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Message: [QUOTE="Hans Sprungfeld, post: 4030488, member: 181"] With 5:07 remaining in the Big East semi-final game, something like RJ's ill-advised circus shot in a clogged lane needed to have been excised from the play book and replaced with a pass out to someone open on the outside for a good shot...but the team didn't get to play enough games with Bouknight back in the lineup to take care of this essential remaining hurdle. That spelled the season's outcome. Instead, RJ suffered an injury, and things did not come together in a way that many of us thought & hoped would happen. It resulted in a lowered seed and a poorly played game against Maryland, which became a disappointing end to the season. Injuries & COVID-19. We were one of many teams whose final disposition could be summed up that way. I enter this season without the impatience some have signaled. I do not want, and do not think it's inevitable that the team won't get to the 2nd weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but I have room for expectations akin to an historical 3rd year. Doing so aligns with seeing a 'lost year' in many dimensions of my life and that of others, and ascribing that to the close of the 2019-20 season and last year in its entirety. Others have pointed out obvious successes and areas for improvement within the program. I've done so elsewhere. I regard Dan Hurley's 3rd season as superior to that of his predecessor, and I believe that this year's season performance will exceed that of his predecessor's 4th season, which could still result in an NCAA Round 2 exit, but from a higher seed, rather than having come from winning an 8/9 matchup. My larger expectation is that the program will continue to ascend in the following season, where the previous season 5 did not do that, and I anticipate seeing a continued positive trajectory that will include many challenges that come with such growth and stature. Because thid thread was begun by a URI partisan, I'll submit that Dan Hurley has been game-coaching against better coaches, having his teams face more skilled players, competing against more elite programs in his recruiting battles, needing to learn how to utilize a caliber (and even size) of players that were previously beyond his reach, and navigating a number of new realities that govern roster construction. The worldwide pandemic has been a wild card above and beyond all of that, though it is fully applicable to all coaches and programs. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach