1.   It helped ease what, for much of the night, looked to be another wasted Kevin Brown outing in a wasted season.

2.   New England decided to stay with Carroll one more year, which resulted in a wasted season and the loss of a first-round draft pick.

3.   So, Barnes essentially had two wasted seasons and has only this one and the next to show what he can do.

4.   The challenge then, already, is to somehow avoid another wasted season.