Don’t think there are any similarities between Ivey and Eastern tbh. Ivey also has a mom who won’t harm his career like Nojel’s did. The two of them couldn’t be more different.
I’ll give you the two years we didn’t make the tournament. But the years after? 21 wins and a 3rd place finish in conference and then 26 wins and another 3rd place finish in conference. Proof he righted the ship even with losing in the first round of the tourney.
The guy is a stud in the making IMO. Just has been inconsistent and lost 5 games due to injury. He’s been pretty tough to stop going to the rim and has settled for jumpers too often though IMO.
Why you’re still hung up on that random fact is beyond me. Only 2 of those years were non-tournament years. Sometimes you lose in the first round. It’s clear he had built up enough equity his first 7 years where the down years were looked at as an anomaly not the norm.