Sorry, I'm still very much in the emotional "don't kid yourself" mode. Unless somebody can show me something statistically different, the trend hasn't reversed itself. Maybe it's leveled off, but certainly no rehearsal.
Here's the problem with this team: we have a bunch of guys who did really well elsewhere and a few guys like KJ and DeJuan who have proven themselves in Lawrence. The whole 'team' concept is that the TEAM should be better than the sum of its parts. This one isn't, and the clock on the season is running out. We only have 9 games left so we're already behind the 8 ball with 4 losses. Let's say we improve and only lose 2 more; that's 6 conference losses total, probably good enough for the top half of the standings, but not 1st or 2nd.
Then tournament seeding starts working against us. For example, in a regular bracket a 4 plays a 5 in the 2nd round (as opposed to a 1 playing an 8 or a 2 playing a 7). In any case, we haven't been really good in competitive games this year.
So we come out of the Big 12 was 4th or 5th for the regular season and a mid-level finish in the Big 12 tourney, and we face a similar issue in the NCAA's. Lunardi currently has us as a 3, but that's optimistic, IMHO. We're more like a 4 or 5 and we face the same thing.
Can we turn it around? Maybe, but I still think the best we can do is 3rd place (I'd love to be proven wrong). Can we win a NC? Well, we KU fans will always be suckered into believing after 1988 (they were called "Miracles" for a reason).
Unfortunately, until these guys can prove that they are consistent, I'm pessimistic.
