I think we will be significantly better as a team. We will have less athletic talent and less basketball talent, but I think we'll use the talent we have much better.
The biggest reason for a much improved team is because (and I'm sure I'll get railed for this, but) Brackins sucks as a "star" player. Yaman3 already pointed out one major flaw with CB (and MG) trying to do it all themselves the last half of the season, and maybe that was what they were being told to do by the staff, but neither one of them were good at drawing the defense away from other players and distributing. In general, I was very unimpressed with Brackins, given the same number of touches a "star" player should have dominated a game and when he isn't getting touches it's up to him (not coaches or point gaurds) to get the ball and do something with it. Combine the lack of creation for other players with bad shot selection (everyone in the arena knew if he caught the ball outside of 10 feet we'd see the fade away) and not commanding the ball and our "Star", that our offense was supposed to revolve around, and we end up with the "record" we ended up with.
But besides the lack of playing really well, the big reason why Brackins drug the team down was his complete lack of ability to finish a game. Brackins was looked to by this team as the leader, he was supposed to be the guy that led us to victory, who set the tone for every game and for the entire program. He was supposed to be the man. Every great team (heck, every winning team) has the guy on the floor that everyone else looks to. That might not be the leading scorer or the point gaurd but every good team has that guy. And for this team, for the last 2 years, that has been Craig. The problem is, he's not that guy, he's not the closer, the general we needed. In my opinion, he would have been the greatest non-"star" player ISU has ever had if we would have just had someone else to be that guy and lead the team.
Without Brackins, next year someone else on the team will get their chance to take the reins of the program. I honestly don't know who that will be, maybe DG will get the nod from the team. Maybe Ejim will come in and start lighting it up in practice and turn into that guy, or maybe it's Boozer's hussle that the team ralleys around. I don't know who that guy is going to be, but the point is, it will be someone other than Craig and that is a refreshing thought for me. It's someone else's turn and maybe with another player as the "go to guy" we'll find a winner and some of those close losses will turn into wins.
I think someone will step up to lead this team, someone with a bigger drive to win than Brackins. And that will translate into a much better team and an improved record. We won't have the talent to play with the big boys, but we'll still be right in the middle of the pack in the conference. And next year, I think we see what a real leader can do, a winner; someone that brings it everynight and knows how to win.