I'm sorry I just can't get onboard with this. #1 We watch the games. Is there anything about what we saw in Maui or the non-conference that made you believe this wasn't a group that could get to the Elite 8 or the Final 4. Chatfield was playing good minutes off the bench. Heise was defending well. There was not a better backcourt in the country then Gilbert, Jones and Lipsey and then you had Jackson in the post averaging double-digits and Jefferson averaging 12-13 point and distributing from the 4 spot. Plus Milan who was averaging double-digits as well. You were 9 deep out in Maui with Chatfield playing 43 minutes (14 minutes a game) and Nojus playing 30 minutes (10 minutes a game).
This team beat Marquette by double digits, won at a rival in Iowa when they didn't have their best stuff were a half court heave from being 18-2 and 8-1 in the conference on January 27th.
There was not a single major sign that things would/could go sideways until Milan's broken finger, then Jones, then Gilbert and then Lipsey injuries.
Sure they were contributing to it but the hype/expectations were absolutely realistic at the time. After the Gilbert/Jones not playing at Houston and Gilbert not playing at Oklahoma State (February 25th) you didn't hear much about the Final 4 or Elite 8 unless it came with the caveat of "getting healthy."
No one is saying that the hype wasn't realistic. But part of that hype is people aren't always rationale. So when the injuries and illness hit, it's easy to not take that into account. This site is Cyclone FANATIC. Fanatics aren't always logical. And as soon as we started losing a few games, the talk was kind of "how stupid are the fans that expect them to be a Final 4 team?"