Toggle sidebar

Up 9, we choked this game away.

R

RU MAN

Heisman
Oct 29, 2001
23,644
10,235
113
There's no other way to say it. We were up 9 feeling good about ourselves, and then for some reason the kids pressed when Michigan went on their run and not only caught up to us, but passed us. And then our kids couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Credit Michigan for keeping the pressure on us. Our reliable shooters the last several games especially Yeboah, failed miserably tonight. He had so many open looks from behind the arc and either air balled them or clanged them off the otherside of the rim, because he couldn't get into any rhythm. And once again, Harper is too damn inconsistent. We needed him and once again he disappeared. The same with Geo. He was awesome in the first half and then except for a few jump shots he too couldn't hit a shot to save his life. And where the hell was Myles? Even when Teske went out, he should have destroyed Davis underneath and our guards hardly tried to get the ball to him.

One last important observation: I thought Pikiell's substitution patterns were terrible tonight. When we went super cold in the second half, it took him more than 5 minutes to bring back any of our scorers. I love Young on defense, but on offense tonight, he was out of control. And Caleb is a mess. A mental mess. I've never seen a kid, with this talent and length shrink so much in the spotlight. He's gotta get it together and help us down the stretch.

I don't know about you, but I am SO SICK of losing to Michigan. This is becoming like our losses against WVU in football. I HATE Michigan. My sister graduated from there, and we don't get along. Enough said.

For whatever reason, our kids just tensed up and I don't know why. This game was more than winnable and we allowed a Liversless team to beat us on our undefeated floor.

I still think we're in good shape, but now the pressure is on. We HAVE TO win a road game now and beat Maryland at home. Not easy but doable. I'm angry as hell, but I still believe in this team!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScarletKnightRider, Scarlet83, Scarlet Ibis and 8 others
R

RU-Choppin-Ohio

Heisman
Jul 31, 2011
33,065
37,970
113
Michigan went really big...that's what turned the game their way. I think they were 7'1, 6"11 and 6'8 for a good stretch. Mixed in some zone with all that height.
 
R

RU MAN

Heisman
Oct 29, 2001
23,644
10,235
113
rufeelinit said:
Not sure you can kill Pike on the rotations tonight. Who deserved more minutes then they got based on how they played. We were universally bad in the second half.
Click to expand...
Point taken. But there was I think 12 minutes remaining when they went on their run and Pike decided to leave Jacob and Caleb in their when they were taking one bad shot after another. And then he put Tez in there and he tried to drive to the basket 1 against 3. You can't win when you put your potential scorers (Geo, Harper, Yeboah) and the bench for that long.
 
R

[email protected]

All-American
Jun 24, 2001
28,586
6,762
113
RU MAN said:
There's no other way to say it. We were up 9 feeling good about ourselves, and then for some reason the kids pressed when Michigan went on their run and not only caught up to us, but passed us. And then our kids couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Credit Michigan for keeping the pressure on us. Our reliable shooters the last several games especially Yeboah, failed miserably tonight. He had so many open looks from behind the arc and either air balled them or clanged them off the otherside of the rim, because he couldn't get into any rhythm. And once again, Harper is too damn inconsistent. We needed him and once again he disappeared. The same with Geo. He was awesome in the first half and then except for a few jump shots he too couldn't hit a shot to save his life. And where the hell was Myles? Even when Teske went out, he should have destroyed Davis underneath and our guards hardly tried to get the ball to him.

One last important observation: I thought Pikiell's substitution patterns were terrible tonight. When we went super cold in the second half, it took him more than 5 minutes to bring back any of our scorers. I love Young on defense, but on offense tonight, he was out of control. And Caleb is a mess. A mental mess. I've never seen a kid, with this talent and length shrink so much in the spotlight. He's gotta get it together and help us down the stretch.

I don't know about you, but I am SO SICK of losing to Michigan. This is becoming like our losses against WVU in football. I HATE Michigan. My sister graduated from there, and we don't get along. Enough said.

For whatever reason, our kids just tensed up and I don't know why. This game was more than winnable and we allowed a Liversless team to beat us on our undefeated floor.

I still think we're in good shape, but now the pressure is on. We HAVE TO win a road game now and beat Maryland at home. Not easy but doable. I'm angry as hell, but I still believe in this team!
Click to expand...


No names- but how many errant passes, missed bunnies and attempted slams that were jammed do we need?

IMO We have No killer instinct...and we need that.

MO
 
  • Like
Reactions: RUnTeX
R

RU MAN

Heisman
Oct 29, 2001
23,644
10,235
113
Duff366 said:
Love Mulcahy's potential but I think the team was better when McConnell was playing over 25 mins a game. Very limited offensive options right now.

