grizzard were freshmen and had to play big time minutes. The barn, Ole Miss and Arkansas all look much stronger than us in the SEC West.
If we looked at our projected starters position by position and compared with last year's starters, we'd have
Point: Mo versus Pettway. Mo was better than Pettway will be this year, but Pettway is a player who can contribute and win at the point.
Shooting Guard: Shelton versus Shelton. Ernest should be better than a year ago, but he has to really step up his offense for us to replace the scoring that we lost.
Small Forward: Kennedy Winston versus Kennedy Winston. It will be great to have him for a full season, and he's bound to improve unless his injury is worse than has been indicated.
Power Forward: Erwin Dudley vs. Reggie Rambo or Chuck Davis. Reggie is a battler, but a liability on offense and prone to fouls. Chuck has some potential, but it would be unrealistic to expecthim to provide the points and rebounds that ED gave us. We'll be much weaker at this position.
Center: Kenny Walker vs. Chuck Davis/Jemareo Davidson. Kenny certainly had a disappointing senior season, especially the second half. While many thought that Davis and Brock should have gotten his minutes, I believe that CMG would have played them more of he thought they could have contributed. We maybe better off at this position by season's end,but it will only be if Davis and/or Davidson develop.
We are worse at point guard, some better at two guard, some better at small forward, much worse at power forward, and a little worse at center. This bodes for a long season unless players like Ernest Shelton, Demetirus Smith and Emmett Thomas step up their game AND a couple of the young big men develop to the point that they can compete at the SEC level.