"“You’re only as good as your last envelope.”"
College basketball and the New Jersey mafia are both “What have you done for me lately?” type entities. Nobody cares what you did five or ten years ago if what you are doing now sucks.
For a few blue bloods, last season’s performances were far from ideal. Kentucky went a stunning 9-16 and never sniffed the tournament. Duke was a measly 13-11 which was enough for them to not hear their name called on Selection Sunday, either. And while Michigan State and North Carolina both snuck into the tournament, neither advanced past their first game.
With a far more normal offseason entering the 2021-2022 campaign and more stacked incoming recruiting classes, these perennial powerhouses will have a lot harder time explaining themselves if they repeat their previous performances. I expect bounce-back seasons from all four programs, but I do think the tide is turning and the once stranglehold they had on college hoops is loosening.
"“This is the course I’ve chosen, and those of you that are not with me on it, well that makes me sad. And, it’ll be dealt with in time.”"
Not too many programs saw the amount of change Brad Underwood did this offseason. First-team All-American Ayo Dosunmu left school for the NBA Draft and joined his hometown Bulls. Former Mr. Illinois, Adam Miller, shocked everyone by leaving Champaign for Baton Rouge. Giorgi Bezhanishvili also decided to end his college career early and chase his dream professionally. In addition to losing these three key players (and briefly seeing Kofi Cockburn enter the transfer portal), Underwood had to replace all three of his assistant coaches halfway through the summer.
How does one rebound from such catastrophic losses in a matter of months? Surely any man would fold and just start rebuilding for a year or two down the road?
Not Brad Underwood. Instead, he quickly rebuilt his coaching staff with guys holding tremendous recruiting ties, managed to keep Kofi in orange and blue, added two productive transfers, and brought in three solid freshmen. The Illini have repositioned themselves well to be a frontrunner in the Big Ten once again.