Improvement over last year

Last year going into the final game of the year we were 4-10. I have no way of comparing the Strength of Schedule indices of both years at that point, but the schedules are very comparable. In fact, the argument might be made that this year's is somewhat harder.

We played one Big Six team last year (Mich. St.). This year we played two. We had one non-D1 game each year. We played Tulsa, Milwaukee, SMU and La. Tech both years.

This year we are 8-6 so far. That is a four-game improvement. And we did it without our First Team SBC point guard and without Chuck Guy, both of whom were material contributors at guard.

Is this a better team at this point in the season? The results would say so. Will this team be as good as that team was by the end of the season? Well, we are going to have to close very fast to do that, and we will have to do it without any senior leadership, which will be tough. But so far, so good.