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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 2078807, member: 837"] Yeah, it's interesting. One point I'd make, is that I'd call '08 a fluke b/c if either Devendorf or Rautins are healthy, they at least make the tourney and that was against a really tough Big East with six teams in the top 25 at year's end, a group that didn't include a decent nova team and a good WVU team (26 wins), both of which ended up in the tourney. But, regardless, it's an interesting point. I'd boil it down to two things -- roster management (which SU94 mentioned) and need to find more offense generally. [B]Roster management[/B] I'd say this has been more pronounced the past three seasons -- the struggles of 06 had to do mostly with missing on a few recruits after the title game (Robertson never became a great player, Nichols was excellent as a senior but only decent up until that point and Watkins had two very solid campaigns defensively but just never figured anything out offensively. That hurts. But the past three seasons feel like a program dealing with early departures they didn't quite anticipate. I mean, if either Ennis or Grant are on the '15 team, that's a much better team. If Richardson is back on this team, it really helps as well b/c he could have played the 2 while Battle got his feet wet. I think those departures caught the staff a bit by surprise. [B]Need more offense[/B] The one thing most of those seasons have in common is a lack of guys who could create their own offense. GMac was OK and Devo was fine but that was it in '06. The '07 team was Nichols and Devo and that's it. The '08 team would have been fine but you had the injuries that stripped a couple of veteran playmakers. The '15 team had no PG and really struggled to find a guy to create his own shot, and the '16 team really had the same issues. This year is maybe more of a different story, but it certainly speaks to roster management with Mali leaving and then being forced to work so many new faces in all at once. [/QUOTE]

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