Maybe those warning signs we saw back in November

[Tenspro2002]

weren't so ignorable after all: the inability to extend leads and put cupcakes away, the reliance on "easy" assists (a little tongue-in-cheek there), the poor offensive flow and sometimes inconsistent effort.

We're still seeing that.

And yes, while those posts were ridiculous which attacked Bazz for getting many assists on dunks and alley-oops, the question of whether that kind of production was sustainable against better competition seems to have been a valid one.

Next time maybe we should be reading more closely into those subtle, early-season issues.

 

[freescooter]

Add to that the inability to blow out not very good mid-majors.

 

[Gurleyman]

Well, the truth is somewhere in the middle. We can't get hyper-sensitive every time we don't slaughter a bad team. In 1998-99, the incarnation of the Boneyard at the time was suicidal because we came down to the final minute with Marathon Oil in an exhibition game. In 2003-04, we had similar issues with a 30-30 halftime tie with Yale in the season opener. Both years ended well.

However, the early-season games also can't be thrown away without getting better or addressing things that need fixing. I wasn't too concerned with our inability to hold big leads at the time, because we were at least building the big leads and showing our potential, and learning to close games out is a process that young teams have to develop (knowing when to ease off the throttle and use the clock as your friend). I thought Bazz was showing impressive flashes of his ability to lead the team, as well as times (UCF) when he tried to do too much when the team was drifting off course. But I chalked that up to the learning curve - figured he'd build on it and find the middle ground.

Unfortunately, the way this season has gone, Bazz (and the team as a whole) have carried over the bad moments more than the good, and instead of continuing to build, we've spiraled down. We're not supposed to be flawless from November-March, but the overall trend ideally slants upward. We'd better hope for a U-shaped parabola where we're currently in the crevice.