Its fair to say we had injuries that greatly impacted the season and its also fair to say if we are in the bottom third in the ACC in NIL we finished in the standings about where our NIL budget is. But is also fair, despite the two things above, to be disappointed in the finish and not making March Madness. The two points above didnt cause us to lose at SMU, at Miami, home against Stanford or at least one of the Wake games. Hold on to 3 of those and its a great year and your in March Madness. The players on the court regardless of injury or NIL gave us decent leads after 38 minutes of play against SMU Stanford and Miami. We werent cursed in those games like some say here, we lost because we collapsed. The loss to SMU from halfcourt wasnt a miracle. The miracle was blowing a 4 pt lead in the final 8 seconds. The miracle was a 75 and 87 pct free throw shooter both missing the front end of one on ones in the final seconds. The miracle was a stupid in bounds play where all 4 players are lined up on the baseline and you throw it in the corner and get trapped and lose the ball out of bounds. The miracle against stanford was once again not the guy making a deep 3 but the fact we let a 13 point lead fall away in the final 3 minutes by poor shooting, poor decisions, poor coaching and poor defense. Against Miami we are up 4 with 2:34 to play and miss our remaining 4 shots as well as a free throw and lose by 1. Make any of those 5 shots and you probably win And dont say this team was ok in close games as they were 7-6 in games in ot or decided by 3 pts or less. While the home close wins against cal and uva were good wins, the other 5 close game wins, providence 9th in big east, south carolina 14th in sec, colo st 7th in lowly mountain west, syracuse 14th in acc and Elon 11th in the awful CAA were against terrible teams. Maybe these games shouldnt have been this close at the end. This team couldnt finish and isnt cursed. They just lost when it mattered most. Without injuries and with more NIL money could we have possibly won 3 or 4 more games and been safely in March Madness, absolutely yes. Do our factors make it an uphill battle. Yes they do. But the fact is, this team should have won those 3 or 4 games despite our negative factors. ** Edited by Battlesuggs at 3/11/2026, 3:00:06 PM ** Edited by Battlesuggs at 3/11/2026, 3:01:50 PM ** Edited by Battlesuggs at 3/11/2026, 3:03:02 PM ** Edited by Battlesuggs at 3/11/2026, 3:05:29 PM