You might be right that there are 5 rotation players but there isn’t a single all conference level player on that list and you need some of those guys.
Bolton is 15th in conference in PRPG! right now. You could make an argument he should at some level of all-conference (at least an honorable mention).
He still needs a leap to be a true "star" in the sense you would mean it, but I think the potential is there. I would say the same thing about Conditt. He has shown flashes of it and was brought in being understood as a developmental prospect, so hopefully he makes a leap in his junior season to that point on both ends of the floor.
I guess you can hope for something similar out of the newcomers, too. Maybe the staff has a spring recruiting coup on par with Bolton next year and/or one of the new guys is another Haliburton waiting to happen. Foster certainly has the star rating to be an impact freshman (around that of Wigginton and Horton-Tucker, and they certainly did starting as freshman) and the birdies on here say the staff is excited about Blackwell despite the worries personal issues might keep him from making it to Ames.
I disagree that there is no path there. There is one.
I just depends on a lot of things to break right.