So he was admittedly worse? Thanks for proving my point. As fans usually how it works is when a team is really good, then returns all those players while adding a player like Burton they usually expect to be better next year. That's not even taking into account the improvement 20 year Olds are expected to take in the off-season and another year to get experience with each other.
That's doesn't always happen the way we would like(ISU football this year) but that's generally how it works when setting expectations and goals for the next year.
Basically we were trading the following:
- Hogue
- BDJ, who was starting NBA games
- Naz due to injury in the early non-con
For:
- Junior Burton, not Big 12 tourney/Purdue Burton
- Improvement from Niang, Thomas and Morris and I guess McKay?
I think it's a fair argument, but people are dramatically overselling how good Burton was as a Junior when evaluating that team. Burton made a big jump from his Junior to Senior season. No one argues that. And consider that big jump got him a third team all conference nod.
But you can't on one hand act like Burton as a Jr. is the same, and not realize that the other rotation guy was Hallice Cooke, and the spot minute emergency big man was Simeon Carter. Also, if you are going to use the "Burton was the 6th man" argument, the prior year vs. UAB our bench was Nader, BDJ and Thomas, all NBA guys.