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[QUOTE="billsin01, post: 4392871, member: 837"]
That's one way to look at it -- and not a wrong way either. Your assessment is correct -- this program has struggled the past 8 seasons (if you go back 10 you're including a 28-6 and 30-10 season). There is no doubt the recruiting has lagged. And, to your point, there are a lot of reasons -- shifting landscape of college sports, massive transfer stuff, sanctions, JB getting older ...

But the other way to look at it is that for basically 40 years we spent most of the time being disappointed if we only won 20+ and lost in the sweet 16 or earlier. That is an incredible blessing. Add to it that the painful stretch of the past 8 seasons actually included a final four, two other sweet 16s, and (so far) just the one losing season and there are still plenty of programs that would take it.

JB is older. He is clearly limping a bit toward the finish of an amazing career. I'm hesitant to expect much out of this group as well. But this is typically how things go. They are cyclical and for a small school in the middle of nowhere upstate NY we've been incredibly fortunate.

None of this makes the past 8 seasons particularly grand or makes the lack of expectations this season any easier to swallow -- but I do hope folks at least appreciate what JB has accomplished here and appreciate how lucky we've been as fans to experience it. I get a little uneasy with all the 'old man' and 'retire already' vitriol on here -- if you have a lifer who is more or less killing it for 40 years, the reality is the end of that story is pretty likely to be disappointing. It's life for the most part (I guess Duke and UK are exceptions -- but there ain't many).
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