Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - One of the problems with being a Cinderella team is that eventually midnight strikes. When a magical season finally comes to an end, teams that surprised critics and fans alike must regroup, this time without the element of surprise aiding their efforts.
That is the predicament a handful of college programs will find themselves in when the 2014-15 season begins. All the impressive feats, records and improbable wins of last season are now just fond memories. Those memories will quickly evaporate if the new season is not as successful.
It leads to another one of the issues with being a sleeper team. Once you win, the expectation is that you will continue to do so.
One team that is a candidate to regress is Nebraska. In 2013-14, the Cornhuskers finished at 19-13, including an 11-7 mark in the Big Ten, while making their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1998.
Led by do-it-all swingman Terran Petteway and the calming calculations of head coach Tim Miles, the Cornhuskers earned some impressive wins. They knocked off Michigan State on the road and beat Wisconsin and Ohio State during the regular season. Those three wins helped propel them to just their second winning campaign in the last five seasons and first above .500 in conference action in more than a decade.
The argument can certainly be made that this season will be another positive one. The Cornhuskers have four returning starters, including Petteway (18.1 points per game) and Shavon Shields (12.8 ppg, 5.8 rebounds per game), plus Miles is entering his third season at the helm.
What is working against Nebraska despite the fact Petteway is still in the backcourt and Miles on the sideline, is a history of, at best, mediocrity. In the last 20 seasons, the Cornhuskers have won 20 games just four times. They also have failed to have a winning record in conference play in back-to-back seasons since the turn of the century. Traversing an always difficult Big Ten schedule, plus non-conference tests against Florida State, Creighton and Cincinnati, won't make things any easier.
Perhaps the biggest surprise team of 2013-14, or at least the NCAA Tournament, was Dayton. The Flyers are one of the more consistent programs in the country, churning out 20-win campaigns on a fairly regular basis. However, they had never really made a major impact at the national level.
That was until last March. In one weekend, the 11th-seeded Flyers stunned sixth-seed Ohio State (60-59) and third-seed Syracuse en route to a run to the Elite Eight. That is some heady space to be occupying, especially for Dayton, which had not lasted so long in the tourney since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
With several key contributors back in the fold, the Flyers are very likely set up to earn their seventh 20-win campaign in the last eight seasons. However, while Jordan Sibert (12.2 ppg) and Dyshawn Pierre (11.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg) are still around, coach Archie Miller has to find players to replace Devin Oliver (11.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and Vee Sanford (9.6 ppg), who hit the game-winning shot to defeat Ohio State.
The task of finding contributors to match Oliver and Sanford is a tough one. However, it pales in comparison to the impossible predicament facing Providence coach Ed Cooley as he tries to find an answer for the gaping hole in his backcourt left by Bryce Cotton.
The 6-foot-1 point guard's combination of speed, court vision and scoring ability were nearly unmatched in the Big East, or the country for that matter. Despite having three teammates also averaging in double figures, it was Cotton who really shouldered the load as he led the Friars to a Big East championship, their first since 1994.
Cooley will now need to show just how well he can coach and transition recruits. To date, he has done a good job of that, with the Friars improving by four wins in each of his three seasons, culminating in last season's 23-13 finish. He will rely heavily on Tyler Harris (11.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and LaDontae Henton (14 ppg, 7.9 rpg) to do so, but a largely unproven group will make Cotton's absence all the more glaring.
The Friars will run with seven freshman and three sophomores this season, with Henton and rarely used forward Carson Desrosiers the only seniors. Even worse is the fact that Ted Bancroft, a graduate student, is the lone upper classmen in the backcourt. Life after Cotton is going to be difficult.
Making the NCAA Tournament is not the only prerequisite needed to be categorized as a surprise team. Just ask Larry Brown and his SMU Mustangs, who are still feeling the sting of suffering one of the more egregious snubs in tourney history.
After stumbling through a long string of losing seasons in Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference before that, the Mustangs made quite the impression in their first season in the American Athletic Conference. They racked up 23 wins in the regular season and even reached as high as No. 18 in the AP Top 25. It was the first time they had been nationally ranked since 1985. However, a three-game losing streak at the end of March relegated them to the National Invitation Tournament, not the Big Dance.
For Brown and his squad to earn redemption in 2015, they will likely need to do something that has been done just once at SMU - win 20 games in back-to- back seasons. With All-American Athletic Conference guard Nic Moore (13.6 ppg, 4.9 assists per game) and Markus Kennedy (12.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg) both returning Brown has a nice core to build around.
He added to the depth by luring Jordan Tolbert (10.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg) from Texas Tech and Ben Emelogu (10.5 ppg) from Virginia Tech, although both players must sit out this season following their transfers. Plus, the decommitment of top prospect Emmanuel Mudiay weakened the class.
If it was possible to bottle up success, then all four of these squads would certainly opt for the 2013-14 vintage. To produce another pleasing season, each of these teams will have to buck their program's respective histories, deal with roster turnover and prove they belong once again.
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