Time for Pike to prioritize Montez

[DHajekRC84]

Akwasi, Montez , and Caleb, and then Myles in that Order are our best. Akwasi and Montez both offensively , and defensively have been very consistent and both do not shoot enough or have plays run for them enough. They also get hot and go on a streak, but then get subbed out too often. I would prefer that Pike ride the hot hand , which he does not do enough of because of his commitment to his subbing rotations. Caleb seems like our best all around player , as he can handle, can hit mid range, threes, and foul shots better than everyone else, and his defense causes deflections , and his rebounding for a guard has been outstanding . He is also posting up smaller guards and taking advantage of mismatches. Myles has been steady , rebounding, and shot blocking as a rim protector , and offensively he can do more, but part of that is that the guards to not feed him the ball enough. Foul shooting is an issue and will be especially during end games.
Geo has been our most inconsistent player , with even in games where he sometimes scores 10-12 , he gets them all in one half and goes scoreless the other half. He does still have late clock heroics but has to consistently give us 10-15 every night. He is a junior.
Ron, has to go hang around the low block. He has falling in love with the three and with the exception of Iowa, his 3 point stroke has not been successful. He has a great mid range game that he should really perfect, as Kobe would be proud of him if he does.

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[DHajekRC84]

The answer right now is that there is no best player based on performance.What Rutgers has is a squad full of complementary type players who have good and bad games.The problem is that the lack of consistency results in grind out games which fortunately so far has resulted in wins at home but only a 1-5 record away from the RAC.The remaining 9 games will be very difficult with the added pressure of winning in order to achieve a NCAA bid.There is no margin for error for this team because all they have seen in the past is losing seasons.The winning culture is still a work in progress but its heading in the right direction.

aaaaand another like.

 

[DHajekRC84]

Geo is the only one proven at this point to consistently win games. Pike does not have trust in others yet. I trust that judgment so my blame lies in Geo somewhat..he did finally hit a 3 late but his 2 previous were forced

I agree. Bring Geo in for the last 5 mins and othervthsn that he can sit and cheer. Unless he proves he's gonna drive, get fouled, and score.
Great defense. Continued inconsistent scorer. JUNIOR we're still waiting on to be that every game guy.
Reality? He's just another piece out there that can lite it up crunch time. Cept he wouldn't even take that last shot sat.
Great kid. Not a stud. Nobody on this team is. That's ok.

 

[Knight Ed_rivals]

Baker is shooting 24 percent from the floor since coming off from injury. Was a really poor 3 point shooter before the injury. He has a mediocre handle and is a mediocre passer. When he was out, the team would handle the weaker Big Ten competition easily. Now that he is back they have struggled against the weak teams while losing to the better teams. Why in the world would a guy who shoots 24% from the field take 9 shots against Michigan? That's just bad basketball.

 

[goru7]

Baker is shooting 24 percent from the floor since coming off from injury. Was a really poor 3 point shooter before the injury. He has a mediocre handle and is a mediocre passer. When he was out, the team would handle the weaker Big Ten competition easily. Now that he is back they have struggled against the weak teams while losing to the better teams. Why in the world would a guy who shoots 24% from the field take 9 shots against Michigan? That's just bad basketball.

Part of the issue withGeo is he is hurt and the lack of his ability to use his left hand to balance the ball or concentrating on doing it, has affected his accuracy. The second part is that he has not adapted to taking advantage of his height and knocking down 4-5 mid range 12-15 footers in the lane or at the foul line. It has become 3 pointers or drives, but there is nothing wrong with starting to drive and just pulling up for a 13 footer. The analytics people hate the 2 point shot but it is the best shot for our entire team, whether it is Akwasi, Caleb, Montes, Geo or Ron taking it. We were shooting almost 50 % from 2 point range before Michigan. Geo has to stop his step back unless it is for the game winner and use his height and get his confidence back. Was really hoping for a consistent 13-17 points per game from him and his getting away from his mid range game is the primary reason we have not seen it.

 

[fluoxetine]

Analytics guys don't hate the "two point" shot, they hate the mid-range shot. Because it sucks. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should take zero of them or that it isn't the best choice in some situations.

 

[goru7]

Analytics guys don't hate the "two point" shot, they hate the mid-range shot. Because it sucks. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should take zero of them or that it isn't the best choice in some situations.

Ok , stand corrected but I would rather make 50% of my 2 point attempts than 20% of my 3 point attempts, which is what happens when we take too many threes. If Geo just moved in to the foul line on those kick outs in the last 3 minutes against Michigan , he might have hit 2-5 and that is the difference between a comeback win and a loss.

 

[fluoxetine]

Nobody hits 50% from midrange though. For the year, the team is 92.7% on dunks, 59.1% on "close 2s", 37.2% on "far 2s", and 30.1% on threes.

I don't know where exactly a 2 becomes a "far 2" but clearly those shots are worse on average than the threes.