This team made the tourney last year!

[march madness]

We keep forgetting that this team minus a couple of role players made the tourney and won a game last year. We can complain about not having the two power forwards all day, lack of athleticism, off the court issues. But this team had enough talent last year to do it. What a disappointing year.

I will say this though.. shamala wasnt a stud but he was always in control, he had a great attitude, and he was a leader. I'd say the same for Bush, plus I would add he is easily the toughest guy on the team. Maybe they were missed more than we know?

 

[tjgopher]

We keep forgetting that this team minus a couple of role players made the tourney and won a game last year. We can complain about not having the two power forwards all day, lack of athleticism, off the court issues. But this team had enough talent last year to do it. What a disappointing year.

I will say this though.. shamala wasnt a stud but he was always in control, he had a great attitude, and he was a leader. I'd say the same for Bush, plus I would add he is easily the toughest guy on the team. Maybe they were missed more than we know?

Several things:

1) We made the NCAA tourney, but did not win a game in the tourney last year.

2) It isn't just minus a couple of role players. Al Nolen was not a role player. He was a significant contributor. Remember, when the news first hit about Al being out, some people at that time figured we'd be out of the tourney no matter what. And, yes, Busch's role as a spark has not been filled, plus let's not forget he was a main key in the biggest win of the year against Louisville (as it turns out that win put us in the tourney).

3) It isn't that much different than last year. Last year's team was 9-9 in the Big Ten. Guess where this year's team will likely finish? Yep, 9-9.

4) Last year's team struggled a lot, too. We forget that. We'd go for long stretches last year without a bucket.

 

[station19]

We keep forgetting that this team minus a couple of role players made the tourney and won a game last year. We can complain about not having the two power forwards all day, lack of athleticism, off the court issues. But this team had enough talent last year to do it. What a disappointing year.

I will say this though.. shamala wasnt a stud but he was always in control, he had a great attitude, and he was a leader. I'd say the same for Bush, plus I would add he is easily the toughest guy on the team. Maybe they were missed more than we know?[/QUOTE]

Could very well be.

 

[josh087]

Last year we won pretty much every close game that went down to the final couple of posessions. Colorado St, Iowa, Wisconsin twice, Indiana.

This year we've lost pretty much every close game that went down to the final couple of posessions. Indiana, Purdue, Michigan St, Texas A&M, NW.

To me there's not much of a difference or a dropoff at all from last year to this year. It's the same players playing at the same level.

 

[jmag21]

Last year we won pretty much every close game that went down to the final couple of posessions. Colorado St, Iowa, Wisconsin twice, Indiana.

This year we've lost pretty much every close game that went down to the final couple of posessions. Indiana, Purdue, Michigan St, Texas A&M, NW.

To me there's not much of a difference or a dropoff at all from last year to this year. It's the same players playing at the same level.

The same players minus our starting point guard. I think there are definitely some players that have stepped up this year. Unfortunately, they haven't stepped up enough to make up for the losses we've had this year.

 

[Roy Christensen]

Tubby has suggested that this team lacks toughness and heart. It is easy to see what a tough full of heart guy like Kramer brings to Purdue. Perhaps Tubby should put some focus on using a scholarship or two to bring a tough, big heart, type of guy(s) onto the team for next year.

 

[Monty519]

Basically we caught breaks last year that we either didn't catch this year, or didn't take advantage. It doesn't take much for a team to turn from a 10 seed to out of the money completely. One or two close wins turned to losses last year might have knocked us out of the tourney as well. @ Wisconsin last year is something that you can't count on often.

This is why a team must always take advantage of everything they get. Late leads cannot be blown at the clip this team has done so this year. And who knows, with Al Nolen on the court, maybe those MSU, Purdue, NU, and Michigan losses turn to wins. Considering we lost to IU with him, obviously that is FAR from a guarantee, but I'm just saying, the team is just a different team with him out there. Whether it's good or bad, it's a different team.

 

[Blizzard]

To me there's not much of a difference or a dropoff at all from last year to this year. It's the same players playing at the same level.

Now, if someone a whole lot smarter than me can translate that thought into how we'll do next year I sure would appreciate it.

 

[The Big L]

Love these posts...

Anyone on here really think that if we had Nolen we wouldn't be going to the tourney?

 

[Monty519]

Kinda expanding on this comparison thing, assuming we beat Iowa, it's been mentioned, we'll finish with an identical BT record. The @IU loss was bad this year, but we barely beat them last year. We lost @ NU both years. Swept by Michigan both years. Split with OSU both years. The Becky and Illinois road games were pretty equal, as well as the Becky home win this year compared to the Illinois home win last year. But I look at our performances against Purdue and MSU and the fact that we were two buckets from beating both of them as showing some strides. Of course, a loss at home against Iowa would change my entire perspective lol.

Then you look at the true difference in record, the 12-0 NC last year vs. 9-3 this year. Last season, we played one true road NC game, @ Colorado State, which we won 72-71. This year it was Miami, which we lost 63-58. I'd say the Miami game was probably a better performance despite the loss. Then you have neutral site games, of which we played 1 last year, #9 (at the time) Louisville, which led to a 70-64 win. This year we played 3, one win over #10 Butler 82-73, but then two losses to Portland and A&M. Portland is a bad loss, but they have won 20 games at least. A&M is ranked 24th right now I believe. So we played a tougher non-conference schedule, and it looks like we're paying for it.

I understand expectations were for more this season, but once stuff started hitting the fan, and then the loss of Nolen, performing at a similar level is about the best we could hope for, and anything more would have simply been a matter of catching the right breaks. It would have been nice we could have gotten a little bit more from some guys who we may not have anticipated needing, but it's not surprising that we didn't. Fact is, we're gonna need ALL of the horses back next season if we want to take this thing to another level, and I'm not even including White, who would admittedly be a nice piece to have next season.

 

[GoFerit]

There has been some improvement in perimeter shooting and low post game. But, the improvement is not big enough. The loss of Al was big. But, we have the roster to play decent without him. Without Al, we are more flexible in rotation, which actually has worked alright.

Nevertheless, I think it was the lack of talent to compete with better teams consistently that really got us. We don't even have a roster to play decent man-to-man, let alone half-court offense to beat the better teams.

Last season, we did not do anything particularly well. But, we played hard, which was the reason of the overachievement -- I still do not know how we made the Tourney with the roster. This season, something got to them. The players were getting more fancy, so to speak. The issue of rebounding in the beginning of the season was an indication of that. And, whot lotta distractions. That has to be the difference.

 

[justthefacts]

They were 12-6 before Nolen went out. Their RPI at that point was probably around 75. Not sure how much you can chalk up to his absence.

 

[GoldenBoy13]

I personally think the loss of JAS was the biggest difference. He may not have been a huge part of the team on the court but off the court he was. I also believed that he lived with DJ and Al and helped keep Al on track, but I may be mistaken. In terms of his heart there is no one that has shown that consistently out of this group yet. I also think Travis was a significant loss with his toughness like others said. He didn't have a lot of D-1 skills but he was willing to go the extra mile with his team defense and his all around hustle.