That has been my largest complaint. That people talked like this was some historic program and all i have experienced is mediocre. I want PITINO do thrive, i just do not want this to be Nebraska, year 5 Tim Miles and have fans keep telling me that Miles is a really good coach. The record says he is poor. Making the tourney this year is the 1st step and i think that will happen but he will need to follow that up by contending at the top spot next year.I do not think it is unreasonable to expect getting into those 13-5 type records. The reason for that is there is a direct correllation between doing well in your conference and getting good seeds and then year after year having teams that can advance in the tourney as opposed to rarely doing well and occassionally going on a deeper run. I am supporting him to become the guy that does that.
If we make the tournament this year and we have everyone except springs back next year. With the addition of Fitz (hopefully) Washington and Harris, who are all supposed to be decent to good shooters, we will compete for the BIG championship.
Wisconsin loses Showalter, Hayes, Koening and Brown at least and maybe Happ if he shows off in the tournament and goes pro(this could be a Tyus Jones situation where he will never have a higher spot in the draft than what he gets after this year). As such they will likely drop off next year at least a little bit.
Maryland has to be the odds on favorite unless Tremble leaves to go Pro as they only lose Dodd and a little used wing player Gill. I would hate to see this team if Tremble stays for his senior year. If he leaves they will no doubt drop. He'll be hard to replace.
Purdue will replace Swanigan with Ewing so they will still be good. Most of the rest of this team are not seniors yet and I have no idea if Edwards is good enough to go pro but I doubt it.
northwestern... we'll see i don't trust that they'll be as good at the end of the year as they are right now. But they will have a hard time keeping their streak alive (of missing the tournament) Next year they really only lose Lumpkin but their incoming class right now isn't all that good looking... we'll see.
Michigan state will lose Harris and Bridges(Likely) but they have a few top notch forwards coming in so they will be back up. Along with adding back in at least Schilling after he medical redshirts this season they will be a force again no longer having only 1 player taller than 6'7".
I'd say MN is in that next slot for top 4 next year given who we'll have returning.
Indiana has mostly underclassmen and who knows who will stay there (at what point do they fire Crean?).
I can't believe OSU will stay down, PSU has a few really good recruiting classes in a row, and I expect Iowa to drop after Jok goes pro.
The BIG will be back up next year as nearly every team should expect improvements except for Wisconsin and maybe Iowa.