I've got mail, yay!

Today's question comes from Matt, who clearly has the best name of all of my loyal readers.
And I read...
"Hi Matt, Does Howie ever acknowledge, directly or indirectly, that we really need to add height to the roster (maybe when talking about Justin Alexander)? Or is he comfortable with having a small frontcourt?"

Matt,
First my take, then I'll get to your direct answer.
The key here is to differentiate between height, and the bigger issue, which is rebounding. Remember, this is the same "too small" team that outrebounded Sacred Heart last week.
Last week Chris, who was off his game for some reason Saturday (Coach said Chris "felt awful" but that Howie "loved his work ethic") had 10 boards and Dave had nine. They didn't get any smaller in the last week, nor did SHU sign Shaq. Sacred Heart only missed one fewer shot yesterday than it did last week. Central missed a bunch more, but had 12 offensive rebounds to SHU's 15.
Dave didn't have as good a night, and Markeys was too busy trying to carry the offense to worry too much about rebounding. So that's the big problem, pun intended. Where height comes in is that Central's frontcourt isn't good enough or big enough to withstand two poor performances on the same night.
Frontcourt depth is a much bigger problem.
Would height be nice? Yes. And to answer the other big question of the week, which I thought I had mentioned before, but just in case, yes Justin Alexander is coming next year. And yes he is listed at 6-foot-9. And he will at the very least provide that depth. Next year you'll have Kenny, Alexander, Dave, Markeys and Chris to fill the frontcourt. One more big would be great, but that's not a bad start in a guard's league.
But let's not turn him into the savior because he's 6-foot-9. There will be a learning curve, and we don't yet know if he can play. I'm not saying he can't. He might be a star. But just look at some of the other kids in the NEC who are tall. Height doesn't necessarily guarantee success.
"Get tall guys" is not necessarily the recruiting strategy needed to fix rebounding woes. I'd rather have Charles Barkley than a taller stiff.
Now, with my 2 cents in, your direct answer is "not really".
Remember the big phrase of the year? "Heart, not height."
Howie has said repeatedly that height isn't the only determining factor in getting rebounds, and he's right about that. He often says being undersized isn't an excuse. His theory basically is if you're shorter, you just have to work harder.
Depth and consistent work rate is what this team needs inside. Height is fine, but only if it's good height.
Ok, let the replies about how dumb I am and how wrong coach is begin in 3, 2, 1.
Reply here or to mstraubblog@hotmail.com... or on the post dedicated to this mailbag at ccsufans.com. Just keep the namecalling to a minimum.