To me, it feels like we're finishing either 6th, 7th, or 8th in the conference. We're safely above the two bottom feeders. I would imagine that gets us a 9 seed in the tourney. Experts, is this close? Say we finish a 9 seed, and lose the opener to the 8 seed. How much of an underperformance would that rate? Iow, is this current roster strong enough that an unbiased person should/would expect this team to finish in the top 4 of the conference and have a number 4 or higher seed in the tourney? I would think yes, but CDC will probably use COVID as an excuse to give Shaka one more year. If the talent reads 4th place or higher in the conference and we finish 7th or 8th, I think even the guy who doesn't pay attention says 'whoa, we've got a problem here'. We're basically in the exact same position we were in this time last year, and the only hope at this point is that Shaka sees the writing on the wall, and goes after some other job that has a longer contract. Let's face it, CDC is most likely still hoping like hell he doesn't have to deal with basketball after having to deal with football in December.
One thing I think you can expect from CDC and that is no extension for Shaka, unless there is some magical turnaround and we go to the Elite Eight or better.