GAME 7 OHIO STATE: Obstacles

[bac2therac]

Just a game where everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong in the last 12 minutes. The storyline of depth lurked in the shadows after the Illinois victory. Mag out, Cliff out. Basically down to 6 players plus Doucoure. Could RU stay out of foul trouble and Doucoure contribute. Well no they couldnt and unbelievable even with saddled with foul trouble from Myles and Doucoure in the first half, RU was able to dominate leading by 10 at half and 16 about 5 minutes into the 2nd half. Unfortunately some ****** circumstances made things ever worse. Myles may have two or so legit fouls by his last 3 fouls were brutally wrong most notably the last one where he fouled out. Still RU was holding sway with a short lead. Ultimately I believe it was Young going out hurt on that dunk play that did Rutgers in. Without Young in the game, the RU spirit seemed gone and the game was lost as they continue to clank shots and miss free throws. Defensively there is not much they could have done to stop the bigger Ohio State. Credit Ohio State they were opportunistic, they took advantage of Myles and Young out, they completed the comeback, they made shots.

No one can get around the fact that officiating played a role in the loss. Even I wouldnt argue that it didnt. Refs effectively removed Myles from the game and it changed the course making everyting easier for OSU on the offensive end., . At the end of the day though no one cares that RU fans are crying and certainly the team and Pike cannot dwell on the brutal officiating and of course I would not want them to. You cannot change what happen. Obstacles sometimes beyond your control happen and it sucks because there is no explanation for it. You can only learn from how you handled it. I expect that Pike will not dwell on the loss but concentrate on how to rest this team as much as possible. How RU bounces back from this brutal loss will tell more about this team than the actual loss. In reality RU outplayed Ohio State when we had our full unit so I am not worried about losing. RU was not going undefeated. The loss is out of the way. The depth issue though is front and center. If Young misses time, we are going to be in serious trouble. I am more worried about that than the loss today. RU needs to get healthy and fast. Somehow Pike has got to work the freshmen and Doucoure hard in practice because we need minutes at this point and its a big challenge going forward.

Fans may want to talk bad officiating after this game but I am more worried about having enough players to suit up so we can play the Rutgers basketball we have seen this year and saw in the first 30 minutes of the game where they were well on their way to victory before it was taken out of their hands.

 

[ScarletDave]

No Myles
No Cliff
No Caleb
No J Young
1/2 good to go Geo

not sure what else you can do or ask for at that point, on the road against a top-25 darling of the conference team

 

[BigEastPhil]

- Title of thread should be changed to Grand Larceny or Theft by deception

- Bo Borowski and Bill Szelc were awful!

- You know refs were bad when Myles was all pissed. He never gets mad. Refs needs to start giving Myles the respect that he deserves.

- Complexion of game changed big time whenever Myles was off the court.

- We have serious depth issues with all of the injuries which is a major concern

- I hope Jacob Young is ok and it’s not an hip injury. I’m very concerned

- This wasn’tPikes best game as head coach. Myles should not have been in game when we had double digit leads and Reiber and Oskar should have gotten several minutes to spell the regulars. Regulars were dead tired at end of game

Most important thing is hopefully Jacob is healthy and team gets healthy soon. We cannot compete for 40 minutes with no / limited depth.

 

[RUsojo]

This game will probably remind people that officiating has an unbelievable influence (seriously, some people don't believe it) on outcomes of games. It's not dwelling on bad officiating when your commenting in the moment and in review. And our players clearly were doing the same after the game in the locker room haha.

But with that said, I'm not worried going forward as long as Young is healthy. Yeah Pikiell should've managed the game better but it wouldn't have made a difference and the guy almost does everything right.

We are clearly the better team even without Cliff, and once we return to full strength the boys will pick up where they left off.

Game is frustrating more than anything.

 

[knight82]

You so often hear coaches say that the true test of a good team is how they respond to adversity. Let's see how these guys bounce back from this. Game stolen by the refs, McConnell and Cliff out before the game even started. JY injured, how badly we don't know. Hope to God the Big Ten doesn't suspend Myles for his post game tweets (for those who don't know he basically accused the refs of having money on the game). . December 29 will be very interesting.

