ugh... we've been over this many times already.
Alright, since you're new here...
Last year's team finished one point away from the Sweet 16. We lost five seniors from that team (who won 108 games in their 4 years). Because of that senior-laden lineup, only two other players averaged more than 2.5 minutes per game.
So those two players returned to this year's team - one was a senior this year, one was a junior. They were the only two guys with D-I experience on the roster. The rest of the team were freshmen and sophmores. We also had one juco transfer this year. So it was obviously going to be a rebuilding year.
Even with all that youth, we underachieved... there's no way around it. Through our first 18 games we were 7-11, and every loss was by single digits. Name a way to lose a game in the last 3 minutes, we did it. Some of the teams we lost to were decent teams - @Oklahoma (NIT), @Wichita State (NIT), @Nevada (NCAA), UTEP (NCAA), Hawaii (NIT). We also beat Rice (NIT) and Boise State (NIT) during that stretch, but lost at home to Arkansas. Very up and down.
But that Hawaii loss was the heartbreaker. We lost at home in double OT on a couple of missed free throws right at the end. That was loss number 11, and the young guys lost their confidence. The next game was two days later against Nevada, and they pounded us. It spiraled out of control from there.
The bottom line is that we had the talent to win 14-15 games this season, which would have been an acceptable rebuilding year, but we underachieved.
The good news is that we lose exactly one senior. Everybody else is back, with a year of experience under their belts. We had a great little guard redshirt this season (played same position as our senior), so that's immediate help for next year. In addition, we have a 6' 10" 240lb. big man who sat out this season after transferring who will help shore up the paint next season.
So the outlook is this - next year's team will definitely be improved, if for no other reason than the year of experience. The year after that, when we join C-USA, we'll have a team with 3-4 seniors and 3-4 juniors, all battle-tested. We'll be ready.
Trust me, it hurts like hell for all of us Tulsa fans. Check out my signature below. We've had a lot of success the past 10 years. It's taken awhile for me to accept the sting of this rebuilding year, but I'm confident we'll get it turned around soon. This was a bump in the road... just a bigger bump than we anticipated.
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