In Reply to: This is just a guess, posted by ej on December 09, 2025 at 12:29:22
I guess our only disagreement is that I don’t see the trajectory you do.
I do think we have a good team this year, but in my opinion, it’s not a contender for either a conference championship or a national title. We’re probably in the top 25–15 range. Given our relatively light out-of-conference schedule, I don’t see a high seed, which could lead to an early exit in the tournament. That again points to next year, and at this point, the pipeline doesn’t look strong. But who knows?
I do think you’re right about how we spent our money this year, and it’s probably how we’ll spend it next year. I suspect he’ll be looking to the transfer portal again and trying to hold onto guys like Dailey and Perry. It feels like we’re hoping to catch lightning in a bottle rather than systematically building a program—and that’s fine if it works.
I do think Cronin is a good coach and that players improve under him. But that only matters if he can recruit and retain the talent needed to develop into national contenders.
I guess the other slight disagreement we might have is whether we have the money to compete on a national level. I don’t think we really know the answer. When I look at the current top 10, I see some teams that probably have a budget similar to ours. But as you know, that’s just a guess. Others, I assume, have a much higher budget.