It’s been a pretty rough 2 years, but I think Ben deserves some more time to get things on track. He had to start from scratch when nearly all the Pitino players transferred. Ben brought in a bunch of his own transfers, most of which were not highly touted players, and coached them to being competitive in many games. This year is his first with some of his own recruits.
I watch just about every game and this freshman group is showing promise, but it is tough in the Big 10…when most other teams have a lot more experience. Their biggest issues are turnovers and free throws (worst in the country). Most teams will struggle to win games shooting ~60% from the charity line. Most of the games where they have limited the turnovers have been competitive. Some injuries have added to the trouble. It’s too bad about Dennis Evans deciding to ask for a release from his commit, but if he’s having doubts before even showing up he was likely a big transfer risk after a year anyway. If Ben can keep this core group and add a couple solid players each year, I think he can do really well and will be a guy who will stay around to build the program. If Battle and Garcia don’t transfer, they have an opportunity to lead a turnaround (I’m still optimistic!) and provide much needed upper-class leadership. One positive I see is the team still playing hard, even with the painful year, and the team continues to show some improvement. With Pitino, many of his teams started out looking pretty good and by late season they started going downhill fast.
