After that exciting win yesterday, I kind of wonder if that is going to be one of those games that's a turning point in our season.
Not to imply that a double OT victory over Youngstown State is a big deal, but I think we saw some things snap into place [amidst the bad of poor defense]. Namely, JJ emerged as our "best" player, the guy that the offense can be structured around, and Lampkin showed what a load he can be -- as a rebounder, as an inside scorer, and as a distributor. And Freeman beginning to show his talent.
Now... there's a lot of work still left to do. But maybe we saw on Saturday was the "start" of the team beginning to get their sea legs.
But this reminds me a little bit of 2015-2016 -- Michael Gbinije's senior year. We looked lousy the first couple of games, to the point where I worried that we just weren't that good. And then we go down to Atlantis around the Thanksgiving timeframe and played a couple of good teams, and suddenly the team's level of play jumped. We ended up getting a pair of wins against UConn and Texas A&M, and then were a better squad [despite the ups and downs of the regular season, and eventually being on the bubble before we went on a F4 run].
I'm not suggesting we'll be that good, or have similar success -- just that I'm hoping that this team has an extra gear that we haven't seen yet. We have some good pieces -- we really do -- but so far the flaws have outshined the good. Need that to change.