I take your point, but I do think we improved last year from the November games. I think the defense became more connected and better. I think some roles emerged (or didn't emerge) on the offensive end. I think the team that lost a close one to GA wouldn't have beaten Uconn twice and gotten their clocks cleaned against ARK, a game which we all know was eminently winnable if not for some poor performances and tough breaks.I remember them well. We didn't improve much at all between those games and the middle of March relative to the rest of the country. We just beat up on a down Big East.
This team has much more room to improve between now and the end of the season than last year's team did, but pointing to the Baylor and Georgia losses last year to ease concerns isn't applicable here imo. We were essentially the same team at the end of the season that we were during those games.
I agree with you though that I think the ceiling is higher for this group, and I think these early games will help us. If we took a 20 point beat down today, I would be more concerned though not sky-is-falling this early. This one sucked because every loss sucks and there were many moments in the second half when I thought we were going to pull it out. But I'm trying to keep perspective here.