Here is an edited email exchange between one of my friends (to keep his identity a secret, we'll call him Nutty Mets Fan) and I:

Nutty Mets Fan: The Gators and Vols game--watched the whole thing last night. We should have definitely won that game, but the team does not have the killer instinct to finish the job. More specifically, they just do NOT have a
go to scorer, which they desperately need. This is the kind of team that really could benefit from an Anthony Roberson type player. Jai Lucas just doesn't do it for me. I am really not impressed with his game. But I'll give him some time to develop. Who knows. Right now it's Calathes or Speights, and then what feels like a team full of bench players. Werner is an overachiever, but certainly not an outstanding player, IMO. Hodge is hot/cold, but not a go to. And most of the other guys are too young, not physical enough to make that significant impact that is needed to get the job done. I said before the season that making the tourney would be my goal/expectation for this team, and that was all. Apparently they're still a year away from that. We've got big guys coming in next year, and it can't come soon enough. Eloy Vargas,
Allan Cheney, and Kenny Kadji should all get immediate playing time. This team would have been completely different if Patrick Patterson was on it, like he wanted to be. Apparently Patterson's mom wouldn't allow him to go further away than Kentucky. Oh well...NIT here we come. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Goose: CP missed some free throws late and Calathes missed the front end of a 1 and 1 (I think 2nd half), that really could have helped down the stretch. Also, when some things didn't go our way (calls, or they start hitting huge shots- Lofton is unbelievable, and J. Smith is sick too) we are still immature and allow it to negatively impact the next play(s). Considering we were able to not let it get out of hand when it got to 10, it would have helped had we not let it snowball that way, and if we played a little better even one or two more possessions we could have had it. We're just frustratingly young. I actually really like Lucas, think he will be a very good college player, I liked him more around the Alabama game when he seemed to be willing to step up and take big shots or attack the basket and get big fouls late in games- also, against UK, we kept missing free throws to let them try to come back (and they did send it to OT), but Lucas was the one who could step up and hit both his free throws in that situation. But he's been pretty quiet lately. It's hard to remember how all these guys are freshmen, and even the 'famed' 04s only had two real contributors- we're asking 4 to play big time roles. Also, our sophomores and Hodge haven't had the benefit of playing a lot of minutes until this year, I really think they all should improve significantly by next year. Hodge played good D on Lofton, but the guy is just too good. Any lead of less than 10 frightens me against that team because of him. We absolutley have to beat UK to have any shot at the NCAAs. I said 3 of the last 5, and we've got 2. Miss State I had to stream on internet radio- CBS had the Texas game that night- and we sounded BAD, so I'm not sure the 3 of 5 will do it, without making some noise in the tournament.

The bad part about that is we probably get Bama or Auburn (whichever finishes higher- tied right now), which can't help our cause, then we'd have to play Miss State again. I can't imagine us playing someone better on a neutral floor than at home, but we'll see. 3 wins in a row from here would probably guarantee a tourney spot, but I just don't know. I feel like the opposite of our argument during football- we're like Texas football last year. They had a good record, but lost to a team they shouldn't have (Kansas State) and didn't beat anyone that was better than them (OU). But they still wanted credit based on their win total.