VCU's roster has undergone a ton of turnover this offseason. Gone are Brandon Johns Jr., Ace Baldwin, Nick Kern, David Shriver and a number of others due to graduation, the transfer portal and other factors; chief among the departures was, of course, head coach Mike Rhoades.
New head coach Ryan Odom has continued his rebuild of the Rams, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Zach Joachim joined Adam Epstein on the Fan on Thursday (May 25) to discuss it.
"I'm sure you watched film [of] these two guys from Utah State [Max Shulga and Sean Bairstow]," Epstein said. "How good are they? It feels like they could make an immediate impact on this team."
"Oh, absolutely," Joachim said. "They started 35 games last year -- all 35 games for a Utah State team that made the NCAA tournament. They were cornerstones of that roster [and] I expect them to be cornerstones of VCU's roster as well. [...] They're both kind of Swiss-Army-Knife guys, a little bit, they're really versatile.
"[...] I could see a lot of the offense running through [Shulga]. He averaged 11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and finished second on the team in assists with 140 for the season -- four per game."
Michael Belle became one of the latest additions to the roster in May, and Adam asked Zach to compare him to a former Ram.
"Jamir Watkins is the one that has come up for a lot of people because I think he's kind of functioning as your Jamir Watkins replacement," Zach said, "as far as that lead swingman and three guy, but maybe [with] a little bit more guard skills than Jamir had as far as ball-handling goes.
"I think Belle is going to end up being more comfortable and more polished on the perimeter as a ball-handler and as a passer. He's really a bit of a point forward as a 6'7 wing that, again, gives a lot of positional versatility to Ryan [Odom]."
Epstein closed by asking Zach to predict the starting five.
"There's a lot of different configurations that I've seen," Zach said. "[Jason] Nelson, Shulga, [Joe] Bamisile, Bairstow [and] [Roosevelt] Wheeler."
Listen to more of the segment below.