I'm going to go back to what happened last year with a limited roster/depth....
We had ugly performances at home vs Penn State (lost by 13), Iowa (lost by 20 and were down 12-15 points for a good part of the game and Iowa is extremely explosive) and Maryland....(another 15-20 point game)
We had encouraging performances on the road vs Northwestern, Ohio State and won at Penn State (another Corey Sanders special).
If we were a little deeper off the bench OR we were able to find points up front where Doucoure gives you 8-10 points like Purdue or a 13-15 point effort like he provided at Minnesota, then all games are within reach.
It's extremely unfair to ask for bonafide consistent performances from Baker and Doucoure, so it would not shock me to see more roller coasters this year and next....it's not a ramp up with no dips in performances with this many underclassmen learning on the job.
And teams usually struggle off an OT loss or OT game in general, and Ohio State is arriving red hot....I'm not the least bit concerned about anything else other than seeing if we can find or slow Doucoure down and keep him on the court for more than 20 minutes a game....can he play without getting excited and fouling?? Can he perhaps allow a basket on defense vs challenging everything and understand he's needed on the court....
Nothing against Candido or Shaq Doorson who play strong defense, but we need Doucoure to contribute on both ends if we are going to go 2-4 or even 3-3 in the next 6....then when we get Shaq's putbacks or Candido's points, those points push RU over the top vs not......Unless Corey puts up 6 straight 20+ point games with less than 2 turnovers, which teams will start to dial in on stopping.
We have to exercise patience.....I have ZERO doubt, we will get where we want to go, but every other team around the country that went through the progression, had 3-5 violent dips or valleys on the way over a 2-3 year span from nothing to something....I would love no turbulence, but it's highly unlikely.
