This phenomena bothers me even more when people become perennial whipping boys after one bad year (I'm obviously thinking Mav here). I heard the comparison earlier this year from someone that Mav was a lot like Collato (Spelling?) on the football team, where they were forced into roles they weren't ready for as freshmen, and some people were never willing to forgive them. I don't get too worked up when people are hard on them as freshman while they are struggling, as a fan of a B1G basketball or football team, you expect your PG and CB to pl?....ay like B1G PG's and CB's regardless of how they ended up in the lineup. But people need to be more willing to reevaluate players as their careers go one, because college athletes can improve a lot.
A personal example for me is Ben Marshal with the hockey team. If you dig through the hockey board last year, I was really hard on the kid. I thought he was a huge liability in the defensive end, he kept getting pushed around in front of his own goal, and he tried to do moves he wasn't skilled enough to pull off and would turn it over, leaving his partner and goalie out to dry. And I was right, he was all of those things. However, this year, right from the Michigan State series, he has been playing solid two-way hockey and is probably one of our most valuable defensemen this year, and I don't think I've said a negative word about him. Relating it back to this thread, Oto has been struggling, has been ineffective, and I don't think it is unfair for paying fans to be frustrated with his play. The big thing for me, is if he really turns it around later this year or next year, I hope fans develop their opinions of him based on how he is playing at that time, and not continue to bash him because of how bad of a shooter he was during out of conference play "back in 2012".