The best idea the fire pike crowd has had so far is to try to poach the guy from Oklahoma state who inherited a borderline top 25 team and brought them to the heights of… basically equivalent to pikes teams at Rutgers.
Enough with the coach comparisons before Pike
- Thread starter WPUknight
- Start date
His first 5 years at RU wouldn’t even be mediocre output most places. There was no portal in 2016-17 and transfers had to sit out a year before playing. Without the portal, you don’t go from 7 wins to the NCAAs in a year or two with a complete rebuild job. I don’t care which school we’re talking about. So after 3 years of rebuilding - Pike took us to the tournament 2 years in a row. Last year we made it to the second round. Following a 7 win season, I can’t see how too many non-blue blood fan bases could realistically expect more from any coach in that situation. Put aside Rutgers history.
Well when I say mediocre I am really only counting the last three years including this one and completely ignoring the starting point.
I think in general there are plenty of fanbases who would be reasonably nonplussed at having the #30ish, #40ish, and #100ish teams over the course of 3 seasons. 10 years from now if we had the same span of 3 years after a bunch of relative success I might even be complaining. But so what? The context matters.
I used ignore for the first time ever on Sante Fe yesterday. I really don't want to ignore anyone but he was just unbearable
I have assembled a nice list. I wouldn’t be surprised if I am on one or two myself.
Exactly - but he keeps saying your saying it’s not mediocre because “we’re Rutgers”. The point is that following 3 consecutive seasons of 12, 10 and 7 wins - winning 14-15 games in years 1-3 and then making back to back NCAA tournaments in years 4 and 5 (and winning a game in round 1) would be a pretty darn good 5 year resume for a coach anywhere. This year the team is obviously having a set back, but there’s no school in America that would have a coach on the chopping block in this situation (blue bloods don’t produce losing seasons like we did 3 years in a row so the scenerio would never apply at those places).
The other part of this thing is that tons of people (based on somewhat legitimate concerns about recruiting, to be fair) have utterly convinced themselves that we will be terrible next year and the following year and are now behaving as if this has already happened.
yeah I think both arguments are stupid tbh.
Our previous coaches didn’t have the luxury that Pike has had. Not even close.
You realize that Pikiells “practice facility” for his first four years was the RAC without air conditioning right? Even with that he raised the level of recruiting and started winning from day one. Now we have a facility that is on par (not above) with every other school. It’s the expectation at this level, not an advantage.
Damn man. You’re missing some thought provoking Pikiell/Schiano comparisons.
He had school support.
No coach before him had school support (at least in my lifetime).
Hobbs cares about basketball, he gives zero fvcks about football.
Additionally, his regional competition has been complete crap since he’s taken over. UConn is awake now though so I expect us to lose recruits to them now.
Without being too unkind to our current seniors......we could have the only guys what should be wearing Cs next year wear Cs. I think this fact is very underrated. It was the primary reason my preseason prediction for the team was way below consensus and I didn't buy in to the preseason hype.
Nope . The best ideas are pitino or Sean Miller. But pike isn’t getting fired anytime soon. And this school doesn’t have the balls to hire one of those guys
What makes you think that some of these idiots are RU fans & not trolls from other schools trying to stir the pot?
Twice. He may not be perfect but has done a great job not matter what you say.
Agree this is a good job. We are in a better place now than we were but he has done a good job making us relevant.
Seton hall has a better history. Much better actually and a nicer gym and easier competition in most years so I would actually say seton hall is a better job.
Not sure how much you can blame their leadership on Hyatt and Jones not contributing. That's one of the main reasons this team has underperformed IMO. One of the 2 needed to be a scorer off the bench. Both would have been amazing but one and we have a reliable bench scorer. The roster doesn't have it now. If it did, we could withstand Geo and Ron off games better
I looked up your post history on this forum. You've been very active so it's not like you were away from posting after the following games.
Posts by you on the free board (I'm not a premium member) about the wins against Iowa, Maryland and Michigan: zero
Posts by you on the Nebraska comeback last weekend: two. One that says "Lol Geo", and one that said you missed the first half.
You didn't think any of those wins deserved props?
To throw in my two cents - I'm not saying Pike will deserve a statue or to still be our coach in 2030, although I hope that he works out long term. Am I concerned about the ratings and performance of our last few recruiting classes? Yes, although I hope to see continued growth from the guys and good team basketball to overcome the lack of recruiting stars. Has Pike earned a leash by getting us where nobody else had in the past 30 years? Of course.
Let's see what happens the rest of this season, in the offseason in the transfer portal, and next year in recruiting and on the court. If we drop to the bottom of the B1G and recruiting lags, turn up the heat on that seat.
Let's see what happens the rest of this season, in the offseason in the transfer portal, and next year in recruiting and on the court. If we drop to the bottom of the B1G and recruiting lags, turn up the heat on that seat.
150% incorrect. Where do you guys get your ideas from, spouting nonsense like this?
The most annoying ones are way too clued in and persistent to not actually be interested in Rutgers basketball imo
I was put off by the pre-season hype and pretty vocal about it.
But I think we may be better positioned than most think we will though in regard to what your talking about for next year. We are going to get some players in the portal, our returning guys have the off season to develop, and we may get a frosh or two who can contribute off the bench. It’s way too soon to assume we’re going to be terrible next year. Sometimes your better off just returning a group of role players and starting fresh. Let’s see what happens.
How can you say that? Gettys? Yeboah? JY?
This is the first time since the sit out rule change that we’ll be looking to replace 2 starters.
By 2012 Matt Painter’s Purdue teams had won 22 or more games for 6 straight years, then proceeded to play sub-500 ball in 2013 and 2014.
How does that happen? I can see one down year after so much success, when key guys graduate or go pro, but 2 years in a row?
My point is that even the best coaches in the B1G can have down years after successful ones, where they miss out on the NCAA or even the NIT tournament.
Crazy thing is, while this is clearly a down year for RU, we still have at least 10 more games to lift our season with a strong enough record to qualify for a post-season tournament. I say we find a way…
How does that happen? I can see one down year after so much success, when key guys graduate or go pro, but 2 years in a row?
My point is that even the best coaches in the B1G can have down years after successful ones, where they miss out on the NCAA or even the NIT tournament.
Crazy thing is, while this is clearly a down year for RU, we still have at least 10 more games to lift our season with a strong enough record to qualify for a post-season tournament. I say we find a way…
Exactly he has hit some winners and this year its a completely different scenario with Ron and Geo departing vs looking for a depth 5.
B1G starting role and chance to be focal point of the offense. That's an attractive role.
Let's see who Pike brings in before assuming he can't get it done. He hasn't earned that much respect from the fans? If he brings in underwhelming talent in the portal for next year, fine rip him then. There will be plenty of time for it
Carter was a solid role player too. I forgot about him. When Geo was out, remember that Paul, Caleb and Mag were starting to play together nicely (see Purdue game). We’re not starting from scratch. We’re returning Cliff and a group of solid role players with experience.
I go to a lot of RU Baseball games and I used to talk to FHJ a lot when he was an assistant at Nova. He had this grand vision to turn RU around. He made me convinced he was going to recruit and win big at Rutgers. He has me fooled, good thing I am not an AD.
I suspect his vision was solid.
He was not able to execute.
Lacked basic management skills.
L