At this point we all know we are just trying to get the car in the garage and not suffer any more injuries. Lard has not been as effective since Young got shut down, those 2 guys compliment each other more than we realized and Lard knows there is literally nothing for depth now behind him if he gets into foul problems. This is just a bad year with as good as the conference is to have injuries and a short bench and the product we are seeing now is a result of guys having to play heavy minutes and having to take on roles they were not meant to play. The guys coming back next year will be better for having to go through this season than they would have been coming off the bench playing behind upperclassmen.
It's ironic how just over a month ago we had just knocked off some ranked teams and nearly took a game from KU at the phog and everyone was on a high how this team could put a string of wins together and put them on on the bubble line. Since then we lost our starting PG and C on an already depth challenged team and had another starter play through a tough time in his life off the court losing his father.
I'm still optimistic that this will be an aberration year having to rebuild being down 2 recruiting classes after a coaching change. Prohm's first 2 recruiting classes have been very solid and he has another good one coming in next year. Mix in the transfers sitting out this year, the young core of this team that comes back, and the possibility of a late signing or grad transfer addition and this team should be much improved next year.