As I have mentioned in the past. They had no business taking the court in Robert Morris game. Should have rejected the NIT bid and be motivated to make tournament following season. San Francisco was also bad effort, but the point is those were blips in a season. This season in 70 percent of games there is no effort that is a huge difference. You dont need to win every game but to show effort in most is not tall order. No excuse for dumb basketball with errant turnovers as a pattern. I hope next years team shows more consistent effort.
Lavin was 13-19 with what was allegedly the best recruiting class in school history. They lost lost to NE by 14, South Florida by 15, Pitt by 20, Cincinnati by 22, Syracuse by 25, and Seton Hall by 30, that's with two NBA players and the third leading scorer in school history. Mullin's won half that many games with an awful recruiting class and the dreck that fraud you love left him with.
Do you mean that same team Dunlap coached that never got here intact and beat West Virginia with 5 players and UCLA/Notre Dame with 6? And nearly took down Duke with 6? That was ALL freshman. Is that the team or are you thinking of another one?
Lavin had 15 months to recruit that massive class. Mullin had 3 months to recruit the class he has in. I'm sure you have some awareness of recruiting, so I hope you understand how unprecedented it is to recruit such a massive class with such little time, and how few high-major players are available April 1st. I would also tell you that I have seen far more players get on the floor for loose balls or sacrifice their body out of bounds this year under Mullin than I ever saw under Lavin.
This current group of players isn't diving for shit. They aren't even playing attention half the time. If you want to give Mullin a pass because he had little to work with and no time to field a team, that's more than reasonable. But this group simply doesn't get after it. Let's just be glad they will be gone soon.
The effort the last 2 game has been lousy but you are wrong. I have frequently seen players on the floor, taking charges or flying out bounds for loose balls, more often than I saw the last group doing so, especially in their first few years. It's something I pay very close attention to when I watch games.
They need to get the guys to play harder these final few games than they had been the last 2, there is no doubt about that. But effort for majority of the season has been there.