I really can’t wait to watch next year’s team.
I loved the grit of last year’s team and originally thought they had F4 potential, but now that the season is in the rear view mirror, I can see that team had some obvious limitations. Our lack of size and/or shot creators meant we generally only had a matchup advantage at 1/5 of the positions, and we were reliant on making 3’s, and it’s tough to win 6 games that way.
Although dominant, Kofi’s limitations as a passer and free throw shooter meant you could throw double teams to frustrate him, or alternately, just hug our shooters and live with what he would get down low.
And although our drop coverage gave us a top 30 defense, we had no plan B such that if a guard did get going on the mid range, we didn’t have an answer. Happened against Purdue, Michigan State, OSU, and, ultimately knocked us out of the dance as Schead is a career night against us.
As much fun as that team was, I think our ceiling was probably S16 or Elite 8. I thought both the AZ game and the first Purdue game felt like elite 8 games and of course we didn’t win either.
Next years team has much more length and shot creation and I think should be able to exploit a mismatch at at least 2-3 positions on any given night, depending on matchups. We should be more versatile on defense and run more. It may take some time to gel but come March we should be a handful. My only question is who can do “Us” better than us. Early contenders to me are Baylor, Nova, Houston, Arkansas and Auburn. But roster wise I think we are right there with anyone in the country.
I hope Brad figures out how to identify where we have a matchup edge and then just pick on it until the other team adjusts, then move onto the next mismatch.
Apologies for the long post, just had some thoughts I wanted to share. Look forward to watching this group develop!