With every loss it makes next year that much more important and that much more difficult. The only recent analogy/hope I can see is Pitino at Minnesota.
It's not a perfect analogy but after winning t he NIT with Tubby's holdovers in his first year he fell real fast in his next 2 years. And went squarely on the hot seat for year 4 at MInnesota.
His year 3 was a COMPLETE disaster. He was 8-23 and 2-16, I mean really bad... So he needed a HUGE turnaround in year 4 to keep his job. I mean not an NIT appearance, He ended up winning 24 games, going 11-7 and getting a 5 seed in the NCAA's (the equivalent of a top 20 team). That is a big time turnaround in 1 year with a lot of pressure. So it can be done.
I will say that Minnesota added a HUGE recruit in between year 3 and 4, Amir Coffey. A legit top 50 stud. That helped along with some other recruits and getting healthy. And Coffey stepped in and made a major impact as a freshman.
I see talent next year but I don't see an Amir Coffey coming in nor do I see quite frankly an Amir Coffey on the team already...
Oklahoma has had a huge turnaround between last year and this year. Of course again a huge impact freshman, Trae Young.