With me there's an eye test component. The 2001 football team's record was worse than the 2000 team's, but you could nonetheless see that they were headed in the right direction ins terms of discipline, attitude, being hardnosed, etc. Last year, I favored giving Diebler the job, in the absence of great options and with him coming cheap, because they clearly played harder and FASTER, than under Holtmann and, it seemed, had a plan to be up-tempo and have an identity going forward. I thought the risk of his inexperience was worth it and we could be more deliberate in choosing a successor pretty quickly if it didn't work out. Then this year comes, and, while I won't fault their effort level, they were not at all up-tempo and and showed little basketball IQ, discipline, or toughnness (can anyone box out?). In the NIL era, we're always going to lose guys (although I'm unconvinced that losing Meechie was really a loss based on his one court play when they had him) so I don't think those excuses hold much water for me. Record aside, if they don't look much more like they have a clue and that individual players are improving at the end of next season, I'd cut bait.