Yes I am aware Caleb had zero in back to back games but he has some offensive skills. The drastic reduction in minutes has seemed to kill his confidence.
Click to expand...
Disagree. His confidence is shot and his limited playing time is due to the fact that he doesn't defend well and now he can't shoot to save his life. How many alligator arm shots are we going to have to live with, before everyone realizes he's a liability out there. And I love his potential. But tonight, he was terrible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bac2therac
D

Duff366

All-Conference
Jan 6, 2006
7,927
1,559
0
He has been a better perimeter defender than Mulcahy and a very good rebounder
 
R

RU MAN

Heisman
Oct 29, 2001
23,644
10,235
113
Duff366 said:
He has been a better perimeter defender than Mulcahy and a very good rebounder
Click to expand...
But not tonight. Tonight, Mulcahy played more minutes and he should have. Mulcahy didn't lose us the game. The piss poor shooting by the entire team in the last ten minutes lost us the game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RUShea and shields
J

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,300
12,424
82
RU MAN said:
I couldn't agree more. We were settling too much for outside shots, when we should have driven to the basket and got to the FT line.
Click to expand...
Especially when Mich had foul troubles. We literally made it easier for them. People always complaint about refs but you are not going to get calls by shooting outside jumpers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RU MAN
M

Mr. Magoo1

Heisman
Nov 15, 2001
15,517
16,366
113
I do give Pike credit for changing the defense on Simpson this game but his substitutions were mind-boggling.
 
N

NickRU714

Heisman
Aug 18, 2009
14,248
13,043
113
RUforJERSEY said:
Maybe RU needs to push tempo more when struggling to score in the half court.
Click to expand...

I've been saying this for years.
Rutgers as a sports institution is adamantly against up tempo, high scoring offense.

Football, mens basketball, womens basketball....eventually we'll catch up to the rest of the sports world.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RUforJERSEY
B

BOGDANOVICH

All-American
Nov 11, 2005
3,334
6,125
0
Bottom line is that this team is not as good as we thought they were. They play well at times, but they still are not an upper echelon B10 team.
Unless Pike improves his recruiting, Rutgers will continue to be a middle of the pack team.
 
I

IL Lusciato

Heisman
Oct 31, 2011
10,680
13,292
0
RU MAN said:
There's no other way to say it. We were up 9 feeling good about ourselves, and then for some reason the kids pressed when Michigan went on their run and not only caught up to us, but passed us. And then our kids couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Credit Michigan for keeping the pressure on us. Our reliable shooters the last several games especially Yeboah, failed miserably tonight. He had so many open looks from behind the arc and either air balled them or clanged them off the otherside of the rim, because he couldn't get into any rhythm. And once again, Harper is too damn inconsistent. We needed him and once again he disappeared. The same with Geo. He was awesome in the first half and then except for a few jump shots he too couldn't hit a shot to save his life. And where the hell was Myles? Even when Teske went out, he should have destroyed Davis underneath and our guards hardly tried to get the ball to him.

One last important observation: I thought Pikiell's substitution patterns were terrible tonight. When we went super cold in the second half, it took him more than 5 minutes to bring back any of our scorers. I love Young on defense, but on offense tonight, he was out of control. And Caleb is a mess. A mental mess. I've never seen a kid, with this talent and length shrink so much in the spotlight. He's gotta get it together and help us down the stretch.

I don't know about you, but I am SO SICK of losing to Michigan. This is becoming like our losses against WVU in football. I HATE Michigan. My sister graduated from there, and we don't get along. Enough said.

For whatever reason, our kids just tensed up and I don't know why. This game was more than winnable and we allowed a Liversless team to beat us on our undefeated floor.

I still think we're in good shape, but now the pressure is on. We HAVE TO win a road game now and beat Maryland at home. Not easy but doable. I'm angry as hell, but I still believe in this team!
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you said.

And yes, up 9 was 100% the turning point of the game. We have had a tendency to do that this year, and I think it's partly due to a young team. We started to toss up nonsense and get carried away with dreaming of the hilight reel and accolades before the game was over, and Michigan took advantage of it. Geo, who was poised at some points in the first half, also tried too much to be Mulchahy instead of Geo, with those ridiculous passes going strong to the rim. Finish Geo, be Geo!! Ron bought his own hype after last game...he was doing fine mid-range, he needed to step up and keep that up. Young was very good on D. He had some layups not fall which was unfortunate, and seems to be a theme sometimes.

Anyway, we can beat any remaining team on our schedule, period. We just can. But we need to win one or two for pride if nothing else. One more game and we have a non-losing regular season in the Big Ten to add to this awesome season's resume.

Man, I hate Michigan and their snobby fans. Wanted to beat them.
 
D

Duff366

All-Conference
Jan 6, 2006
7,927
1,559
0
Just feel our best offensive team is Geo, Ron, Caleb, Akwasi and Myles that's all. Geo and Caleb seem to mesh well together especially. Just my opinion.
 
B

BigEastPhil

Heisman
Nov 25, 2007
19,280
13,511
66
Jacob Young - he brings it but he has to convert on layups

Mathis - an absolute mess. Jacob or Mulcahy needs to start over him

Myles - he has to bring it against good bigs. He disappears too much

Bottom line we didn’t hit our shots in second half and it doomed us

And Howard was the better HC tonight by far
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScarletKnightRider and RUfanSinceAnderson
J

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,300
12,424
82
nutfromSEC117 said:
Geo went for the heat check jumper up 9

He makes it , place explodes when Michigan calls a timeout. Probably win game too.