 

[ScarletDave]

Even without Cliff we went up 16 points in the second half against a top-25 team, ON THE ROAD. We are clearly great. Led by double digits most of the game. The refs caused almost a 30-point swing In a matter of 10 minutes, I laugh at the ref lovers who comment things like “well we need to be tougher”, I mean come on

 

[RUChoppin]

Played well until Johnson was taken away from us - OSU can't hang with us at full strength, and Ahrens is a punk.

Just hope Young's okay, or we're going to struggle to field a team pretty soon.

 

[MadRU]

 

[winfield102]

A bunch of guys working to get their own shots in the 2nd half. Not a lot of sharing or ball movement.

Rieber should have been in at the end of the 1st half. NO WAY Johnson can play with 2 fouls. That was crazy. The refs do this **** all the time. It's not steve first rodeo. He's gotta know better.

Hit your foul shots. 10-17 with at least 1 front end miss.

Liddell did a great job of getting deep position in the post. I was very impressed by him.

Everytime johnson got the ball, he was way too far out.

That brutal collapse was tough to witness.

Baker is probably our 5th best player. That's not a bad thing.

 

[G- RUnit]

Refs cost us the game, Nothing else to say.

 

[Plum Street]

Wow

 

[LeapinLou]

Bac - I have been numb since the game ended. Your excellent post has snapped me out of it. It's one game that went terribly wrong. It's over. Just regroup, get healthy, and move on.

 

[rutger80]

At one point Johnson and Doucore had 9 fouls. The osu big men, Liddell and Young had 2. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

[Shell21]

We are straight up better than Ohio state and taking them to the woodshed despite Myles in foul trouble . I’m not afraid to say that the refs literally cost is this game . One team was allowed to be physical and one wasn’t allowed to even wall up or set a screen. Check out some of Kyle Young’s moving screens during the game. Not one called. We win by double digits without the refs in their back pockets . I’m confident even without Cliff we beat them by 15 plus at the rac as long as everyone else is healthy

 

[RUChoppin]

A bunch of guys working to get their own shots in the 2nd half. Not a lot of sharing or ball movement.

Rieber should have been in at the end of the 1st half. NO WAY Johnson can play with 2 fouls. That was crazy. The refs do this **** all the time. It's not steve first rodeo. He's gotta know better.

Agree that Rieber should have been in at the end of the first half - we had a good lead, and two bigs with 2 fouls. I think he could have given us the 2 min or so we needed there.

As for a bunch of guys working to get their own shots... we lost our inside-out passing when Johnson left the game. Doucoure doesn't have the same skillset to get the ball in the post, draw the defense in, and then kick back out. The ball movement rotations were made much harder, and were more swinging around the perimeter with the occasional skip pass. Then losing Young made the ball movement much harder.

Need to get healthy. Hopefully this is the worst officiated game we come across this year.

 

[anon_xekqhstck0ygt]

"****** circumstances" = ****** refs

 

[YoucancallmeRay]

Why do some people keep talking about Caleb not playing? He is sitting out the year. That means he is not going to play this year. So thinking that he might decide to play should be off the table.

 

[RUChoppin]

Why do some people keep talking about Caleb not playing? He is sitting out the year. That means he is not going to play this year. So thinking that he might decide to play should be off the table.

Because he still has a scholarship and is on the team, so him being out with injury is still a roster spot that's off the court. We have 12 schollies, and 11 scholarship players.... from that, we're down McConnell, Omoruyi, and Mag with injuries bringing us to 8. With Johnson being taken out of the game by the refs, and Young injured... we finished the game with 6 active scholarship players.

No, McConnell's not just going to suit up - but him being out for the season has impact to depth, and ability to weather further injuries (and insults).

