I don't think ncaa's is or was an unreasonable thought. Making the ncaa's isn't winning the ncaa's. We havent been totally overmatched by anybody this season except UK. A couple of factors to consider. Are RPI, SOS, and strength of the Big East overall.
This far we're 4-4 and really only lost one game we shouldn't have. If we enter the Big east schedule at 7-4, I think we are in good shape overall entering the big east. It will be a tall order to win those 3 but we'll be in good shape if we do. After that, we have to consider how we'll perform in the big east.
There are only one or two teams in the big east right now that are monsters talent-wise like Cuse, Uconn. After that, there are maybe 3 teams that have looked good like Georgetown, Marquette. To crack the ncaa's it's not as much of a stretch as people think. We need to crack the top 8 or 9 teams. We have some talent to compete and if we play well, might be as to do so. I'm not saying its likely. Just not immature nor unreasonable. It's about the math. I don't think we're a bottom feeder big east team even with our setbacks.
Adding Amir and hopefully Cummings should put us in a position to compete with more depth on our bench which will help a ton. I certainly think NIT is more likely, but don't sell us short yet as we have the entire season to play and will get better and deeper. There's also a lot of big east teams I'm not sold on being better than us.