I curious what other fans think of the past year. It was odd. We ended up winning 25 games, which is amazing. But somehow, it still feels like we allowed some amazing opportunities slip by. I'd have to say that in the end, they met expectations in wins and finishing in the top 3, but somehow I thought they'd at least get the NIT this year. 

I said slightly under but I see your point of view as well. It was a fun season with a lot of high points, but I go back to that Florida MTE and that really heavily weighs on how I see the season as a whole.

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I said slightly as well, we were probably 1 or 2 wins from being where I expected. In most cases this would have been an excellent season for us but with nearly everyone back from a tournament team I'd have thought we'd at least be in the NIT.

If we are talking about expectations  from immediately prior to the season starting I would say my expectations were lightly higher. Our final conference standings met expectations as I thought we would be top 3 and hopeful for first place but certainly knew we were more likely to finish 2nd 3rd or 4th than 1st. We were literally one blown call out of first place. I underestimated the affect the prior season injuries would have on a couple players. Overall I thought we would be a little better and hoped for meaningful post-season play. The last game in the CBI was the low point of the season for me as far as level of play. Horrible way to end the season.

Drakey

It was good year but also a little below what I was hoping If Wilkins doesn’t get hurt we win arch madness. I was in Florida for the MTE at thanksgiving. As you know we lost all 3 games there as well
To Clemson. On every one of those games we had a late lead didn’t win. That’s what is so disappointing to me. Things could have been much better

Great question.  25 wins at Drake should always be considered a very very good year.  However as everyone has said we were so close to reaching even higher goals.  In the end obviously injuries I think kind of derailed us.  Can't find any fault in these kids effort and heart.  Both Penn and Tank playing on broken bones.  Losing DJ.  Never really had the entire team healthy and still won 25 games and were 1 possession away w/a minute to go at the Valley tournament.  Damn good season.

It was a good season with a bad ending.  The previous year was a great season.  In my view, we need  a couple of players who are a step up in talent offensively.  Or we need some of the current players to step up big time.  Ro, DJ, Sturts and DeVries are a pretty good foursome.  Lots of questions about next year.

Moving forward.....

I was expecting at least NIT because stuff does go wrong. Only games I want back are UNT, Clemson, UNCW. UNCW only for more national exposure on espn2. The others I’m curious where our net would’ve been if we did best UNT and Clemson. Maybe splitting with MSU too.

If injuries didn’t happen drake would’ve won arch madness. If drake won couple more games. They could’ve been the ncaa tournament

It shows how spoiled we've become under DD.  25 wins and people say it's a slightly disappointing season.

I had high expectations coming in.  If I had known that neither Roman or Tank were at 100%, I would have tempered those expectations a little.  Definitely some disappointing games and a very disappointing end to the season.  Still, if you had told me before the season that the team would win 25 games, I would have been very happy with that.

I'm 32 and this was the 3rd best season of my lifetime. The fact that this staff has built a winning culture that has lasted multiple years is much more important to me than being on the short side of a handful of what-ifs this year.

I'm excited for the future - including the environment we can build in the Knapp Center with the upcoming improvements.

After I found out about the injuries I didn't believe Penn or Tank especially Penn would finish the season. Just to be able to do that and almost win regular season conference. Then lose a STARTER before conference tourney. Beat a team that sweep you in the regular season in overtime. Again missing a STARTER losing by less then 6 or whatever in the championship.  Remember 3 games in 3 days 1 overtime game with 2 STARTERS playing on injuries. A broken foot one of the starters. A freshman stepping up a former walk- on leading you in rebounding and starting. That's why I said DD should have gotten coach off the year. JMO I'm satisfied disappointed because they deserved to be in the NIT before UTAH STATE 

Saw in the St. Peters Purdue game a flop called in the middle of a possession. They let the play finish. Let Purdue score, and then stopped the clock and issued the flop warning after the basket. I've seen this twice now since the Drake debacle and both have been done that way so I assume it is correct. Change that one call and Drake wins the MVC outright.

Drakey

Coming after an NCAA Tournament in in 2020-21, slightly under. Take that season out and it met or exceeded. The season after a huge expectations raise is always tougher than thought as this season showed. Regardless of not quite meeting the expectation for the season, I'm fully prepared to buy season tickets for the first time next season. (Would have bought this season but didn't since I knew I would miss half the games for non-basketball related reasons.)

Let's be honest.  The refs screwed us this season.

Moving forward.....

Our two 3 game losing streaks kept a very good season from becoming an exceptional one.

This is an interesting question just because expectations probably varied for a lot of us. Also, it depends on how we define expectations...Is it our minimum expectations, the least we expected out of them this year? Or is it based on what we predicted this season would look like going into it. I can tell you those two teams look pretty different for me. If its the former, I would say they met/slightly outperformed expectations. If its the latter, I would say they were slightly under/failed expectations. All things considered, regardless of the metric I use, I still consider it a great season. 25 wins is nothing to sneeze at and a far cry better than anything Pre-DRock for a long time. 

--- Forever True Blue