[bl82]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus

[bl82]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus