(03-16-2017 04:37 PM)BlazintheATL Wrote: It looks like MTSU will advance in the NCAA Tournament. As happy as I am for their players, fans, and the league, I can't help but feeling like that should have been us for the last two seasons.
I totally agree. Really happy for them but it sucks. We played soft, timid, and completely didn't show up against WKU in 2016, when we were clearly the best team in conference. We played down to teams allllllllllll season that year, and it finally bit us in the butt in a very important moment.
This year, we were just terrible basically from start to finish, outside of a few good showings OOC and a short win streak in CUSA. There is no doubt in my mind we were an NCAA caliber talent team, but we lost Norton and then just imploded even more than I thought we would without him.
We should've been building on our excellent finish to to the the season in 2014, but instead we've been in a downward spiral since then. Very disheartening. Especially considering we've had essentially the same team for 3 years. UAB can never build on anything, and it's incredibly frustrating. How do you go from a team of all freshmen winning the conference tournament and winning an NCAA game, so barely going .500 in one of the worst conferences in America??
Next year is NCAA or bust. No reason to expect otherwise. Upper class laden team, Sullivan and Norton coming back, good talent overall, good freshmen coming in. Add a quality shooter and/or big man, and there's absolutely no reason to lower our expectations. This is assuming a full squad of course.