Yeah I'm sorry I haven't bailed on Underwood, still have high hopes, but the whole "we're better off gutting the whole thing and starting over from scratch in March with 6 spring signees rather than maintaining some continuity with experienced players like Tejon and Finke because they have played in the big 10 before and lost more than they won" is complete BS rationalization. :noidea:
Agreed. Let's be honest with ourselves. Coming into last year, BU himself essentially stated that he thinks the team has the talent to make the tournament. Looking back, there's three possible conclusions. I don't know which one is right, but without inside information (which I don't have) you can't seriously deny that one of these three isn't the case:
1. BU seriously mis-evaluated the talent on the squad.
2. He was just doing coach-speak and way over-promised (realistically, why would he want to do this in his first year when he would easily get a pass if he didn't?)
3. The talent really is there, but the culture/mindset isn't. Or (essentially equivalently) the skillset doesn't match the system.
My guess (and I think most people's) is predominantly the third. But regardless of which it is, none of them can be construed as "positive". At the end of the day, I'm pretty confident BU didn't think he'd be in this situation a season in after he took the job. Instead of taking one stop forward next year, and two steps the year after, it looks more like a step back next year and then (hopefully) two forward the year after, but possibly just one.
Long-term, I still have faith, but this certainly isn't the ideal trajectory to get there.