But there will be another.
Anyway, I guess we could start looking at things a little more.
The way I'm seeing it, no, they didn't get EVERYBODY they'd prefer to have meaning top choices, but they still got guys they wanted. And aside from DTJ, there's D1 experience up and down the lineup. Not team years experience, which I much prefer, but that type of thing is quickly becoming a dinosaur with the portal. We have decent size, some good shooters, it appears we have some versatility with enough players for multiple positions, athleticism/speed looks to be above par as well. Overall, a significant talent upgrade, on paper.
So the pieces appear to be in place to do something far more significant than what we've done. KK has built the team he wants. So it's time to do something, IMO. That doesn't mean a FF, a S16, a round of 32 even. But it's certainly time to get back to the NCAAs, not the NITs, not the CBITs and other alphabet soup tournaments.
The schedule WILL be important. You'll always have 3 games in March to make it with the auto, and though we've relied on that slim hope, it's an awful thing to put the fans through - watch 4 months of nothing basketball and have a wing and a prayer three days. That's what the last six seasons have been with extremely weak OOCs. So seeing how that OOC stacks up will be of great interest. What you're hoping for is having enough OOC success (and losses in those OOCs CAN be a success, like a road game loss vs a high rated team) that you don't have to dominate or finish 1st or 2nd in league to get in. Give yourself some wiggle room because conference play is a different animal.
You'd ALWAYS love to have more returning quality players than what we have, but it can have some benefit with new guys. If what we've seen schematically (offense and defense) is rigid and that's the schemes KK intends on coaching his entire career (usually not the case), of course you want more returnees. They know what you want a little better. However, if there are going to be tweaks or complete changes, having new guys isn't so bad, everyone is learning the same stuff at the same time. I suspect we will see changes, I really hope we do, that one on one high ball screen action is lame and ineffective without the horses, even with the horses it has its own weaknesses and for me personally, it's just aesthetically grotesque basketball (I like movement, not stand around and watch teammates).
The results haven't been what I've wanted, what any fan has wanted, but I've seen nothing coaching wise through two years that makes me say - man, he's just bad at this .... and I've seen nothing that makes me think he's a strong coach either. I'm not a fan of the schemes but it's not like they are some invention of his that isn't working, they are legitimate basketball schemes, we just haven't excelled with them. I haven't had a ton of issue with game plans, substitutions, game situation coaching, and things of that nature. Until this season, I have had some problem with lackluster recruiting and roster building. I have had some issue with focus - the team really did melt down in a handful of games to where they were lost and just flat out gave up. I know people always blame staff for that, I don't, not always, I think it's mostly players (which, of course, can go back to recruiting). That has to get better and I expect that it will. Scheduling, I do think he was wimpy with it last year, but I also suspect he knew the team wasn't strong and tried to pile up the wins, something I'm not a fan of, it's Menzying your way to cheap wins and an on the surface friendly record that fools only the gullible and protectors of lies. So we are at that stage, lets see what the schedule is and how we round out the roster.
It could be a fun year.
