It's the trend line that's concerning, not the career record.
Groce going into his 5th year would have been returning an entire Sweet 16 team and adding an NBA player in Caris Lavert.
Boals' 5th season will be his worst of 5.
You beat me to it with this analysis of both coaches in what a year five under Groce would have looked like compared to the talent currently assembled in year five on Boals roster.
Take it a step further - Groce was 16 and 4 in his last 20 games. We are 9 and 11 in our last 20.
Cherry picking the end of Groce's 5th year which just happened to be a Sweet 16 team vs the last set of games for Boals in an obviously down year is COMPLETELY fair.
You're right, looking at their overall bodies of work is worthless. Let's talk about the last 20 games and draw our conclusions from there.
Body of work. How about where we are today and where we "might" be going. Looking at the last 20 games gives us a pretty good indication of that. I for one hope I eat my words but these last 20 games versus Groce's last 20 plus what was coming in are as different as night and day. There was legitimate optimistic hope of continuing to win at a very high level. I sat in courtside in St. Louis and saw a missed free throw possibly cost us an elite eight birth and they were all coming back for the most part plus the stud from Pickerington who at last check, was is still playing in the NBA.
Yes, Groce had an amazing team and an amazing run. Alas, our budget didn't allow us to actually keep it or build on it and everything you said became a "could have been". But it never was. And there was no guarantee even if Groce stayed that everything would have worked out like we all hoped/thought.
Let's hope we get back there someday but the game of roster building has changed significantly since then, and not in a friendly way for Ohio.
That team was a once every 30 years type team at Ohio under previous rules. Given the landscape today it might be more like a once every 50 years type of run.
My point is, if 2012 is the measuring stick, then prepare to be let down for about 49 of the next 50 years. If it's not, then let's not use that once in a generation data point to try and make this program under Boals look worse than it is.
We suck this year. Nobody is happy about that. But statistically over the last 5 years Boals has done a tremendous job. Let's see what he can do with limited resources tying one hand behind his back in the future.