Seems like a lot more parity this year not only in the conference but all of college basketball, for one. But also I think we are just more prone to cold streaks due to less depth than we have had in recent years, and with Rico being out. If Maurice is struggling to get free and Nick's shot isn't working (as it was in the first 25 minutes last night), we are extremely beatable.
I'll add that it appears we are easy to game plan against and Christian has to tinker every game to get us going.