After the regular season punctuated with an exhilarating winning streak in January and a demoralizing slump in February.

After an upset of No. 2 Drexel and then getting bounced by George Mason in CAA Tournament.

After the uniforms got packed up for a year.

After the first post-season recruiting trip, UNCW men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell took stock of the season.

“It’s been funny. A lot has been made of this team,” Brownell said. “I look at it as we were 15-15 this year and we lost two of the best players in school history and another guy who was a pretty talented player and some people think it’s been kind of a bad season, but I don’t think it’s a bad season.”

“People think, ‘eh, it’s okay’, but I think for a group of guys that really had a lot to adjust to, I think they proved that you know what, they’re not too dang bad,” Brownell said.

The Seahawks dealt with a series of events that forced the team and coaching staff to constantly rebuild the team. After graduating All-CAA players Brett Blizzard and Craig Callahan, UNCW lost expected go-to player Tim Burnette.

Then, the team’s next set of expected standouts, Anthony Terrell and Halston Lane battled serious injuries.

A deep team filled with relatively young role players remained. A tough schedule loomed.

“You look at who we lost to in the non-league (portion of the season): North Carolina: Going to the tournament, North Carolina State: Going to the tournament, East Tennessee State: Going to the tournament, University of Illinois-Chicago: Going to the tournament, College of Charleston: probably going to the NIT,” Brownell said. “Pretty good schedule. So from that standpoint, that these guys were pretty in that many close games that we were in, I think it really speaks to the quality of the kids and the character of our kids that our guys, without an all-conference player without any of that, every night we’re fighting tooth-and-nail against every team in every game.”

The team developed, and fought through a series of tight games. Victories over league champion VCU and a knockout of second-seeded Drexel in the CAA Tournament matched up with losses to lower-ranked Towson and William & Mary.

Yet a go-to player never emerged. No one averaged in double figures. Ed Spencer, John Goldsberry and Terrell averaged over eight points a game. UNCW relied on its trademark defense – a program staple going back a decade – for a respectable record.

Despite the loss of seniors Terrell, Joel Justus and Andy Gunn, whose class went to two NCAA Tournaments and an NIT, UNCW has the material to work with in the next season.

A strong finish to the season adds hope.

And a sense of accomplishment.

“It’s like Joel (Justus) said,” Brownell said, “obviously, we’d like to be better than 15-15, but I don’t think any of us are disappointed and overly frustrated or ashamed of how we did this year. If we’d been blown out of all our games and not played to a level we’d been competitive then yeah, it would have been different.

“You know I’m more proud of what the kids did than you know what anybody had thought.”