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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 3653143, member: 837"] I think the answer to this is both. We clearly aren't the program we were 10 years ago. Now, you can blame JB and say he's lost it. That's one narrative and perhaps there's some truth to it. You could also blame staff -- again, maybe some truth to it. Or you can look at the landscape of college basketball and how many guys are skimmed off the top and transferring and say it's just harder to continually build an elite team. Whatever the case, we aren't as good. That said, I think sometimes people like to lump mid-majors into one category. I went to Loyola in MD and i can tell you there are very different programs even in a conference like the MAAC (which is what we played in at that time). We'd put together a decent team, then run into Siena and get rocked. Some of it is talent but I think some of it is coaching. I thought Bryant had OK talent but very solid coaching (also not sure we were ready to play -- not an excuse about 2 weeks of no practice, but energy-wise, we were dead for whatever reason). Northeastern didn't have a ton of talent but had solid size and I thought they had a phenomenal game plan against us. Buffalo, to me, looked like a team that could run and bang with good teams. Mbala and Williams, the PG was pesky and even with a brutal looking shot, he shot well. Graves was really good. That looked like a very solid roster to me. But will they win their league or be really good all year? No idea. But I think the combo of some well-coached decent teams, with us not having the same talent as 10 years ago made those games nail-biters. The key is we won and we at least have a chance to put together a solid season dream on a tourney run. It's interesting if you just look at the ACC results from Saturday -- Louisville, who i'm sure will give us fits, got absolutely routed, almost doubled up, by Wisconsin. NC State pulled away in the second half from Campbell, which I didn't even know was a school. Miami beat Jacksonville by 9. UCF outscored FSU by 17 in the second half in an easy win. I just think it's a much smaller margin at least early in the season for a lot of these teams for some reason. [/QUOTE]

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