 

[knight82]

Even the BTN announcers mentioned that RU misses Caleb

 

[RUsojo]

Because he still has a scholarship and is on the team, so him being out with injury is still a roster spot that's off the court. We have 12 schollies, and 11 scholarship players.... from that, we're down McConnell, Omoruyi, and Mag with injuries bringing us to 8. With Johnson being taken out of the game by the refs, and Young injured... we finished the game with 6 active scholarship players.

No, McConnell's not just going to suit up - but him being out for the season has impact to depth, and ability to weather further injuries (and insults).

underrated post - roster management this year is definitely worthy of discussion

 

[YoucancallmeRay]

Because he still has a scholarship and is on the team, so him being out with injury is still a roster spot that's off the court. We have 12 schollies, and 11 scholarship players.... from that, we're down McConnell, Omoruyi, and Mag with injuries bringing us to 8. With Johnson being taken out of the game by the refs, and Young injured... we finished the game with 6 active scholarship players.

No, McConnell's not just going to suit up - but him being out for the season has impact to depth, and ability to weather further injuries (and insults).

I agree, but some people seem to think that he's going to change his mind and decide to play. That's not happening.

 

[bac2therac]

Bac - I have been numb since the game ended. Your excellent post has snapped me out of it. It's one game that went terribly wrong. It's over. Just regroup, get healthy, and move on.

I think the way to look at this game is that RU in this game without Cliff and a ineffective Doucoure and Myles saddled with foul trouble was dominating OSU by 16 with 15 minutes left in the game

The loss is sour because of the circumstances of what went down with officiating....however there is nothing negative or sour about the teams performance today. They were put in an almost impossible circumstance and if Young didnt get hurt still had a chance to pull this out

Biggest thing is rest and get everyone healthy. Pike has to figure out how to get Reiber and Palmquist minutes without hurting overall play. If Young is out for even a game, its all about survive and scrape it out. No one feels sorry for you in this league if you have injuries

 

[RUsojo]

I think the way to look at this game is that RU in this game without Cliff and a ineffective Doucoure and Myles saddled with foul trouble was dominating OSU by 16 with 15 minutes left in the game

The loss is sour because of the circumstances of what went down with officiating....however there is nothing negative or sour about the teams performance today. They were put in an almost impossible circumstance and if Young didnt get hurt still had a chance to pull this out

Biggest thing is rest and get everyone healthy. Pike has to figure out how to get Reiber and Palmquist minutes without hurting overall play. If Young is out for even a game, its all about survive and scrape it out. No one feels sorry for you in this league if you have injuries

Perfectly said.

 

[rubjk]

No Myles
No Cliff
No Caleb
No J Young
1/2 good to go Geo

not sure what else you can do or ask for at that point, on the road against a top-25 darling of the conference team

I know! Let the kids play. Refs shouldn’t change outcomes of games. If players screwed up over and over they’d be benched. Refs calling phantom fouls have no consequences.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

1st half we were 8-13 from 3 and they were 1-10.

I don’t think we dominated. We knocked down shots and they didnt

 

[goru7]

