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[QUOTE="Knicks411, post: 5372171, member: 767"]
It's hard to handwave away a final four and making a few sweet 16 runs (I was at the game where we beat UVA in Chicago to go to the final 4, it was an incredible memory) because that really the whole point.  But I dont think it's wrong to say we were mediocre even from like 15-21.  In 2016 we entered the tournament 43rd in Ken Pom (we finished 27th after the season, obviously we should get some credit for that) and that was definitely a year we were on the bubble and not sure we were making it (they all run together, I think that was the year the bracket leaked early and we werent even sure it was real cause we didnt expect to be a 10?).

2021 they entered the tournament 40th and made a run to the sweet 16.  Again, that was cool (not as cool as 16 but still cool) but also not super representative of the quality of the team on the whole.  Similar story in 2018, entered the tournament 56 at ken pom and won 2 games.  Again, fun! Those runs did happen, you can't discount them, but I think if you're going to seriously look back and evaluate the trajectory of the program over the last decade plus those tournament runs do kind of hide what was really going on.

There are a million different sad factoids over the period; here's another one.  From 2015 to now, we've been seeded in the top half of the NCAA tournament field 1 time; we were an 8 in 2019, 30th overall.  So yes, 3 sweet 16s including a FF since then, but once in the top half of the tournament field in over a decade!  That's a lot more representative of what has happened to the program than a few good runs in March.  (Which again!  They did happen!  they do count, they were awesome.)
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