Photo credit: Charlotte Observer

This season stunk, no tneed to sugarcoat things. The good thing is we can pretty much expect a new team next season, so it's really easy to flush 2024-25 and move on. It looks to me that players capable of returning are: Nik Graves (G, 1 season remaining), Ben Bradford (G, 3 seasons), Aleks Szymczky (C, 2 seasons), Jaehshon Thomas (G, 1 season), Rich Rolf (F, 3 seasons), Jeremiah Oden (F, 1 season), and Nick Richart (C, 3 seasons). That's seven players and almost a zero percent chance all return, given the NIL/portal climate, I'd be surprised if more than 3 return.

The biggest questions for me players portal status are Jeremiah Oden and Nik Graves. Was Oden the missing piece this season? I'm not sure he vaults Charlotte from the bottom of league play into the top 4 of the AAC, but hopefully we didn't sink money into an guy that misses the season and bolts elsewhere for a payday elsewhere. Graves was the offensive go to guy this season, but there are areas where he needs to step his game up going into this senior season, whether that be at Charlotte or someplace else. Graves took a lot of "far" 2's this season, going 26-75 (34.7%), and shot 33.1% from 3 on the season. Charlotte needs more efficiency from their #1 scorer, but he does have a knack for getting to the FT line, which certainly helps offset the FG %.

INCOMING

Charlotte has 2 signed recruits as of now: Jaylen Cross (6'4 Guard) and Jarne Elouna Eyenga (6'10 Forward. Cross is a highly-rated guard from Caldwell Academy, currently rated 160 overall by 247 Sports Composite, and 133 overall at On3 Industry rankings. Both appear to be good additions, and Cross will bring a much needed boost to Charlotte's athleticism and projects to be more of an immediate impact recruit than Eyenga.

WISHLIST

Athleticism. Everywhere. Charlotte was 312th out of 364th in offensive rebounding percentage. 349th in 2pt FG % defense. 334th in block %. Watching Charlotte this year it was clear how much this was missing from the constructed roster. I think Bradford is pretty athletic, but I wouldn't classify any other slated returners with that label.

Tempo. When Fearne took over he had mentioned a quicker pace of play, getting up and down the court more. That's not yet happened, and if I had to guess, it's due to wishlist item #1. That said, it did increase but from 356th in the nation up to 308th.

NIL contracts. This one isn't on the staff, but for the love of collegiate sports, add some freaking structure to the madness. I don't care if players get paid, but it's not NIL. No one that's played basketball at Charlotte's Name Image and Likeness is worth six figures. That includes someone like Rodney White who was a lottery pick from here. It's silly. Wish it'd go straigh revenue share model and any deal outside of that is vetted by third party to ensure it's above board. Sure, you'll still have under table deals, but that's how it's always been and is likely the only way to TRY and help level the field, and align to what NIL actually means.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

There was a major regression from season 1 to 2 under Fearne, but lets be clear, he's not going anywhere. Nor should he. This was year 1 of his 5 year deal, and he's shown the ability to win. I think its fair to say that the concern is around roster building and the lack of talent this season. As I previously mentioned, I'm not sure Oden is the guy that takes us to being a top team in the league.

I've heard rumblings of bigger NIL amount for next year being available, but I'm not certain on the amount, perhaps that is adding in the required revenue sharing amounts. That said, please support the Niners Collective if you can, every little bit helps.