What made it a generational team? I mean, Newton and Spencer are the fringiest of fringe NBA players - a couple games so far between them on their two ways, and their future is probably in Europe. And the other 2 missed good chunks of the season last year. Clingan overachieved many people’s projections coming in by a mile … and Castle was a role player when he came back from injury. It definitely wasn’t some sort of a generational team based on raw talent. The Arkansas team we beat by 50 probably had more. Or look at our past teams. The 2005 team had five first round picks: Gay, Williams, Boone, Armstrong, and Villanueva (and Denham Brown (who was drafted in the second round). Lost in the second round. The 2012 flameout team had Napier, Lamb, Drummond and Oriakhi (who was drafted in the second round). The 2009 Final Four team had Price, Kemba, Thabeet, Adrien and Robinson (who was drafted in the second round) - and an injured Dyson. NBA players don’t make a team generational.
This year the same things (injuries to key players) that we were able to overcome set us back. McNeeley’s injury hit at a bad time when we were starting to have it come together with him as the lead dog. Castle could ease his way in last year in a way McNeeley can’t and other than the one Creighton explosion, he has been off his game. And the combination of Diarra’s knees, Mahaney not working out, and Nowell’s injuries/lack of impact has left us with a big problem (especially next to a shooting guard without PG skills). Same problem that caused the 2005 and 2006 teams to underachieve (not enough guard play).
Some years it just doesn’t come together the way you hope and there’s no trading deadline to fix it - but we’ll see what happens this month.