I don't think he asked that bad of a question and i'll even raise...
On what level is Fitgerald over King and Coffey over Buggs/Morris enough of a difference to go from 13th to top 10 in the Big Ten like some are projecting? I know Coffey is our biggest recruit in years but unless he is putting up 20 a night I still see us in the bottom 4 in the Big Ten. Remember we were 2-12 (along with some terrible non conference losses) even with the Threesome still playing.
Beyond the Fitz vs. King and Coffey vs. Morris comparison, we'll just have more dudes to play. We started last season with 10 scholarship players and ended with 5. We'll start this season with 12, assuming Lynch isn't cleared and nobody else gets in trouble. We also will be more experienced. We only had 3 upperclassmen last year, and ended the season with just one, and none of them were the sort of star you'd want to build a team around, more like solid rotation guys who were forced into being the centerpiece of our team. We'll have 6 upperclassmen this year, 7 if Lynch is available. We also likely won't be relying as heavily on freshmen this year as last year, and if we start a freshman, it probably means that they're a good player, rather than just running out of options and throwing them to the wolves.
We have a pretty solid guard rotation of Springs, Mason, Coffey, and McBrayer (whom I'm personally excited to see again. He's got good size, can handle the ball, can drive and get fouled, and, if he adds a consistent 3 point shot, could become a very nice offensive weapon IMO), with Gilbert and Sharp maybe playing spot minutes. Pitino seems to speak fairly highly of Fitzgerald, and I thought I remembered him mentioning he has the athleticism and shooting ability to play small forward at 6'8". I'd guess he'll be our primary SF, with Buggs, Gilbert, and Hurt picking up some minutes there as well. At the 4/5, Murphy is a stud, but undersized (Pitino tweeted recently that he's only 6'5"?), and then Bakary at the 5 assuming no Lynch. I'm not expecting Curry to light it up, but he's a top 150 recruit, and is even rated a 4-star on 247 and Scout. We'll probably be pretty thin at center again if Lynch isn't back, but it wouldn't surprise me to see small lineups with 2 PF's like how we sometimes played two of Buggs, King, and Murphy.
I really think just having a higher number of competent, experienced basketball players will be a big help this year. If we end up in the bottom 4, I'd like to think that means we either underachieved, or that the bottom half of this conference is still pretty strong.