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Save this post for this time next year--because it's going to be more of the same. Save for signing a generational talent who sticks around a year or two or three (Kofi, Ayo, Edey, Garza), I don't see any way out of the "middle of the pack . . . that has a deep middle" ---for us or any Big 10 team.

We "won" the off-season by most commentators' accounts and this is what we ended up with. Brad/NIL will convince a seemingly underrated stud from another program to come here, but I see the same trajectory. Start the year with hype; then come questions of leaderships (is this Epps's team? [unnamed super senior]'s team? Goode?); questions of the transfers buying into being everyday guys; rumors of locker strife; and inconsistent, headscratching play. Oh, and watch someone (maybe RJ?) transfer and become all-conference somewhere else.

Luckily this is likely the fait of most teams (see Michigan, MSU, etc. this year), but at the end of the day I think we are going to pine for the days when we used to "know" our teams.