I mocked up that scenario/hypothetical last year:

Posted on: February 17, 2017 at 16:01:03 CT

One area I don't think we really ever discussed is what would have potentially happened if instead of hiring Kim and retaining Fuller for an associate head coaching position we had just hired Fuller to be Haith's replacement. It seemed ludicrous at the time because surely MU was not in a position to make such a reach/gamble, but of course we know how that played out. Fuller was considering other low level D1 head coaching at the time and decided to remain at MU instead.

Lets assume both Beidschied and Torren Jones are unavailable to whomever is the coach. Lets also assume that in having to compile a staff on short notice he reaches out to Fulford in the same manner he did for Kim. If Rector still transfers for the purposes of making a tangible replacement I have listed Isabell, but I don’t think we sign Isabell if Rector doesn’t transfer and that didn’t happen until after Kim took over so I’ll assume Rector stays. I don’t see any reason to think anyone else would have left. I think with a reasonably high level of certainty this would have been our roster:
PG – Wes Clark (SO), (Shane Rector (SO) or Tremaine Isabell (FR))
SG – Kevin Punter (JR), Namon Wright (FR), Duece Bello (JR)
SF – Danuel House (JR), Teki Gill Ceasar (FR)
PF – Jonathan Williams III (SO), Jakeenan Gant (FR), D’Angelo Allen (FR)
C – Keanau Post (SR), Ryan Rosburg (JR)

I wasn’t immensely impressed with Fuller’s coaching in his 5 games at the helm, but he certainly showed reasonable competence. Lets assume he underwhelms in his first season of 2014-15 and only gets 18 or 19 wins, making the NIT. There is very little chance I think that either JW3 or Teki transfer, but I do believe Bello still would have and thus you have Bello’s, Post’s, and an unused scholarship. I suspect our class this current year with Fuller/Fulford would have been:
Add: Antonio Blakeney, Thomas Bryant, JUCO or 5th year transfer big

Resulting in a roster of:
PG – Kevin Punter (SR), Wes Clark (JR), Shane Rector (JR)
SG – Antonio Blakeney (FR), Namon Wright (SO)
SF – Danuel House (SR), Teki Gill Ceasar (SO)
PF – Jonathan Williams III (JR), Jakeenan Gant (SO), D’Angelo Allen (SO)
C – Thomas Bryant (FR), JUCO or 5th year transfer big, Ryan Rosburg (SR)

I think it is difficult to project that roster winning less than 25 games, even with complete incompetence in terms of coaching. Lets be conservative again for the sake of argument and project 26-8 with around a 7 seed in the NCAA tourney in 2015-16. Now you got 3 scholarships at our current time we are looking to fill. I would say at that point we are in extremely good position to likely sign Michael Porter JR and Tyler Cook, and suggestions that Porter Jr is a package deal become considerably less laughable and we would likely heavily pursue his point guard friend.

I feel like I’m projecting with a pessimistic slant, but that even then result in us having an under 40 coach with serious national recruiting connections and profile that had a very promising 2 year start to his D1 career and momentum to start landing some of the biggest big name guys. Sort of like what we hoped Quin would become.