At this point, who cares? The regular season has become a macrocosm of a JB-coached game. Half of us criticize him because the results are closer than we’d like, while the other half enjoys the roller coaster and eventual outcome.
Between the talent level, slate of legendary coaches, and biased officiating, I don’t know if JB is willing to put in the effort to be a top-4 team in the ACC. But he can do enough to get us into the tournament, with some exciting upset wins over top ten teams along the way. And as we all know, anything is possible once we’re in the tournament.
In the 90s, I didn’t think he cared much about conference tournament results. If we were already going to be in the NCAA tournament, why have the players expend too much additional energy? Save it for when it matters. 1996 was the ideal conference tournament appearance. Win a couple of games to stay fresh and help with seeding, then bow out against one of the elite.
Now I think JB is that way with the regular season. He’s doing just enough to get us dancing. That’s all he needs.
Has he been lazy with recruiting post-sanctions? Absolutely. Obviously we would benefit from having more talent. But look at what he can do with what he has. Yeah, we keep missing out on big men...only to find a diamond in the rough like Dolezaj, Edwards, and (wait for it) Anselem. At his age, JB isn’t going to have the same sense of urgency as the fan base when he can consistently bail himself out in this manner.
And yeah, he coached his son into Jimmy Chitwood. After all these years, he deserved the opportunity and he pulled it off.
He is not going to change his ways, folks. Might as well enjoy the ride.