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What should the expectations be for the program with the addition of Ivan Rabb, Davon Dillard, Tyson Jolly and company? What would satisfy you for Cal basketball 2015-16?
Nam Le: It's gotta be a Sweet Sixteen berth at minimum, right?
Berkelium97: Competing for a conference title and winning a couple games in the NCAA tourney would be nice, but I would be really satisfied if Martin cements this foundation he's laying at Cal. If we can now consistently compete for (and sign) top-tier recruits, I will be thrilled. If the Rabb commitment is a one-off (which seems increasingly unlikely since we almost had Swanigan and are still competing for Brown), then I will be a little less satisfied with next year.
tl;dr maintaining an upward trajectory is more important to me than our final record or our tourney run.
Reef: As the roster currently stands, I think our 2015-16 body of work should reflect that we are between the 35th to the 15th best team in the nation. The bottom of that range would be mildly disappointing and the top of that range would make me feel quite happy. Anything lower I would consider failure, barring injury. As we all know, I'm a fan of sample size, so when it comes to evaluating the state of a program I place little value on the results of one year of a one and done tournament.
Sam Fielder: Again, I think that Reef sets the bar very reasonably with somewhere between the 15-35 range nationally. I'd really like to see a top 3 Pac-12 finish in 2015-16 and a deep run in the Pac-12 Tourney. As far as the NCAA Tourney is concerned I'd love to see Cal make it to the second week of games, but given the flukey nature of that tourney, if it doesn't happen I won't be crushed. I'd also like to see Cal make some noise in their nationally televised games and to win some big out of conference games. So I'm not asking for the moon here, but I'd really like to see Cal take what I see as the next step for the program, some big wins and make some Pac-12 noise.
Nick Kranz: I think a top 4 finish in the conference is a must, and I would greatly appreciate some outside-chance Pac-12 title contention. There will probably still be a talent/efficiency gap between Cal and Arizona (and maybe Utah) but not so large a gap that random chance can't overcome it. Making the NCAA tournament is obviously part of that expectation, though I agree with Reef that expecting a certain number of tournament wins is generally dangerous. There are Arizona fans out there unhappy with three straight Elite Eight appearances because they made the mistake of saying 'Anything but the Final Four makes this year a failure!'
I want two crushing wins over Johnny Dawkins, so that I can make fun of him without knowing in the back of my head that he actually has a winning record over Cal.
LeonPowe: Contend for top 3 in the Pac-12 (Utah, UCLA and of course Arizona are all still going to be there. Comfortably make the NCAA tournament. I would love to make it to at least the second weekend, but the tourney is such a crap shoot, I don't like judging a season based on a one-and-done tournament (unless of course we do make it to Sweet Sixteen and beyond)