I actually thought I was amongst the most optimistic in the preseason .... 8 regular season losses and a 3 seed in the SEC and a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. I wasn't far off. If you'd told me the SEC was going to be THIS historic great, then I would have gone on and said - ok, we will FINISH 8TH JUST LIKE THEY SAID WE WOULD, BUT WE WILL STILL GET A 3 SEED IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT. I'd said OK. We will lose more. And we did.
The only difference was all the crazy injuries and adversity of destroying the completeness of the team and team continuity this year. Seeing Kriisa and Jax sitting on the bench is a punch to the guts. But that's life. We've faced adversity in spades this year and we have done very very well. We responded positively each time, and that is a reflection on how actually great of a coaching job Coach Pope has done this year.
But I thought I was pretty wildly optimistic, and saying we would get our two wins in the NCAA tournament this year, making the sweet sixteen. which I will still stand by.
As I recall.
But wow, Pope's Patchwork, Rollercoaster Cats' this year are something else to watch ! I'm just glad to see this team finally get to the end to perform as hard as they can and give it everything as a team. That's all I, or anyone, could ever ask for. We're getting that with this team, this family !!!
Go Big Blue !