In terms of option C, I think that is worst case. To your point we know what the ceiling of this roster is without DP: tournament team, unlikely second weekend. So option C eliminates our sliver of a real ceiling.
The reason why I don't like option B is I don't think that will necessarily fix the issue. Whatever "soft tissue" thing is going on is unlikely to resolve in the next 10 weeks. Seems like this will likely be a season long problem.
So I like option A. Or some hybrid version of option A, where there is a minutes restriction but there is some flexibility based on how close the game is coming down to the last 10 minutes.
On a related note - even with DP, we seem to be one very good player away from being a real contender this year. I wonder how much of that was NIL donor fatigue after last year's roster likely being one of the more expensive rosters in college basketball? Seems to me that based on Self's comments before the NC State game, Darion Williams simply went to the school that paid him more. No real surprise there. But this idea that we just didn't have the payroll this year to bring in one more stud, when clearly the Kentucky's and Michigan's and Duke's are out there spending like crazy gives me concern about our situation moving forward. Spending the most money is by no means any sort of guarantee (see last year, see Kentucky this year). But seems to me we should have been able to pull off the Williams signing at Kansas.
In terms of option C, I think that is worst case. To your point we know what the ceiling of this roster is without DP: tournament team, unlikely second weekend. So option C eliminates our sliver of a real ceiling.
The reason why I don't like option B is I don't think that will necessarily fix the issue. Whatever "soft tissue" thing is going on is unlikely to resolve in the next 10 weeks. Seems like this will likely be a season long problem.
So I like option A. Or some hybrid version of option A, where there is a minutes restriction but there is some flexibility based on how close the game is coming down to the last 10 minutes.
On a related note - even with DP, we seem to be one very good player away from being a real contender this year. I wonder how much of that was NIL donor fatigue after last year's roster likely being one of the more expensive rosters in college basketball? Seems to me that based on Self's comments before the NC State game, Darion Williams simply went to the school that paid him more. No real surprise there. But this idea that we just didn't have the payroll this year to bring in one more stud, when clearly the Kentucky's and Michigan's and Duke's are out there spending like crazy gives me concern about our situation moving forward. Spending the most money is by no means any sort of guarantee (see last year, see Kentucky this year). But seems to me we should have been able to pull off the Williams signing at Kansas.