People seem to overreact when teams in transition go through these growing pains. It is happening in football, and it is happening with the basketball team. When you hit bottom like both programs did recently, digging out of that is not an easy task. You aren't just gonna suddenly be a title contender two years after that. It CAN happen, but it is not very likely, and requires a lot of good breaks, which we all know Minnesota is not exactly known for. This is gonna take a little time, that's just the way it is.
As far as competing for a Big Ten title in 3 years? VERY possible, I'd say even in the next two. It looks more and more favorable that we will have the services of Royce White and Trevor Mbakwe next season at least. We will be losing Westbrook and DJ as big contributors, but I honestly think their production can be replaced. If Nolen comes back, you'll have him and Hoffarber for senior leadership along with Paul Carter. Joseph, Sampson, and Colt will then be juniors, along with Mbakwe, so the upperclassmen leadership should be pretty strong. Then the talents of Rodney and Cobbs being a year older and smarter. Then you have who probably is your most talented guy in Royce White as a freshman, along with Hollins being another shooting threat. And if we do happen to get Cory Joseph? Even better.
Let's not get too carried away here, people. The team has struggled, no doubt. But considering the circumstances of this season, we're not nearly as far off as some of the "sky is falling" posts would indicate. These are our losses this season:
vs. Portland (61-56)
vs. Texas A&M (66-65)
@ Miami (63-58)
@ Purdue (79-60)
@ MSU (60-53)
@ IU (81-78 OT)
vs. MSU (65-64)
Excluding the Purdue loss, that is 6 losses by a combined 22 points (3.7 average). I hate to say it, but I don't think it is farfetched at all to say that having White and Mbakwe on the floor could have likely converted at least 4 of those losses to wins. I know they haven't played even a second of Big Ten basketball, but these are talented guys who I think could have given us the 3.7 points a game needed to get some extra wins. This isn't Sabermetrics or anything lol, but just a simple guess as to what their impact could have possibly been. I mean, if we were sitting at 17-2 (6-1 BT) would we be having this conversation? Even, say 15-4 (5-2)? Alas, we aren't however, so it makes sense that these thoughts would be out there. This season obviously has been badly affected, but if we can get these guys on the court next season, I wouldn't close title hopes up quite yet.