(including me) thought that this was a sure-fired NCAA roster in the preseason. Thirty- three points from Avdalas against Providence fueled that belief. And honestly, before I say anything else, if we handle Stanford and SMU at the end of the game we would be safely in the field at this moment. But we have played too many games without Lawal and Johnson (especially). Lawal didn’t hurt so bad because of the part of the schedule we were in, though winning one of the two we lost in the tournament would have helped. Our team seemed to lose its soul when Johnson went down. We just don’t function the same. Then look around. We have this great roster and compare it to Duke. Or Clemson. Or Virginia(our win over them might be the upset of the year nationally given who we were playing without). Or NC State. Or UNC. Or Louisville. Or Miami. Or SMU. I would even venture to say that Florida State has a comparable or better roster than us, and they are hot. Syracuse too, but they don’t have a serious coach. So even in a year where we look like a sure thing for the tournament, we have to scrap and claw, and as of today, be outside looking in. We aren’t out of the hunt but we have to get our mojo back quickly. Blame Young if you must, but other than some end of game debacles, I see a very well coached team. Low on turnovers and high on getting percentage shots. Coaches can draw them up but coaches don’t shoot. Our guys have to shoot better, and hopefully they will. We have a couple of key guys in massive slumps. There is still time if we can get a confident team rolling down the stretch. Johnson would enhance the chance. Because even when we are playing well, about half the league still have better rosters than we do so there is little margin for error. ** Edited by VT One at 2/8/2026, 10:46:12 AM