Is that player on campus?

Sometimes a single player can make a huge difference to a team. This is not speculation on my part. In our fabled 1985-86 season, we were 23-11 overall. Paul Springer started 23 of those games. In the first eleven games of the year we were 4-7. For the remainder of the season, with Springer starting, we lost only four games, two of them in overtime, and beat Notre Dame in the process. Sure, there were lots of good players on that team: Myron Jackson, Pete Myers, Michael Clarke, Ken Worthy, etc. But those great players were 4-7 without Springer at point guard. What might our record have been if things had continued as they were? Then one of our all-time great teams might have been very mediocre. It makes one wonder how good this year's team might have been if we had had that one player.