I'd put this year's Golden team up against ANY Mike White team every damn day. We have much better talent now, and I'm not smart enough on basketball to know if there is better coaching now (hard to be worse than White was). So, IMO, we've improved....but still aren't where we need/want to be. I don't see the coach or the players feeling satisfied either, so let's see them do something about it.
Refs sucked, and it hurt our game noticeably. But that will happen to every team once in awhile (when will it be against our opponents rather than us?). Deal with it, play good enough to beat all 8 on the court.
I don't put much cred into Handlogten being out as a factor against us. Players get injuries over the season, a good team has the depth to compensate and keep performing. If a team wins/loses based on just one guy's availability (ie, Castleton) then it's not a healthy (balanced, robust with depth) team - that's on the coach. Yes, Handlogten would have helped, but he shouldn't be the deciding factor and I don't believe he is. We could have won all 3 of our losses. Again, that tells me we are close, but not there yet.
Losing sucks. A lot. But it certainly feels like a new (non-White) era where we have a chance in every game. Need to figure out how to get over that hump and be a consistently winning (if not dominating) team. I believe we can.
