Just a stray thought for a Monday but thought these last two games really capture why so many of us liked this team coming into the season.

Against Texas Tech, a top 25 caliber team (albeit without Toppin), Garcia, one of our best players had an uncharacteristically terrible game, but we were able to overcome it and win anyway. And then against Purdue, another one of our cornerstone players, this time Solo, was absolutely killing us. No big deal, go to the bench and bring in a guy that goes for 16 and 9 with two steals and get some contributions from Hefner and Carter.

Not sure we overcome either of those performances last year, but this year we not only overcome them, we win both games fairly easily. (Purdue drew close there at the end with some wild threes but still never had the ball with a chance to tie it.) Our win percentage never went below 75% the last ten minutes of the game against Purdue or last seven minutes of the game against Tech.

Regarding the front-court, I have to give Buzz the credit. His development of Solo, Garcia and Coleman has really made this team a lot better. Along with Payne, anyone combination of the 4 can be a solid front-count against most teams.

And vs Purdue, we had Manny making the free throws down the stretch with Wade
on the bench. We also had Phelps playing his best game and mostly under control.
So, a little versatility with our 3 guards.

I still think we haven't come close to playing our best basketball! And that's a good thing! We're slowly reaching our potential, and hopefully we find it come March! We haven't had a game where multiple guys are knocking down 3 or 4+ threes! And I think our defense is only going to get better!

Offensively, I agree. If we're going to take down someone like Auburn we're probably going to need an uncommon performance from several guys offensively even if we're able to slow them down with our defense.

That game should be a fun one. Senior day for half the roster.

Not sure how much better our defense can really get though.