Specifically BECAUSE of ALL the recent success this team has had, even more reason to focus on the NOW and future rather than the past.
My guess is Mullins would have been able to retain most of last year's group and competed for an MVC regular season and/or Arch Madness title with such a veteran squad. It might not have been perfect circumstances, but the team sure as hell wouldn't have underachieved as much as they did under Hinson.
The silver lining is we didn't have to hear a few dopes whine about Hinson not getting a chance with his senior-loaded team. He had his chance, and it removed any shred of doubt that new direction was needed.
With the senior-ladden class of Pippen, Lloyd, Fletcher, Bartley and Bol, along with McGill and Cook, expectations were high last year. I think coming in with a brand new class of his own, a 10th place preseason ranking and little to no expectations to win this year was a much better situation for BMull to walk into. I worry some of us may have soured on him if they were still .500 last year, compared to this season, just because of the expectations. Regardless of the coach, last year's bunch seemed flawed to me.
