I remember posting in a thread last spring/summer where it was argued that NU had talent on par with the upper half of the conference. I countered with a "tiered" response in which I claimed the 'Cats possessed middle tier talent; perhaps representative of 8th or 9th place in the conference. At the two third's mark of the 2017-18 season, I stand by that statement. Even though NU has been severely outplayed by three mediocre opponents over the past four games, I believe the program isn't in as rough shape as it has looked recently.
Teams with superior ability obviously have much more wiggle room when they fail to execute properly. So yes, the baseline for talent in Evanston still needs to be raised higher. Fortunately, that seems to be happening. If NU becomes a top tier BIG program under Collins' watch recruiting, however, won't be the defining reason (it's hard to imagine the 'Cats landing classes like Duke or Michigan State in the short-mid term). Rather it will be CC's ability to mold that talent into a well oiled machine comparable to what we saw in SLC last March as well as preventing what has transpired on and off the court since.
This is a process. We've already seen some amazing byproducts of success, but there's plenty more bumps in the road.
Teams with superior ability obviously have much more wiggle room when they fail to execute properly. So yes, the baseline for talent in Evanston still needs to be raised higher. Fortunately, that seems to be happening. If NU becomes a top tier BIG program under Collins' watch recruiting, however, won't be the defining reason (it's hard to imagine the 'Cats landing classes like Duke or Michigan State in the short-mid term). Rather it will be CC's ability to mold that talent into a well oiled machine comparable to what we saw in SLC last March as well as preventing what has transpired on and off the court since.
This is a process. We've already seen some amazing byproducts of success, but there's plenty more bumps in the road.
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