There is a reason that Harper is not considered among the BIG’s elite players. When do you ever see Kofi, Murray, Ivey, Johnny Davis, TJD etc go out and do absolutely nothing on offense? No matter who gets the assignment on those players they always “get theirs”. The fact is, if Harper doesn’t have it, we lose. We need him to be elite, to get to where we want to be this season. Unfortunately, Harper isn’t elite. Yes, he’ll have great games and will us to victory some games, but sprinkled in will be games like tonight and against the Illini.
Harper
- Thread starter Corycord1
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I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t take the ball to the hoop at all. The one time he did, he got fouled. He was content throwing up 3s and awkward angle shots.
Harper has to bring it Every. Single. Night. That's what professionals do
You have to be a troll. You realize that Illinois has much more talent so if their “star” player isn’t getting theirs others contribute and score too. The bottom line is bud if Geo and Ron our best scorers have **** games. We lose. It’s simple as that. And when they score they can be as good as any BIG10 elite player out there. Great players have ****** games too. We just don’t have the talent to help them score and make it look like they haven’t had a **** game.
It's really mind numbing how inconsistent they are
Yes tonight he didn’t make the right decisions. He was just not there mentally.
What makes it even more strange is PSU isn't a big shot blocking team. Take it to the rim! No one was
Not sure how I’m being a troll??? But I happen to agree with you. When Geo and mostly Harper have bad games we virtually have no shot that night. However, I challenge you when have you ever seen one of the players I have mentioned above completely get shut down?
I’m watching kofi get shut down right this second. Right now against nebby
other than that I’m sure they all have off days but just score just enough so the rest of the team can make up for them with making points. Ron and Geo on a more talented team as stars with the amount they scored tonight could still win a game if they had talented players also around them that are scoring. We don’t have other scorers yet that could mimic other good Big10 teams. At least other players that are consistent when they aren’t. Illinois has them. Wisconsin has them. MSU has them.The margin for error is so small when Baker and Harper have poor shooting games.Scoring 49 points in a forty minute game is mind boggling to watch.
When Harper is struggling that is when Mulcahy has to step up offensively. Has to be more than just a jack of all trades player.
Now with the whole team struggling it's not like Mulcahy scoring a 16 changes this from a L to a W, but still, I think he needs to bring more to the table offensively, especially when the big guns are struggling.
Now with the whole team struggling it's not like Mulcahy scoring a 16 changes this from a L to a W, but still, I think he needs to bring more to the table offensively, especially when the big guns are struggling.
He had many chances. Just didn’t show the confidence to have the will to. He had some good layups and could’ve done that many times if he had confidence.
Having capable talent around Geo & Ron - would make a world's of difference. Not only bc they could cover for them on a bad night, but also it could supply energy to feed off. You see teammates stepping up, then it triggers you to step up and join the party. Alot of this is mental
Our first few sets should all be run through RHJ. He’s like a WR; we need to get him involved early or he fades out. Geo was terrible, but at least he kept firing.
Get Ron in the post or rolling to the basket off a screen early every game. Can't have him be a no show like this
I agree, but it's more than that. Harper has to play his game from inside/out, not outside/in as he has been doing. He is far more difficult to guard on the inside; I just don't know what he hasn't learned to do this. He should be getting 10 points a game from the inside and the foul line.
I agree with the OP. I love Ron, but his inconsistency probably dooms his NBA chances. When he is on he is as good as anyone in college hoops right now, but he has too many off nights. Having said that, his teammates certainly did not help him last night. NBA or not, I love rooting for the kid and hope he can string together many more great performances.
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong I love Ron. He will go down as one of the best Scarlet Knights of all time when all is said and done. However, he just isn’t as consistent as the players I mentioned but there aren’t many that are.
I really like Ron as well. He’s a winner at every level he’s played at and he could easily have just rested on pops laurels but he’s made his own name. Massive credit to him there. But this dude needs to take this team and lead it. That’s what’s missing. That Michael Jordan esque refusal to lose. I don’t see that.
Weird. Must have skipped watching that game from a few weeks ago…
It’s about consistency, not about one individual performance. Again love Ron, great player but not elite.. we need elite every night because the rest of our roster isn’t capable of picking up his slack.
He’s done it. But I wanna see him do it every night. Especially when we are losing to a **** *** team like penn state. Get angry. Get in someone’s face.
