It's getting a bit alarming, but Pearls is starting to be effusive about the state of men's basketball at U of A, and that's kind of a rarity of late. Finishing 2013 with optimism was something we all hoped would be in the form of an overachieving football team scrapping for a win in a low-end bowl game, or a flourish of late-season commits, but listen, we'll take what we can get.