I've changed my mind

[MuggsyB]

I'll agree with the first part, but disagree with the 2nd- although we are on track, not on GI tract...

I think this offseason is about quality and not quantity of incoming transfer.

Shaka has plenty of unknown "bodies" that we have yet to really see on the court, many of which fit the size/athleticism/recruiting pedigree that he covets.
This is obviously not good enough to win next season, but you'd have to hope that 1-2 of the 6-7 of these are good enough to be a better than average BE player.
In this group I would place
Phillips, Clark, Miletic, Pearson, Walker, Egbuonu, Johnston.

You could say 2 of them becoming "better than average" BE players next season is wishful thinking, but I'd say it's impossible that at least one doesn't...
So let's say 1-2 fit the bill.

Of the others, I think it's impossible for Tre and Caedin to become above avg BE players, no offense to them. I think SJ22 will be gone- no insider info just feels like the writing is on the wall. So those 3 are out.
Damarius can, and if things fall in place he should, but no guarantee.
So of that group of 4 we will say 0.5 😂

So, that's 5, maybe 6 guys that should fit the bill of "better than average" by my completely inaccurate math.

Back to my original point
Shaka, in my opinion, needs 2 difference makers in the portal to have a solid tournament team next season. That's really not that easy, it seems like it's actually pretty hard.
If you define a "difference maker" as a "better than average" BE player it becomes a bit more manageable.
I think Shaka can get 2 of these guys, but it would be Smart to bring in 3, or maybe even 4?, in order to fall back to 2.
That would give him 7 better than average BE players that he needs to have a team that we can cheer for in late March.

6-7 transfers given his history and all the young, albeit unproven recruits that he has is a very extreme stretch, and also unnecessary.
2 quality "better than avg" BE newcomers will suffice.
He can get there with 3/4 incoming transfers, and he can open those extra spots with the departures of a few of the guys I mentioned above

Absolutely need a 5 that can defend and do some damage around the rim. 

[MU82]

As it turns out, the first half against DePaul was the outlier.

[willie warrior]

Here's the thing I think the two biggest wildcards this offseason are him and Owens. We know Parham and James are fairly polished above average big east players. Owens has shown flashes, let's see him do better moving into upper class years (especially without injury for once) than Zaide did. Stephens has also shown huge promise, can he turn into a Stevie with slightly better offense his second year? If both these break our way we need two pieces, if sheek's ready from the jump or another freshman we only need 1. But that's a big gamble, if Shaka wants to ensure we're back with the big boys he may want to bring in more fire power and slot owens and Stephen's to the bench one more year.

We have 2-3 nice pieces right now for next year and hopefully at least 2 of the redshirts/new recruits will be solid contributors. But we need more to compete for BEast title and hang with the big boys. Shaka has allowed the gap to be massive.