Which injury/departure impacted us the most?

[tower912]

Personally, I think it was Liam.     But Cadougan showed me enough yesterday to put him a close second.   

[g0ldmember42]

should prolly have mbakwe on here too, because his departure had a meaningful impact on the recruiting approach in the last year and a half or so, in my opinion... but it's also the greatest unknown.

[77ncaachamps]

What about Tyshawn Taylor? That would have shored up our perimeter play and possibly relegated Mo or Cubillan to the bench.

Though I do see your point on Liam, he was still an unknown quantity and remains so.

Trevor impacted the recruiting for that position and Crean was not able to replace him (but he was departing for IU anyways). But he did have more of the physicality we needed on the block than JayMay had.

For this season...probably Otule. At least he could have had someone in the frontcourt and challenge the opposing players big man - even though he might have fouled out in 10 minutes. Moreover, his injury set his growth back tremendously. After improvements made during the summer, he will have most likely regressed.

[MarquetteDano]

Definitely Otule.  Five fouls to give at that position would be huge.  Instead, we have Lazar and Jimmy trying to avoid fouls against bigs in the second half of games.  Fulce does have the size to guard what Otule could have.  Plus, Otule would have been the beneficiary on offense on drives to the basket either via assist or offensive rebounds.

Cadougan is second at this point.  Since he is now playing he may have an impact yet for this season.

[chapman]

Went with Cadougan, just using the (supposedly) best overall player line of thinking.  Otule would also work, since that size would do so much for us.

[RawdogDX]

should prolly have mbakwe on here too, because his departure had a meaningful impact on the recruiting approach in the last year and a half or so, in my opinion... but it's also the greatest unknown.

+1, i think the athletic 4 would have been the best lost player to add back to the team.  No one knows what Otule would have done this season but i'd lay heavy odds that mbakwe would have outperformed him. 

[Nukem2]

Its a tie between Otule and McMorrow as we now have two years without a big/5 with Otule getting better but no floor time and McMorrow sadly simply not available.  Makes a hufge difference.  JC's injury probably hurts the future more than the present as we've been ok at guard (aside from defending dribble penetration).

[The Pickle]

I'd have to say when Brian Barrone graduated...I don't think the program has recovered.