GAME 5 MARYLAND: Gratifying

while I agree that they are down I still think they will get better as the season rolls on. I have them for 8 Big 10 wins this year. I think the Maryland teams does not have high confidence right now

Greene Rice FIG · Dec 15, 2020

They have Nebraska, Minnesota and Penn State 2X

Sideline20 · Dec 15, 2020

Great recap Bac - very well done - I too look forward to your summaries.......much more than the ones from a few years ago.....lol

BellyFullOfWhiteDogCrap · Dec 15, 2020

rufeelinit said:
I wonder if Duke got a couple of minutes ahead of the other Frosh because Pike knows he will need him to bang against Kofi Cockburn for a few minutes on Sunday. I don't think Cliff is ready for too many man to man minutes against Kofi. There are not many who are. It will be important for Myles to stay out of foul trouble. When MJ is not on the floor I would try to get Cliff into a transition game because can beat Kofi down the court.

You aren't the only one worried about Cliff vs Kofi. From what I've seen so far, I think it's a bad matchup for us. We're going to need Myles to stay on the floor for as long as possible.

PatrickRU92 · Dec 15, 2020

Russ Wood said:
I would not be shocked if Maryland only wins 4 B1G games. If that happens I can't envision Turgeon being their coach next season.

Scarlet Blind_rivals · Dec 15, 2020

Maryland's top scorers are Sophomores and Juniors. Like I said in another thread, Maryland reminds me of Rutgers 2018-19(RHJ,MM,Caleb,Myles class) team when we lost Sanders/Freeman (Cowen/Smith), Rutgers started the B1G season 1-6, next 10 6-4, before losing last 2. I could see Maryland starting 2-6ish finishing 7-5ish, give or take one. They have 3 against NW, Nebraska, 5 against PSU, Purdue, Minnesota. They can knock off a couple of top 8 B1G teams.

LeapinLou · Dec 15, 2020

bac2therac said:
Steve Pikiell, the pleasure is all ours. This is becoming fun. I would go as far to say this is rare air for me as a fan.

I have been echoing this to my cohorts at the Grease Truck. We are the #19 team in the country and we look like it. We've had some great moments since the mid 80s when I became a fan but this is something else entirely. The way we closed out the last two games? Against Syracuse and Maryland? This is new and I'm going to enjoy every second of it.

JonathanAlan · Dec 15, 2020

bac2therac said:
while I agree that they are down I still think they will get better as the season rolls on. I have them for 8 Big 10 wins this year. I think the Maryland teams does not have high confidence right now

I think Maryland really misses having a solid point guard. Losing Cowan was significant.

Scangg · Dec 15, 2020

Russ Wood said:
I would not be shocked if Maryland only wins 4 B1G games. If that happens I can't envision Turgeon being their coach next season.

I read the live game thread on TOS Maryland board. 99% negative comments. They have no expectations and think Turgeon is the worst and will be gone. It was brutal

Russ Wood · Dec 15, 2020

Scangg said:
I read the live game thread on TOS Maryland board. 99% negative comments. They have no expectations and think Turgeon is the worst and will be gone. It was brutal

Following this season Mark Turgeon has 2 seasons left on his guaranteed contract. So the buyout is slightly more than $5 million.

bowlgoal · Dec 15, 2020

Turgeon has always done a great job. Maryland will be fine. They lost some big pieces to their puzzle; especially Cowan.

Speaking of PGs, when are we going to find our next superstar point guard. I’m not sure after watching Jacob young and Geo; why you wouldn’t want to play in this program?

hiwater · Dec 15, 2020

bowlgoal said:
Turgeon has always done a great job. Maryland will be fine. They lost some big pieces to their puzzle; especially Cowan.

Speaking of PGs, when are we going to find our next superstar point guard. I’m not sure after watching Jacob young and Geo; why you wouldn’t want to play in this program?

I am glad that you mentioned Jacob Young. IMO, Bac should have included Young in his book. I think that he was a huge part of the win last night too. He did not score as much as previous games, but he single handedly broke UMD's press so many times that they gave up on it until the final couple of minutes of the game. Young's breaking the press resulted in a bunch of easy baskets. I think that it is a different game without him.

RUDead · Dec 16, 2020

Scangg said:
I read the live game thread on TOS Maryland board. 99% negative comments. They have no expectations and think Turgeon is the worst and will be gone. It was brutal

They have never like Turgeon.

GoodOl'Rutgers · Dec 16, 2020

bac2therac said:
Steve Pikiell, the pleasure is all ours. This is becoming fun. I would go as far to say this is rare air for me as a fan. When I was in school I was able to experience the 89 incredible turnaround and the 91 turnaround that led to dominating the A10 but neither of those teams were ranked and neither of those teams had expectations of beating top programs. This program has jumped another several levels when Pikiell arrived where RU was obnoxious kid brother that nipped at everyone's heels, Two years later we became that awkward teenager trying to crash the party. Last year, RU was attractive enough to be invited to the party. This year Rutgers is the party. Rutgers is now the program so attractive that people expect them to win and thus far they have delivered. Rutgers has calmly answered any questions about its legitimacy as a top 25 school. Unequivocally, Rutgers is a very very good basketball team. Instead of teeth gnashing and handwringing, we as a fanbase can be confident and dare I say boast with a little swagger.

