Putting things into perspective, this really is a gut check time in the Crean era, specifically that of the James/Matthews/McNeal years.
For this particular group of players, whether it be the toll of conference play, the coaching style of Crean, whatever it may be, the team seems to wear down hard and fast this time of year. The trend of peaking early in the season and playing up to their strengths, seems to really be lacking, particularly this season. If this team was loaded with frosh/soph's, I could understand, but for these three guys in particular to be juniors and playing this way, something is wrong.
The blame goes all around...Crean, assistants, all the players. I don't know what went on in practice or was said behind closed doors yesterday, but that was bad, real bad. Louisville is clearly more talented than we are, and while I see no shame in losing to them, it was the way we lost and went about it that was troubling. Again, I don't know what's going on, but if the trend stays current, I see us getting whipped in South Bend on Saturday.
MU will most likely make the tournament, the sky isn't falling that bad. It's still a while away, but if MU goes to the NCAA's, and were to lose in the first round, A LOT of questions would need to be asked. For such a talented and hyped class as James, Matthews, and McNeal were and have been, for them to be 0-3 in NCAA appearances would be a overwhelmingly huge disappointment for this program. March is still a ways to go, and there's plenty of time to right the ship. Hopefully we're not asking these questions on March 22nd.
