Noah got fan approval ratings for hustling on boards & doing well for limited stretches against two really talented but immobile 5s in NCST's Burns & KU's Dickinson. But against athletic 4s — & some wings, too — he got his fanny kicked quite often.

Granted, we were lucky we had him, but he & Richie didn't come close to supplying adequate depth at the 4 last season.

We were also really low on secondary ball handlers (something few of our fans appreciated — when whining about the guard rotations last season; Baker was a huge casualty on that front! But luckily he helped cover for some of the time Jax was out w the ankle sprain.)