The difficulty with honestly answering this question is that our opinions of the offseason last year are colored by the fact that we already know how the season eventually turned out, and we have little or no idea how this season will turn out.
Sure, in the last offseason we knew that we had lost our point guard, lost our coach, lost his staff, and we might be losing some recruits (we did lose Jemarl Baker). We lost Rabb, Bird, Mullins, Singer, and more. On paper, (which is the only way to rate recruiting classes, since we have no idea whether these recruits will live up to their rankings and 40% don't), this year's class is better than last year's. However, this recruiting class very likely does not include a single big who can immediately replace and play as well as Okoroh and Lee, who had three years of experience each. The transfer who became eligible last year was Marcus Lee, a serviceable big with 3 years at Kentucky, vs the eligible transfer Paris Austin this year, a player who had no better than average success at Boise State against lesser opposition.
The most important ingredients for team success are good bigs and a good point guard. Cal suffered a lot last year because they had no true point guard. But Cal had bigs. You can win without a good true point guard, as Cuonzo Martin proved, as long as you have good bigs. Wyking Jones in his first year was not as good a coach as Cuonzo Martin. This year all we have as bigs are two players we hope will turn out well, Kelly and Vanover, plus Anticevich and Davis, for whom we hope the same. So in terms of returning players, the bigs who returned last season are way more experienced and talented than those returning this season.
As for returning guards and wings, last season it was Coleman and Hamilton, which sure gave me no hope, until I heard Wyking Jones tell us after a few practices that "Don Coleman is going to be our go-to-guy in this offense." I was suddenly filled with interest and maybe even hope. Could this guy, a loose cannon as far as I was concerned, actually put it together to become a good player? He certainly had the athleticism and the talent, IMO, and if Coach Jones has this much confidence in him, he must be really tearing up the team scrimmages in practice. Coleman, in the first few games, did not disappoint. He scored 31, 30, 16, and 35 in his first four games, the 35 coming against highly ranked Wichita State. Then the roof fell in as Jones lost control of the entire team in Maui. Returning this season at guard and wings are McNeill, Sueing, and Harris-Dyson. They are better than what Coleman and Hamilton turned out to be, but do you think any one of the three is capable of throwing down several 30 point games against multiple opponents?
As to Wyking Jones, that year of experience means nothing unless he learned from it, and made some changes in his thinking and approach to his job. His signing of two players who were not likely capable of playing in the PAC12, Winston and McCullogh, was puzzling. He needed both a point guard and a shooter, so I could see taking them if there was no one else, but I question why he needed to offer them a scholarship. This season, he lost Stockman who had committed. I read where he did not get accepted to grad school. Why would a coach announce the commitment of a grad transfer before he had been cleared for admission? I still can't judge whether Jones is very savvy to this recruiting game. Then I see where he gave the team manager a uniform. He must be desperate for bodies. As a coach, his strategy and tactics are both very suspect, to me at least. And I saw little or no individual improvement in his players, and some got worse over the season. Before last season, I had hope that Wyking Jones would be able to make the leap from apparently a trusted assistant coach to a head coach. For me he hasn't made it yet. All I have regarding Jones now is hope that he will not be stubborn and will be willing to change from the way he coached last season.
All things considered, I have hope that the incoming players will be good, less hope that the coaching will be much better. I am very interested in the player from China, and wonder if he can contribute at this level. Our guards and wings will have to do a ton of rebounding, because we have big question marks in the middle. Who will guard the big post players? Who will defend the basket? I expect to enjoy the play of the guards and wings, now that they have a real point guard. But the coach is still the biggest question I have, and that keeps me from having much optimism, only hope.