I actually agree with a lot of what's being said here on both sides of the debate. I personally agree that the offense was a bit unidimensional at times, so it'd be nice if we could see more than "ball goes in to Chante." But while it seemed that the offense (particularly from the outside) was stagnant at times, I saw glimpses of what's to come in the coming years. I actually like the speed that we have in Abby and Jasmine (especially Jasmine, since she's got some rockets on her feet), and Krystal was showing much better ability to back up Chante at the end of the season.
One thing that I can't help but wonder is, at the beginning of the season, they talked a lot about the new training regimen that was put in place, increasing strength conditioning in all the players. Is it possible that this new emphasis on strength development threw off the guards' shots? Sure, they probably would have adjusted to it over time, but I'm just wondering. Otherwise, Bluedawg has posted a thorough analysis in some of the other threads about the changes in the overall system that could contribute to the decline in offensive production.
I think that with the development of the players and additional time to get used to the system and the coach, we're going to see an improvement of the team over this past year (assuming Coach P can go out and get some good recruiting classes for the next couple of seasons). I wouldn't say things are bad, because (a) we've only seen one season post-Goestenkors and (b) we really did show improvement towards the end of the season.
WRT the preseason rankings for next year, I don't place much value in them, as I really think they've got UMd ranked too high and UNC ranked too low (ESPN's got UMD at 2nd, but they lost too much this year, and while UNC lost a lot, I think they're set for the foreseeable future; 9 may be a bit low).
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. As much as the rumors of turmoil do trouble me, I'm still looking forward to next season.
M.H.