Sanctions!? Why is this the first I'm hearing of that!
Sanctions were an excuse that doesn't fly. Sorry. It's been hashed out on here since they hit. The roster has been exceptionally mismanaged. Starting with the guy responsible for those sanctions.
Ha! Good lord! It's unreal how some will still bang that drum without their drumsticks to make the sound legit, at least to the degree that anyone wants to listen to such noise that it was a significant factor vs. a minor contributing one.
This topic had been debated here ad nauseam, and folks certainly took their line in the sand positions, and apparently still do...all of these years later.
During that time, we still rarely filled out the roster, even with three less schollies and typically offered one or more to walk-ons. Moreover, the proximate cause of our slide and fall from grace was on the consistent & numerous swings and misses on the recruiting trail, especially at the most critical position in the game, the point guard spot, along with the 5 spot.
What Jay Bilas stated immediately after the sanctions came out, rung the most true for me. He stated that JB rarely plays more than mostly 6 guys meaningful minutes, at times sometimes 7. He stated that the most significant thing was to make sure that SU got the bulk of the top players that they targeted, and if they did, then he didn't see a drop off, and, for the most part, business as usual. However, we all painfully know how it played out...again, numerous swings and misses for many of our top targets.
I'm sure 20 years from now and longer, there will be folks falsely blaming sanctions as the proximate cause commencing our fall from grace versus the aforementioned.