Well that really sucked. We are dominating this game and yes the refs basically took Myles out of the game to give Ohio State a chance but not until Young fell did things really go off the rails. The good from tonight was for 30 minutes we dominated Ohio State with great ball movement , great rotation of the guards and Ron to rest people and all of our core 5 except Myles was playing and shooting real well. The defense also was really good as Ohio State’s threes were forced. The only negative I saw was Pike leaving Myles in with 3 minutes left in the first half with 2 fouls and there was a stoppage in play for an easy sub. I would have tried Reiber there as Duke was doing almost nothing right.
The second half also started out well and at the under 16 timeout we were up 13 I believe and it was looking like a rout. Even Duke flushed the dunk and made the and one after playing good defense against Lidell on the trip before. Then a few really bad things happened besides the phantom fouls on Myles that totally changed the game since Liddell unlikely was going to do crap against Myles , and Jacob’s fall that ended our penetration for the night. The bad I saw was allowing Washington to hit 3 threes basically unguarded to keep them within 10-12 when we could have stretched out the lead. Next bad thing was the total failure of our guards to help on the defensive glass as neither Geo, Paul, Montez or Ron crashed the boards to help Duke . We got out rebounded 45-25 , which never happens , and I bet most of it was in the second half. It seemed obvious Duke couldn’t handle Liddell and I would have tried Reiber ,who might have also been bullied , but at that point Duke was doing nothing. He put him in the last 3 minutes too late.
Finally , we were still up 6 after Montez hit the 2 foul shots when Jacob fell with 7:30 left but we started panicking on offense and hoisted threes. Ron was forcing , Geo was settling until that one drive that he got fouled and it was not called and Pike got the technical , which untimely stretched their lead from 2 to 4 points. Montez tried driving but was met with a gang at the rim. We settled for too many long jump shots that were falling early in the half and first half but it was clear they were being forced.
plus we stopped playing tough defense and stopped rebounding. Really thought we were beyond that happening to this veteran bunch. Geo did not settle us down. I am going to chalk it up to the shock of not having Myles and the helpless feeling of Liddell scoring plus Jacob going down shook them emotionally for those last 6 minutes. When Syracuse took a lead in the second half, our veterans stepped up to close the game on a 17-4 run. This time it did not happen which is a shame because before the ref hosing of Myles , this was looking like a 15-20 point road win against a ranked team. We are better than Ohio state when we are both playing our best and we will likely beat them by 15-20 at the RAC in 2-3 weeks. We have to get healthy and get Jacob back , Cliff back , Mag back and Geo at full strength as he seems to be rounding into shape. Really love this team .

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

If Myles doesn’t get 4th foul and 5 th foul we win game easily.

With that being said we got dealt a bad hand and we choked. We got beat to loose balls and we didn’t move the ball and trust one another.

We had a 16 point lead and lost going away. You couldn’t control the bad calls, but you can control how you respond.

 

[BigEastPhil]

Combination of Awful refereeing, Myles foul out; Jacob injury; lack of depth; sub par coaching tonight and exhausted players doomed us

In things you can control, I was surprised that we didn’t change things up defensively either by double teaming Liddell; going to zone etc. HOltmann exposed our vulnerability via Liddell and we did nothing to combat it.

Also ready or not, Pike needs to integrate Reiber and or Palmquist into games for a few minutes due to our lack of current depth. He could have several times when we had comfortable at the time double digit leads

 

[Scangg]

Pike saw how the game was being called against us and Myles and put him in wayyyy too early. Refs were trash obviously we all know it. Young is the engine that makes this offense go and sets the tone on D with his on ball pressure. Harper couldn't get anything going once Young was out. Geo was MIA as a senior leader when it would have been the perfect time for him to step up and take control and calm the team down.

It really sucks that the refs played such a massive role in our 1st loss. Wanted to see how long we could go before truly being knocked off

 

[RU848789]

Maybe the game plays out totally differently if Pike sits Myles for the last couple of minutes of the first half and he doesn't get his 3rd foul, maybe not, but I still say it was a bad decision by Pike to bring him back in with 2 fouls.

And even with the horrible calls on Myles, I still think we win this game if JY doesn't get almost killed by that dirty flagrant hip check, as we were still up 6 after Mathis's FTs for JY.

And while everyone is rightly angry, this is the kind of event a team can rally around and double down on their intensity to show those mfers what they're made of. We were up 16 on the road in the 2nd half at OSU and likely would've won going away without those fouls. Focus on that, get Cliff back soon, hopefully, and crack some skulls.

 

[Treeman_rivals154397]

Because he still has a scholarship and is on the team, so him being out with injury is still a roster spot that's off the court. We have 12 schollies, and 11 scholarship players.... from that, we're down McConnell, Omoruyi, and Mag with injuries bringing us to 8. With Johnson being taken out of the game by the refs, and Young injured... we finished the game with 6 active scholarship players.

No, McConnell's not just going to suit up - but him being out for the season has impact to depth, and ability to weather further injuries (and insults).

