We've kind of earned it.
The exhibition was against a high school team
Oakland played us tough
Georgia State was a magnificent second half of basketball, but even they're looking shaky since then
Alabama gave us all we could handle
Maryland had the best shooting night of their year and we had our worst but, yeah, they beat us
That's not the CV of a Top 25 team. Come back, crush some cupcakes, and take care of business versus Arkansas and Iowa and we can talk about it.
Not that I'm saying this team sucks--far from it. It just doesn't appear the hot start from last year is going to repeat (and that was a freak event with all those close wins anyways). Going to take some time to gel. A little adversity to put some fire into them now before the Hell that will be the conference season isn't the worst thing in the world. We'll need it. Fred will have them rolling come March--he always does.