I think most of us can agree that this season was a massive disappointment. Barring a miracle run in Kansas City, there likely will be no post-season play for us.
Reasons for optimism:
Solomon Young has taken a step forward. Hopefully he can continue to improve his game in the offseason and go out with a good senior season.
Bolton has shown he can be a good guard. He needs to work on turning it over less, and become a more efficient scorer.
With some experience now, hopefully Grill and Jackson can make some big improvements and become threats from the outside. Conditt has the physical tools to be one of the better big men in the Big 12; hopefully he can play to his potential.
Adding Javan Johnson should help. Has good size at 6'6; did shoot 43% from 3 his freshman year, but it dropped to 35% his sophomore year. Hines recently said on a podcast that he looked good on the offense during a coupe of practices he watched. Hopefully he can get his 3 point shot to over 40% again next year and use his length to help defensively.
Bringing in 4 freshman that have good upside, and good size (three at 6'5, one at 7'0).
Reasons for pessimism:
Tyrese will most likely be playing in the NBA a year from now; not easy to replace a talent like that.
A lot of guys are going to have to make major improvements, and we will need our freshman to make big impacts right away if we want to get back to the NCAA tournament.
Who will play PG? Jaden Walker is a PG, but he'll be a true freshman and an unknown at this point. Not sure I feel great about Bolton or Jackson running the point.
My expectation is always to make the tournament, and I'm not changing that expectation. A lot of things are going to have to go right for this to happen; lets hope they can do it.
