Collins is earning his money in year 4, NW is extremely limited in spots, but max out their potential...NW looked like RU does now in year 1 and Year 2 under Collins, just with more talent to work with. It will come down to RU retooling the roster and getting better/balanced players that can play offense and defense.
I had a pretty good feeling RU would be in this game yesterday and it's tough to close games out without FT shooting or a player that can get his own points at the forward position. In time, these games will be long forgotten and part of the process to turning the program around.
NW went through a lot of these games when no one was paying attention and they just fell short of the dance or made the NIT under Bill Carmody....I have no doubt that RU is ahead of schedule in comparison to where NW was, but as always, will come down to recruiting the right pieces to fit what we want to do.
Even though I'm pissed we dropped another close one, RU stayed in this game because of hidden/unexpected points from Eugene early....if we get another piece late in spring recruiting after the likely attrition occurs, RU will take a couple steps forward.