Greer didn't sit on the bench and slowly improve his playing time until he became a strong starter as a junior/senior, so I don't count him.
Dererk, I'm not so sure he works either. Had Olah stayed healthy the entire season, Dererk would have been more in line with my comments. The plan was to bench and develop him, but iirc he was playing by December as a frosh and got about 16 minutes a game that year going forward. He certainly shares a similar spirit with Hearns, but he moved into the starter roll pretty fast. As he should have.
Hearns was a walk on who developed into a legit star on the team by his junior year. A leader and a go to guy whose graduation was a serious loss to the team.
That's a pretty rare character, especially at NU, which in my limited experience just historically doesn't have enough depth to sit players and train them up for a year or two in the B1G before giving them starter type minutes.
Last year - boo, Berry, chase , nance , RY
Bunch of hot frosh plus Beran and Williams. That’s a talented group. A lot more talent the wins reflect.
RI did well in his limited covid stint. Should have used him better. Benson should have never left - guess you don’t have to worry about depth if everyone isn’t leaving. Hell, Jones had potential to contribute.
But we have a captain paid handsomely to man the ship. Hire the staff, identify and develop (and keep) the talent and coach them to good game strategy. Paid handsomely. Could hire a cheaper babysitter for similar low results.
But we pay handsomely. And invest in infrastructure. And whenever the discussion gets hard - admissions, history, admin. Yet, the dance is littered with examples of success. Short term and long term. (I think we would love even short term.). And the apologists avoid this discussion because the only answer is that the AD sucks. The athletic department.
Money talks and I doubt Ryan cares about MBB. So, a school with graduates that could dominate the NIL world, we spat admissions, excuses, etc.
Stop showing up. Stop being nice. When I get the calls - I assume we all do - I say I would rather donate by buying season tickets. It’s greeted warmly. Until I say that I want a competitive team and accountability. The call goes dry and 90-120 days later I get the next one. And I take the call every time.
If you simply want to be part of the sad pity me NU athletic story and brag about graduation rates and participation trophies, keep supporting the system. Despite much more deserving non revenue programs like just about every womens program. Or simply engage the caller and explain why you would but won’t hope enough of these calls leak up.
