Looking at Solomon Young

"Men's Basketball: Prohm reflects on 2016-17" -- Travis Hines

Excerpt: "I think if there's one 'What If' this season, and it's probably not that big of a big one in the grand scheme of the year, is Solomon Young, if he would have started or played more earlier.

I met with him on Monday. I kind of messed with him at the end. (First), we talked offensively, he's got to make some growth this summer, skill level and scoring around the basket but really just expanding his game. He can make threes, and he'll shoot them next year. (At the end), I said, 'Man, probably should have played you earlier,' and he just laughed.

The broken hand (Young suffered in November), I don't think people realize the setback that was. You come in as a freshman, and you knew he had the physical attributes to come in and play, but there's a lot more that goes into it than that, especially for a frontcourt guy. A guard, you're just playing and playing hard. A big guy, you've got so many different reads and ballscreen defense and sprinting to screen and boxing out.

The hand injury really set him back because you miss Gonzaga where he goes against (7-footer Przemek) Karnowski, Miami had great size. You look at Cincinnati, I held him out one more game for that where that would have been a big bonus having him there. And then, I went with those seniors a long time, especially those fifth-year guys to give them a chance. I learned this, and I knew it before, if you've got good freshmen, you've got to get them on the floor and they've got to play.

I think that's when we went to Texas (in early February), after that I was like, 'He's got to be on the floor. He's got to play. When we moved Merrill (Holden out of the starting lineup), we debated whether we were going to start (Darrell) Bowie or Solomon, and we were just like, I don't know if he's ready yet the night before the Drake game (in December).

What we found out, for what this team needed, Solomon was a really good fit at that spot for understanding what we needed from that position. Toughness, rebounding, a little bit of grit. You'll always look back. Maybe you win two more games, but you learn....