What does "direction of the program" mean though? Being excited about the "direction of the program" implies some kind of factual evidence, not just blind faith or hope. Reality is that last year we finished our worst season in at least 20+ years (maybe more), recruiting has not been going very well, BU's own first year recruits underachieved (including Mark Smith and Alstork who were highly regarded), and there was a mass exodus via transfer, including some players who were contributors and/or were expected to contribute. That is reality.
I am honest to say that so far in BU's tenure I have not been excited about the "direction of the program", yet I am very hopeful that the "direction of the program" will change. But that is "hope" and an aspiration statement, not excitement about the current direction of the program. And much of that "hope" is based on the fact that if the direction of the program does not change soon, we are looking at another 5+ years with yet another coach who was not able to bring Illinois back to prominence, a program that has become irrelevant for 12 years now.
1 season with a divided locker room is way too early to pass judgement. It was as clear as water that the ones transferred out rejected the coaches style and split the locker room last year. In one of Trents interviews this year he eludes to this a bit. I'm not making excuses I'm just saying give the man more than 18 months and a few recruiting misses before you put him in the same category as Groce. I can say I was very excited to see an aggressive defense that caused a ton of turnovers. I think a lot of the frustrating non contested shots our bigs gave up time after time after time were old habits they just couldn't break. It's not gonna get a whole lot better this year with all freshmen down low. There again is why it's gonna take a couple years. The missed assignments on D was crazy by the basket but once again let him get players that have ran the system for more than 6 months before passing judgement.