Not a terrible shot ...bad because his missed , great if he makes and roof is blown off
Click to expand...
What? No numbers, D was setup, and plenty of time. He can back it out, run the O and hit a good shot and all those things you said still happens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IL Lusciato, Loyal_2RU and RUShea
R

RUJMM78

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
26,262
12,542
113
Michigan simply has better talent than Rutgers as seen in the two games played.Rutgers had over 140 shots in the two games and with any kind of pulse on offense both games should have been wins.Rutgers has a inconsistent offense which consists of shooting bricks from the outside and missed layups and dunks around the basket. Long scoring droughts in the second half was the deciding factor in the game.Rutgers had a comfortable lead which disappeared and then Michigan took total control in the last minutes of the game.Far too many players were no shows on offense and Baker,Harper and Yeboah needed to score more than 40 points to have any chance of winning.The lack of bench scoring is a big problem along with the lack of scoring from the center position.
 
R

RU-Choppin-Ohio

Heisman
Jul 31, 2011
33,065
37,970
113
BigEastPhil said:
Jacob Young - he brings it but he has to convert on layups

Mathis - an absolute mess. Jacob or Mulcahy needs to start over him

Myles - he has to bring it against good bigs. He disappears too much

Bottom line we didn’t hit our shots in second half and it doomed us

And Howard was the better HC tonight by far
Click to expand...

Howard went with that huge lineup after Rutgers built a nice lead....that choked off the inside and made OREB really hard to get.

That's the only choking that went on in this game.
 
Last edited:
S

Scarlet Shack

Heisman
Feb 3, 2004
26,317
16,064
73
RU MAN said:
There's no other way to say it. We were up 9 feeling good about ourselves, and then for some reason the kids pressed when Michigan went on their run and not only caught up to us, but passed us. And then our kids couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Credit Michigan for keeping the pressure on us. Our reliable shooters the last several games especially Yeboah, failed miserably tonight. He had so many open looks from behind the arc and either air balled them or clanged them off the otherside of the rim, because he couldn't get into any rhythm. And once again, Harper is too damn inconsistent. We needed him and once again he disappeared. The same with Geo. He was awesome in the first half and then except for a few jump shots he too couldn't hit a shot to save his life. And where the hell was Myles? Even when Teske went out, he should have destroyed Davis underneath and our guards hardly tried to get the ball to him.

One last important observation: I thought Pikiell's substitution patterns were terrible tonight. When we went super cold in the second half, it took him more than 5 minutes to bring back any of our scorers. I love Young on defense, but on offense tonight, he was out of control. And Caleb is a mess. A mental mess. I've never seen a kid, with this talent and length shrink so much in the spotlight. He's gotta get it together and help us down the stretch.

I don't know about you, but I am SO SICK of losing to Michigan. This is becoming like our losses against WVU in football. I HATE Michigan. My sister graduated from there, and we don't get along. Enough said.

For whatever reason, our kids just tensed up and I don't know why. This game was more than winnable and we allowed a Liversless team to beat us on our undefeated floor.

I still think we're in good shape, but now the pressure is on. We HAVE TO win a road game now and beat Maryland at home. Not easy but doable. I'm angry as hell, but I still believe in this team!
Click to expand...

Choke is a bit strong ...but there is no doubt that we got really really tight. 8 for 35 in the seasons half when we made our first couple

Game was lost by the shots we didn’t finish...plain and simple

I think shortening the bench was not good. We needed to find some minutes for Mathis and macconnell in there that we didnt
 
  • Like
Reactions: satnom and S_Janowski
C

Clothier

Sophomore
Feb 2, 2005
357
127
0
How about someone actually look at the game when we were up 9. While we had some bad turnovers it appeared we were trying to score in the paint and possibly draw some fouls on their bigs. It was our opportunity to put some distance on our opponent. It appeared to me refs were not allowing that to happen, giving Michigan an opportunity to get back in it. I am sure calls go both ways but seemed at the RAC and Garden we could not go to the line when shooting around the rim.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IL Lusciato and NiTeKnight
B

brookdale-soda

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2010
3,790
2,061
113
RU-Choppin-Ohio said:
Howard went with that huge lineup after Rutgers built a nice lead....that choked off the inside and made OREB really hard to get.

That's the only choking that went on in this game.
Click to expand...
I really thought during that stretch, we should have threw some FC press at them. They were not good ball handlers. Even with the lead. We need some killer instinct in those situations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
The Knight Report

Latest

  1. 01 The Knight Report Rutgers Football Fall Camp Preview for 2026: Linebackers
  2. 02 The Knight Report Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime: How Joe Woodley Landed in the Perfect Fit at Rutgers
  3. 03 On3 Big Ten, SEC leaders vote to support Protect College Sports Act
  4. 04 Rivals 4-star SG RJ Moore discusses final 7 schools
  5. 05 The Knight Report Rutgers Football Fall Camp Preview for 2026: Defensive Line
Top Bottom