I can see some of them taking pay cuts and returning such as Garrison, Noah, Williams, and maybe Diaboute. They were so overpaid that the pay cut will still be a competitive offer that they won’t get as easily elsewhere.
I think a fully healthy Lowe with no disruption to the team’s continuity probably gets us 2-3 more games.
JQ doesn’t help us in those early season blowouts because even the most optimistic timelines had him coming back at some point in December. If that happens and he continues to play, maybe...
If we can somehow get past Iowa State,
then yeah I could see it. Virginia isn’t terribly scary and we’ve beaten UT twice already (yes, I know it’s the same scenario as last year).
Multiple things can be true:
- We would be better than we are now if Cal were still here
- We would still underachieve and not be a serious threat to advance to the F4 much less win a title
- It was time for Cal to go
We’d be where Arkansas is now - a distant second to a Florida team that Cal...
There’s so much gossip about the Cal hiring scenarios that you can’t really believe anything that’s said.
Pratt made Mitch hire Cal
Mitch always wanted Cal
Lee Todd didn’t want Cal
Etc…
Whatever happened, happened and the only people that truly know are 2-3 people. At this point 17-19 years...