Who is are one player on the team that stayed?

McDermott has been the one mentioned

Guaranteed to lead the team in every category. Might bean all time first

Awesome!
Let's go Jeremiah!

I'll go out on a limb and say I bet we end up with a roster for Year 1 that Hefner could not start for. Bold, I know.

If anything, I wish we had Wade 1 more year. He would fare well in this offense.

I just felt like he was underutilized in Buzz's system. He would've put up more video game numbers in any sort of better offensive scheme.

You're smarter in basketball than me, so I'll take your word for it. Me, he drove crazy and I didn't see all the bball smarts Buzz was always complementing. Not sure how he would do in the Bucky system, but I think even better. Anyway, to the FUTURE!

Another

Welcome to Aggieland, Jacari Lane 🏡

➡️ Two-time first-team ASUN Selection as a sophomore and junior
➡️ No. 2 scorer in the ASUN in 2024-25
➡️ 17.3 ppg, 42.3% from the field, and 40.6% from 3#GigEm pic.twitter.com/Wg9DkGSOhK

— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) April 13, 2025

bobinator said:

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I actually kinda wish Hefner was a few years younger. I think he'd be a lot better in this kind of system. Not saying he'd some kind of all-conference player but he could be a solid contributor in this kind of offense. Especially if the coaches are any good at working on shot mechanics.

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Hefner has no business playing any kind of upper level competitive basketball. God blessed him with height, but he has no other skill set besides that.

Seems like someone worth a shot, considering.

AWP 97 said:

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bobinator said:

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I actually kinda wish Hefner was a few years younger. I think he'd be a lot better in this kind of system. Not saying he'd some kind of all-conference player but he could be a solid contributor in this kind of offense. Especially if the coaches are any good at working on shot mechanics.

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Hefner has no business playing any kind of upper level competitive basketball. God blessed him with height, but he has no other skill set besides that.

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Same or better advanced metrics as the guys coming from Samford

SMH. Guy is gone and we still get Hefner hate. So much angst over the 9th man. No other team in n the NCAA talks about the guy at the end of their bench like we do.

CapCityAg89 said:

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SMH. Guy is gone and we still get Hefner hate. So much angst over the 9th man. No other team in n the NCAA talks about the guy at the end of their bench like we do.

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LOL, ninth man?

He freaking started all year!

FTAG 2000 said:

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CapCityAg89 said:

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SMH. Guy is gone and we still get Hefner hate. So much angst over the 9th man. No other team in n the NCAA talks about the guy at the end of their bench like we do.

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LOL, ninth man?

He freaking started all year!

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It ain't who starts but who finishes …

You say 9th man- but (7, 8, 9) Carter, Manny and Hef played very similar minutes and ALL were way too much on a program serious about winning. Hell even freaking Payne (arguably our second best player or best, if used right) averaged only 4.6 more minutes a game than Hef.

And it's not like Buzz got surprised by these guys being mediocre and got stuck playing them because he had to play someone- ESPECIALLY Hef... Which I think is part of why Hef's such a lightening rod. He wasn't good enough for this level and it's been obvious for years. But Buzz's ego (and yes man staff) let him ignore that obvious fact and still play him year and after. That's bs. Especially in this day and age. Another transfer should have come in (or the fish, if they are any good) and taken Hef's (and Carter's) minutes

Manny, if developed correctly, could easily have been worth those minutes- just not as pg. He had shown flashes of being a game changer the year before in the post-season. That one I get more about not moving on from.

Last, we needed to find our way to get Wilcher (10th in minuts) on the floor more. He's the ONLY pure shooter on the team and played only 1/4 of the minutes? He's gotta play more minutes- if anything for spacing. Find a way to make it work on defense.

/end soapbox

I think it's kind of wild that you're willing to give Manny the benefit of being good if developed and use differently but Hefner just flat out can't play at this level. It's not Hefner's fault we tried to use him like some kind of JJ Redick style player when that's never been who he is. He might have been a solid contributor on a different team playing a different style of offense and defense too. Obviously ceiling not as high as Manny's, but I think people are just way too harsh on Hefner.

I'd actually argue the main issue with Manny is one that's almost insurmountable. He just does not see the floor fast enough. It's why he almost never passes the ball, when he does his passes are late, he can basically only attack the basket when there's nobody else around, etc. I actually considered at one point that he might have literal vision problems.

For Manny- I give him more of a break for two reasons:

1. He did show flashes of a being a great player.
2. Coach played him at freaking pg, frequently. That's not Manny's fault. That's Buzz's dumb***. I'd almost rather have Payne dribbling at the top of the key-- than Manny- with his suspect vision and dribbling skills- pg made no sense.

Put him at wing and have work to get open and attack the rim from there? I could him being possibly good.

Hefner is not possibly good in any scenario. I'd say the same about Carter.

The problem is nobody was good as a wing player here. We don't need to rehash all the reasons why, how much of it was system, how much was how the system was taught, how much was basic offensive fundamentals, whatever. But the end result was we could not get anyone the ball here consistently unless they were the ones initiating the half court. That was true for guards, wings, posts or anyone else.

Look at Q, we had a hard time getting him the ball unless he initiated the offense also and he was much further along than Manny.

So if Manny went to a different team, with a different system, taught differently, etc., I agree he could have been a better player, but point guard was the only position he ever could have played here any used any of his offensive skills at all. Otherwise he'd have just been standing out on the wing shooting threes like Carter and Hefner did.

But I think you're wrong about Hefner "not possibly good in any scenario." You put him on a team that runs something like a pack-line or a true zone defense and a much more fundamentally sound offensive system and I think he could have been a decent rotation player. Again, obviously, he doesn't Manny's upside, I'm not saying he's as good or better than Manny, but I think he could have been a solid player in the right situation.