89illinigrad
- Chicago
Not following that one. Why didn't we come close to making the tournament this year then? Are injuries a valid excuse or not?
The way I look at it is that, without Black, Abrams and Thorne, we had to rely on the play of youngsters (JCL, Finke, AJ, DJW) and previously unproven players (MM), who were not quite ready for primetime and it showed.
Over the course of the season, we saw improvement in these players, both offensively and defensively, and we played a bit better at the end (for example beating Iowa in BTT).
Now, while other teams will be losing players due to graduation and early entry into the NBA, we basically return everyone except Lewis, and potentially add Black, Abrams and Thorne to the mix.
Combine that with a year of weight training for the youngsters, the "sophomore leap", etc.., and we should take a step up next year.
Will that be enough to get us to the dance? I think so. There were a lot of close games that we lost this year that, had we had Black, Abrams and Thorne or more experience coming off the bench, we probably would have won.