Tonight's win was the fruition of all the little things that RU did both good and bad in its previous 3 games. Rutgers is better than Maryland. I have no doubt about that now. Maryland was better as a program last year when RU dominated them at the RAC. Sometimes better teams get beat. It could have gone that way in this game. RU looked good early then got into some really bad foul trouble but still persevered and went up 10. Yet things went south toward halftime and after a Maryland 3 to open the half all of a sudden RU was outscored 18-4 and seemingly not in sync at all. Offense really had no flow in that first half and while the defense generally played well, you could tell that the foul trouble was hampering Rutgers into play their game. It was evident about 5 minutes into the 2nd half that RU was going to strut its stuff, whether it was Myles just a monster on defense shutting the Terps offense down and grabbing board after board or Ron Harper just smoothly draining 3s and of course the forgotten one.....Geo Baker. Geo Baker IS the soul of the Rutgers basketball resurgence. Rutgers can win without him, they finished off Syracuse in impressive fashion but Geo's presence tonight was so important to cementing the win tonight. Obviously still gimpy a bit without the same lift or speed to defend, Geo put in a gritty performance tonight in a stunning 28 minutes, going for 15 points and nailing 3 treys and his shots almost all came in huge spots. Fittingly his last one, a 2 pointer. was the game winning dagger after Maryland cut it to 7, RU ran clock and put it in Geo's hands with the shot clock running down and there was no doubt that the shot was going to go in just like has done a dozen or more times from Geo, his patented step back jumper swished and the fat lady was singing. Geo came in early in the first half and immediately pay dividends. His first 3 came when RU was in the midst of a 4 minute scoring drought, His 2nd 3 sparked a RU lead into the opening minutes of the 2nd half, his last 3 answered a MD 3 that kept RU lead at 10. But Geo being out there makes RU so much harder to defend. It allows Ron to get enough spacing to just go off...and off he did. We are witnessing the making of a star. A legit contender for All Big 10 first team if not a longshot candidate for player of the year. Whenever our offense tended to stall, I saw Ron step up and make some great shots. Swishes for 3. The biggest of all was after a 3 minute RU scoring drought stuck at 60 with about 5:30 left. Pike called timeout to settle. I noted in the game thread, got to get Harper involved we got away from that with too much JY/Tez and what did Pike serve up.....Harper for 3....RU extended the lead to 12. A sick stat line but its becoming common....10-17 shooting, 27 points, 5-8 from 3, 5 boards, 2 blocks and just one turnover. Geo may be the soul but Harper is the dynamite that makes this program pop. While Harper is the dynamite, the spark may be what Myles Johnson brings on the defensive end. His incredible presence in the paint, along with Cliff in the first half as part as the twin towers and later just dominating in the 2nd half is what I really think generates the RU transition offense where they can run and keep their opponents on their heels and chasing them and the ball. When Myles is locked in on defense like he was tonight, Rutgers can possibly beat anyone in the country. Just a herculean rebounding haul tonight, 16 boards and 2 blocks, Myles was very efficient on the offensive end, 4-4 fg, hit BOTH his free throws and finished with 10 points. I am often hard on Myles because I feel sometimes he gets frustrated or is a little reserved when he easily has the ability to dominate. Tonight was truly one of his best performances as a Knight and is going to be such a confidence builder going into some matchup with guys like Cockburn and Garza. Jacob Young a whopping 35 minutes, had some moments where he was flustered but really shook that off as the game wore on and just brought it defensively and distributing the ball. Again an in control Jacob is one of the toughest guys to contain in the entire conference.

What is impressing me the most about this game and the previous 2 is that RU responses are so impressive. RU struggled somewhat to put away Hofstra but kept plugging along until they broke it open. Against Syracuse, RU found themselves in an ugly funk but once again just stuck to their business and all of a sudden the lead was double digits. Same thing again tonight except in each game that level of opponent got better and better. Everytime RU would get up 10-12, Maryland would hit a shot but there was panic in this game. RU calmly answered them every time. RU won exactly like a top 20 schools should win. Outplay your opponent and kill their spirit leading to a slow death. What a joy to see RU dunking back to back to finish a game. How many times have we seen a game on tv where our opponents were yucking it up jamming it in at the end. Mark Turgeon just said in the post game that Rutgers is having fun out there and no truer statement can be said. So much gratitude to Coach Pikiell and a bunch of under recruited players who took a chance to come to a moribund program. Was Geo Baker rated 414? There are right and wrong ways to build a program. Make no mistake Pikiell has done all the right things. Its not always been pretty and its been a long slog from Rutgers' salad days to RU now being the belle of the ball. The confidence, the moxie, the pluck, the swagger, there is so much to be proud about who Rutgers is and where we are headed.

Jesus, man, line breaks.. PARAGRAPHS!

Degaz-RU · Dec 16, 2020

bowlgoal said:
Speaking of PGs, when are we going to find our next superstar point guard. I’m not sure after watching Jacob young and Geo; why you wouldn’t want to play in this program?

It might be 2021 PG Jalen Miller.

Scangg · Dec 16, 2020

Degaz-RU said:
It might be 2021 PG Jalen Miller.

He looks good and I trust Pike especially with PG. Jones is just such a stud that he isn't getting the love

Degaz-RU · Dec 16, 2020

Scangg said:
He looks good and I trust Pike especially with PG. Jones is just such a stud that he isn't getting the love

Jones isn’t a PG though. I agree he’s the more well regarded prospect, but at 6-7 or 6-8, I view him as a true Wing with SG skills.

Scangg · Dec 16, 2020

Degaz-RU said:
Jones isn’t a PG though. I agree he’s the more well regarded prospect, but at 6-7 or 6-8, I view him as a true Wing with SG skills.

Jones is definitely not a PG. I'm just saying Jones is so good that Miller is being overlooked a bit in the recruiting class. There are way more posts and hype about Jones

GAME 5 MARYLAND: Gratifying

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