Btw, not to derail this thread, but we had a fractured locker room last year after Ohio state away Bc nobody took the lead and owned that and rallied the guys. You could argue that was the end of JY here and it didn’t need to be
Geo is even worse with consistency. I thought both would evolve past it as upperclassmen. Ron shows up more though. Geo's good games have been wayyyy too few and far between
FYI. Kofi had 13 rebounds and 16 points in 30 mins. 2nd most points on team that game. Averages 12 and 22.I’m watching kofi get shut down right this second. Right now against nebby
My point exactly, you almost never see the top players in the conference have a type of game that Harper had the other night. That was a bad night for Kofi and he still put up huge numbers.
It's not having a bad night here and there. Its the total inconsistent play of both him and Geo. The extremes AND frequency of them. I'd like to see a line chart for them by game showing points scored and whether a W or L. I bet the up and downs by game trend would be rather extreme. (I actually know some of the answer because I actually did something like this for Geo back in 2019-20).
And the point that they don't have any real help is valid. And that's where the loss of JY hurts and Hyatt not getting enough time to offset Mathis. Those two had the ability to help fill the gap.
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Had a similar argument after the SHU game (someone was saying we should EXPECT 20+pts every game from RHJ and that I was crazy for expecting only 10-20pts).
Here is the breakdown:
Under 10pts: 3 (Illinois, CC, PSU)
10-15pts: 5 (Lehigh, Merrimack, Lafayette, UMass, SHU)
16-20pts: 3 (NJIT, DePaul, Maine, Michigan)
Over 20: 3 (Clemson, Nebraska, Purdue)
For every Purdue (30) or Michigan (29) there is an Illinois (5) or PSU (7).
He's gone from 14.9ppg last year to 15.7ppg this year.
I think some were expecting a massive next step and increase 20ppg with the loss of JY/MJ/MM and be towards the top of the Big Ten? That doesn't seem to be happening.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/ron-harperjr-1/gamelog/2022
that's the site I've used in the past. Had it bookmarked but lost it. Thanks.
Interesting to overlay this with Geo but the reality even when Ron has a sub-par game..10-15pts which isn't horrible. Nobody else to step up if Geo doesn't. (and BTW, can't just look at scoring but shoots and %. Somebody scoring 10pts on 3 of 11 isn't helping).
15 points is a nice game. 10 points not so much. Yes others have to step up but this is a game as an All American candidate you have to shine or at the very least have an average game. 2 for 9 is just bad against PSU. We aren’t going win with those stats even if others did step up. Geo was bad but at least he was aggressive. I prefer to see threes from the top of the key and not the baseline from him. Cliff did step up.
One disappointing part about Ron is that even if his shot is off, he should be able to use his size and strength to score in the paint and have a solid game anyway. Geo can score here and there driving to the rim, but if he is off he isn't going to feast around the basket. Ron can will his way to 15 even if he's off shooting
What a weak argument. We are fans, we are allowed to be critical of the team we root for. No one here is bashing Harper, just stating that if we want to get to another tournament and if Harper wants to make it to the next level then he needs to be way more consistent then what he’s shown over his career.
They ARE THE TALENT. They're experienced seniors and been through the league several times. Its a team built around them. And Cliff is a pretty speculator talent + you have a defensive player of the year candidate on the court. There's more than enough talent out there. We're lacking consistency. And especially when we have TWO guys so you can't even argue its like the Corey Sanders or Myles Mack days where they had nobody there. We have two guys , who if they both played consistently would be All-Big Ten 2nd team. Which is VERY difficult to do.
If either had true professional ambitions, gotta be consistent. Your down nights have to be 10 points each. The good nights are 20+. We've now played 5 league games. And 40% of the games our top two guys were no-shows. And they've each had several no shows in non-conf games against far inferior talent.
Love them. And respect them. And huge fans. But there's gotta be a fire and a killer inside of you to find ways to score when jump shots aren't going in.
I don’t know about not having grit determination or mental toughness. Maybe he lacks focus on his off nights? Could be true, but I think it more has to do with talent level. Harper is a very good college player but he’s not elite. He’s not an NBA player at this moment. He shows flashes, and maybe he ends up developing into a more consistent player if he gets a chance at the next level but for now he is what he is, a very good college player.
Don't waste your time. I'm sure he's only expressed opinions on subjects he's an expert on or top of the class.
As you noted it was hardly a rant on Ron (or Geo).
I'm 6' 1/2" and played forward in HS back in the mid-70's. If only I was like 6 inches taller I maybe could have played at some low level college and become an expert on how the game is played.
And I am allowed to laugh at you but your comments weren’t the complete brainless comments that I am laughing at. Many only show up after a loss. Same cast of characters ready to whine like babies when we lose and a lot of silence when we win and our star players play well.
Your comments are more of the grass is greener variety which many fans fall into that trap. Blame the QB. Blame the leading scorer. Etc. I talk to fans of opposing teams and they think RHJ is elite. They wish they had him on their team. Grass is always greener.