I think the raw talent on this team is overall (comparing players position by position) better than last year. At the same time - some of the players expected to be major contributors are freshmen and new to college athletics. In Demin's case - he's new to basketball in the US period (not that there's a significant difference between euro ball and US ball - but there are differences).

When you combine that with the fact that this is Young's first year - so NO ONE on the team had any history with his offense and defense and everyone on the team is just learning it for the first time - there is definitely a lack of continuity. If you're only bringing in 2-3 players each year who are expected to be contributors and everyone else on the team who will play a lot of minutes is coming back - it's easier to teach those 2-3 players the offense and defense with the support of returning players who know where to be, etc., than it is to teach it to everyone.

So it shouldn't be super surprising that the team isn't great this year. I think we hoped for more and were optimistic going into the season based on the players who came - but it was a bit unrealistic for a 1st year coach. If I remember correctly - it took Pope 2-3 years before half of CB stopped saying that his team doesn't run an offense and they look lost on the floor. I'm hopefully Young won't need that long - and that the team will continue to improve over time. But this first year, it was fool's gold to think they were going to be great all of a sudden.