It's just different at Toledo -- different in so many ways than what it had been before, and what it is elsewhere on the college basketball landscape.
Most places, you lose your final game on your home floor by 18 points with a lackluster performance, and it is cause for despair.
Not here, where the Rockets' flat showing in a 69-51 loss to Robert Morris in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament had them walking off the Savage Arena court down, but hardly out.
The 2011-12 team gets credit with resurrecting one of the nation's most lost-in-the-doldrums teams. Toledo, coming off back-to-back 4-28 seasons, won 19 games this time around to register one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the nation.
Coach Tod Kowalczyk, in his second year of putting the pieces back together after former head coach Gene Cross was run out of town for losing and for losing control of the program, would not let his team's worst performance of the season ruin the big picture.
Kowalczyk kept the focus on the greater accomplishments, which had the Rockets adding 15 games to their win total, challenging for a division crown until the final week of the season and returning to the postseason.
"It was about us. We didn't play like we normally do," Kowalczyk said after the CIT loss.
Kowalczyk can afford to be that charitable, as his team played the 2011-12 season with no seniors and with just two players in his top rotation who played any kind of role the previous year. He returns his entire roster for next season.
And this year's success, the biggest issue Kowalczyk will face next time around will be the significantly increased expectations.
NOTES, QUOTES
Everyone returns for 2012-13
--Where else can this claim be made: In the 2012-13 season, the Rockets will return 100 percent of their scoring, rebounding, assists and minutes played. Toledo took some knocks for fielding a senior-less team this season, but there will be benefits received in the coming campaign.
--Toledo's two worst home losses of the season came in the 18-point defeat at the hands of Robert Morris that closed the year and ended the CIT run, and in a 19-point setback to Temple back in December.
FINAL RECORD: 19-17, 7-9, second place in Mid-American Conference West.
2011-12 SEASON RECAP: The Rockets feasted on an early-season schedule that was designed to allow them to build some confidence before the tough stuff started. Toledo won six of its first seven games before hitting the wall against nationally ranked Temple, and reality set it. Despite the influx of now-eligible transfers, the Rockets saw how far they still had to come in order to be competitive. Toledo opened conference play with three straight losses, then dropped seven of its first nine in the league and was seemingly headed back to the basement it had grown so familiar with. But the Rockets came alive and finished strong, winning six of their final seven regular-season games. They were still in contention for the Mid-American Conference's West Division crown into the final week of the season. Toledo, led by sophomore G Rian Pearson, the MAC's leading scorer in conference games, finished second in the division, won a game in the conference tournament, then added another win in the CIT.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We had a very good turnaround season." -- Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk, putting everything into perspective following the CIT loss to Robert Morris that left the Rockets at 19-17.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
THE GOOD NEWS: Continuity will be the Rockets' best friend as they work toward the 2012-13 season, since the entire roster of players and coaching staff are expected to return. With no seniors, the Rockets took a few lumps this year as their experience and maturity shortcomings were exposed, but Toledo finished the season a much stronger team in those areas than when it started. With no seniors, there's not a lot of room for roster additions, but Toledo will get help in the area where it needs it most with the addition of recruit Nathan Boothe, a 6-foot-9 physical inside presence. If he can bring some toughness and scoring to the middle, then Toledo becomes a much better team without changing another thing.
THE BAD NEWS: The Rockets will still be very guard-oriented in 2012-13, and changing the approach to make this team harder to defend will be problematic. The rest of the MAC will also have a year's worth of film on sophomore G Rian Pearson and freshman PG Julius Brown to dissect, so that highly productive duo should expect a tougher path to success next year. Toledo will still be weaker in the middle than most of its opponents, so building up that portion of the lineup continues to be a long-term project. The Rockets and coach Tod Kowalczyk will also have to contend with the dramatically increased expectations that come from following up back-to-back 4-28 seasons with a 19-17 mark and having a roster full of returning players. Toledo will start 2012-13 expecting to contend for a division title, and that is new territory for this long-suffering program.
KEY RETURNEES: G Rian Pearson, PG Julius Brown, G Dominique Buckley, F Reese Holliday, G Curtis Dennis and F Matt Smith were all vital pieces of the Toledo attack in the 2011-12 season, and they come back for next year. Pearson was one of the MAC's top offensive threats and its best scoring/rebounding combo player. Brown earned MAC freshman of the year honors for his scoring, play-making and court savvy. Dennis was one of the top 3-point threats in the conference, while Buckley, Holliday and Smith all fill critical support roles. Those six players give the Rockets the largest returning contingent in the league.
PLAYER NOTES:
--PG Julius Brown was named the Mid-American Conference's freshman of the year. His 427 points are the most by a Toledo freshman in school history.
--Sophomore G Rian Pearson was second in the Mid-American Conference with 10 double-doubles. Pearson had three double-doubles in his last six games.
--Freshman PG Julius Brown handed out seven or more assists on 14 occasions this season.
--Junior G Dominique Buckley led the MAC from the foul line with his 89.5 percent shooting accuracy.