Every team has 13 schollies, not 12. If Rutgers has only 11 scholarship players, that impacts depth, and is a choice. More so than a player being hurt. Pike doesn't fill up the team on purpose - because of chemistry. Well, this is what you get then. You don't get to complain about depth if it's by design. And it certainly has little to do with McConnell.

 

[SirScarlet]

Maybe the game plays out totally differently if Pike sits Myles for the last couple of minutes of the first half and he doesn't get his 3rd foul, maybe not, but I still say it was a bad decision by Pike to bring him back in with 2 fouls.

And even with the horrible calls on Myles, I still think we win this game if JY doesn't get almost killed by that dirty flagrant hip check, as we were still up 6 after Mathis's FTs for JY.

And while everyone is rightly angry, this is the kind of event a team can rally around and double down on their intensity to show those mfers what they're made of. We were up 16 on the road in the 2nd half at OSU and likely would've won going away without those fouls. Focus on that, get Cliff back soon, hopefully, and crack some skulls.

Myles was either gonna ride the pine or get fouled out. You could tell early on that these were the only 2 outcomes.

 

[NY AGENTMAN]

Rutgers is better than Ohio State. Last 8 minutes showed how important Miles and young are. With a full team RU is better

 

[brookdale-soda]

When Geo went to the sideline to talk to.Pike while OSU was shooting fouls, he looked demoralized. The whole mentality of the team changed with the ref situation and then the loss of Young. Then our offensive strategy went to savior mode with everyone trying to make their own shot.. Its really the only time I saw this team fall apart mentally including last year. Granted the loss of Myles and Young played a big factor but there was a total lack of discipline in the final 9 minutes by the guys remaining on the floor. Its a teachable moment going forward.

 

[rufeelinit]

Best Bac post game summary thus far. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

[kapyoche]

We at best are a bubble team. You still have to find a way to win this game.
We didn't and this game exposed many weakness.
Cliff may turn out to be out most important player.
Myles is not a prime time player. He is good for 20 minutes.

 

[biazza38]

We at best are a bubble team. You still have to find a way to win this game.
We didn't and this game exposed many weakness.
Cliff may turn out to be out most important player.
Myles is not a prime time player. He is good for 20 minutes.

You’re the second person I’ve seen say we have to find a way to win this game. This is such an absurd statement. I’m not even gonna address why. It’s that ridiculous. You can’t can’t possibly understand the ridiculousness and importance of those foul calls and still think this

 

[brookdale-soda]

We at best are a bubble team. You still have to find a way to win this game.
We didn't and this game exposed many weakness.
Cliff may turn out to be out most important player.
Myles is not a prime time player. He is good for 20 minutes.

Ok. We get it. The glass is perpetually half empty. But does it have to be rancid too?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

When Geo went to the sideline to talk to.Pike while OSU was shooting fouls, he looked demoralized. The whole mentality of the team changed with the ref situation and then the loss of Young. Then our offensive strategy went to savior mode with everyone trying to make their own shot.. Its really the only time I saw this team fall apart mentally including last year. Granted the loss of Myles and Young played a big factor but there was a total lack of discipline in the final 9 minutes by the guys remaining on the floor. Its a teachable moment going forward.

I think the loss of Young and seeing it live had to have an impact. Great takes here

 

[RUJMM78]

The Ohio State strategy which was understood by fans before the game was to get Johnson in foul trouble.Rutgers was able to get through the first half because the offense was making 3 point shots but Ohio State was still getting too many offensive rebounds.The second half turned into a nightmare with the center position foul trouble,Young getting hurt,Ohio State going on a long scoring spurt and Rutgers having no answers on offense or defense.Rutgers had a 16 point lead and loses the game by 12 points all of which happened too fast on fans tv screens.

Hopefully,this turns out to be a learning lesson for players and coaches.Playing on the road is never easy even with no fans in attendance.Referee calls usually favor the home team .It takes mental toughness and players stepping up in crunch time to overcome adversity.The lack of quality depth in the front court is a concern and there are no easy out of conference games to give bench players some game experience.