Topher17 said:
I think any time you lose a good portion of your starting lineup you'd expect to take a step back the next year. I think the big issue however is we have all been able to see this coming for quite some time and the staff has done almost nothing to fill the holes you could see coming for years. The transfer and juco recruting is nice for filling holes you didn't expect, but I think a big issue is we seem to be relying heavily on it due to poor high school recruiting. Outside of House and Jones, we haven't fared too well with playing this game in the past, so it is hard to have confidence moving forward. I always have flashbacks to Andrew Young when it comes to us pulling juco guys that the staff raves about.
Next, add in the inability of our staff to adapt a system to the personnel on hand and it makes what would likely be a down year regardless feel pretty scary already and it is only May.
I'm personally mostly looking at specifically next season and next season only. Had Tyler Davis returned then I think our chances of being an NCAA team next year would have been a lot better. And it would have allowed a bit more time with more options to mitigate the situation in the post.
However, now...he isn't returning so I'm personally now on the 'Next year won't be an NCAA team' bandwagon. Hogg didn't bother me as much, both because of his inconsistency anyways and there seemed reasonable alternatives to replace that production. Tyler was a much bigger loss and I personally don't see how they really replace that. He was really good (like First Team All Conference good), and he was CONSISTENTLY good. And he never got into any trouble and was pretty durable (not injury prone). Those kind of players don't grow on trees.
Will Kennedy keep his job if he misses the NCAA next year? Beats me. All I know is there was plenty of smoke that he would have lost his job had he missed the NCAA the past season. Whether or not the Sweet Sixteen finish changed the situation enough that he can now afford a miss, I guess we'll find out (assuming we do indeed fall really flat next season).