Everyone is complaining about how this is the same team as last year

[gopherphan]

and in many ways it is. but there are two factors accounting for the change in results from this year to last.

1. the circus surrounding the legal and academic issues. i correlate this to favre-gate in 2007 for the packers and the resulting 6-10 season. they can say all they want about how its not affecting the team, but in reality it wears on the players mentally, taking focus away from their games and their fundamentals and putting them behind other teams in this manner.

2. the biggest reason: other teams got better. they had a year to improve their talent, and bring in top recruits. our recruiting class being stunted the way it was put us way behind. in addition, theyve seen all our guys last year and the year before, allowing them to pinpoint weaknesses that they found previously and exploit them. yes tubby can do the same thing back to them, but with most schools in the B10 they have at least 1 or 2 impact new players and that can change the complexion of the whole bunch.

 

[akoch6767]

This team has had to face tons of adversity... I believe they are playing like they did towards the end of last year more than ever now...They got off to a good start once again this year by beating Butler... a Top 10 opponent...Louisville last season(much better team than Butler however..seeing as they received a number 1 seed last year.) Not having White, and Mbakwe(expected starters) always puts more pressure on players who were not counted on to play a significant role this season(Iverson, Carter off the bench) and ultimately I think that these players do not have the big gaming experience that Mbakwe and White(although a freshman) would be able to bring to the court. I'm also sure that the level of talent would greatly improve if we were to have those two players....


Projected Record with the expected team: Non-Conference: 11-1(Loss to WVU in 76 classic) Conference: 7-2: (Wins over, PSU, Iowa, MSU twice, Indiana, Northwestern, OSU) Losses too(OSU, Purdue) Overall Record: 18-3, ranking: 8

 

[figi]

I know Jonathan Williams had less than a stellar career at the U. Still, he was a big guy that Tubby could fall back on last year, with a team that lacked size. This year the size problem has gotten worse.