Montez Mathis has to be feeling some regret

[S_Janowski]

I always wonder, how is it that some of you know with such great certainty why Mathis (or any other player) does what they do? I mean, my closest friends and family probably couldn't accurately tell you why I do what I do. Hell, I'm not even 100% certain why I do everything I do.

Would it bad of me to express a certain level of skepticism that anybody, except perhaps Mathis, has any clue why Mathis did what he did or how he feels about it now?

98% of the time they don’t lol.

 

[bitnez]

I don’t know why he left but from a basketball perspective he went from a coach who values defense over everything else to a coach that allows his players to run the floor and create more than anything. The philosophies of Pike and Anderson couldn’t be more different.

 

[mildone_rivals]

and then you jerk yourselves off

That must be why I have such hairy palms and my vision is so poor.

 

[SirScarlet]

I always wonder, how is it that some of you know with such great certainty why Mathis (or any other player) does what they do? I mean, my closest friends and family probably couldn't accurately tell you why I do what I do. Hell, I'm not even 100% certain why I do everything I do.

Would it bad of me to express a certain level of skepticism that anybody, except perhaps Mathis, has any clue why Mathis did what he did or how he feels about it now?

fair.

I will say this and then leave it alone. I sat around Mathis' family / support group multiple times over multiple years.

let's just say they wanted him to shoot A LOT more than he shot. Like CONSTANTLY.

just connecting dots, I imagine this has something to do with his decision to move on.

 

[ru_upstate]

We're 18-12. If Tez and Young stayed, I think we would not have taken so long during OOC to find our way. Young was particularly positioned to take over late games against inferior competition because of his speed, and maybe he prevents the Lafayette and UMass fiascos.

On the flip side, I don't think we have the 2+ week run against ranked teams with Tez and Young on the team. Paul and Ron couldn't do what they did in those games with Tez and Young on the floor. So I say we're 18-12 either way.

Which 18-12 team would have been a better resume? Who knows but these are our guys now.

 

[mildone_rivals]

98% of the time they don’t lol.

Make it 99.9% and we'll be in 98% agreement.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

It did. I said it in a nice way for your benefit. He didn’t like going to the bench in the midst of playing the best basketball of his career. This is all part of his basketball needs.

He was 8 of 31 over the course of the 4 games leading up to the one where he benched. I’d hardly classify 25.6% as his best basketball.

 

[SirScarlet]

He was 8 of 31 over the course of the 4 games leading up to the one where he benched. I’d hardly classify 25.6% as his best basketball.

stop stop. he's on a roll.

Pike's clueless in case you weren't paying attention

 

[mildone_rivals]

fair.

I will say this and then leave it alone. I sat around Mathis' family / support group multiple times over multiple years.

let's just say they wanted him to shoot A LOT more than he shot. Like CONSTANTLY.

just connecting dots, I imagine this has something to do with his decision to move on.

Could be. For sure most of us have our decision-making affected by our family and support groups.

But we're all just speculating about why people do stuff, even when we think we know the people in question fairly intimately. Although, I don't really object to the speculation.

It's just that I've just seen enough of life, known enough people, to understand that even what a person outwardly identifies as their motivation for something isn't always the true motivation. Often people don't really understand their true motivations for stuff themselves, especially at the time they act (they sometimes figure it out more clearly later on, with more distance from a situation).

So anyway, it's the posts stated with absolutely certainty about why someone else does what they do that provoke such skepticism in me.

 

[RUsojo]

Well I’m glad Mathis left for his “basketball needs” and we are no longer trying to lay blame on Geo, Ron or Pikiell.

Who laid blame on those guys? Don’t remember seeing anyone do that

 

[RUsojo]

He was 8 of 31 over the course of the 4 games leading up to the one where he benched. I’d hardly classify 25.6% as his best basketball.

Yeah and if you look at what the other guys were doing in those games there was no marked difference and the previous games he was killing it.

We’ve done this a million times not sure there’s any value in litigating the contributing factors.

 

[S_Janowski]

Who laid blame on those guys? Don’t remember seeing anyone do that

Very odd you don’t remember things you shoved down our throats last year like a broken record.

I’m sure I could easily find plenty of threads with that good old search function but I won’t - I’m sure you would just say it was “semantics” anyways.

Hahaha.

 

[kcg88]

If we're going to be petty then the thread should be "Pauly Paulicap has to be feeling some regret"

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Yeah and if you look at what the other guys were doing in those games there was no marked difference and the previous games he was killing it.

We’ve done this a million times not sure there’s any value in litigating the contributing factors.

Your comment had nothing to do with other players. You said he had been playing his best ball. It was a factually inaccurate statement.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

I don’t know why he left but from a basketball perspective he went from a coach who values defense over everything else to a coach that allows his players to run the floor and create more than anything. The philosophies of Pike and Anderson couldn’t be more different

Pikiell has shown over 6 years that if you play defense he will give you alot of rope on offense. He did it with Mathis at times, JY, Caleb, etc... Most people complain pikiell lets the guys do what ever they want on offense.

 

[MLBash93]

This first 9 games last year when he was averaging 15 pts per game prob ruined what he was as a player vs what he thought he was lol

 

[Scarletnut]

I'm guessing that if Montez had stayed, we wouldn't have signed Jalen Miller. If Tez was then asked to play Jalen's role, the locker room may not have been so tight.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

To be honest I totally forgot about him. That is how much of an impact he had on our program. We did not miss him one iota this year.

I disagree. There were a lot of rotation minutes that I felt we were hanging by a thread offensively and defensively.
You’re telling me he doesn’t help us in those DePaul/Lafayette/UMass stretch where we lose 3 games to crap teams by a total of 9 points?

sure but he was also a guy who could have blown up the game into double digit losses....

 

[RUPete]

To be honest I totally forgot about him. That is how much of an impact he had on our program. We did not miss him one iota this year.

the only player we truly miss was myles. He would have been a huge back up for Cliff.

That hole was definitely an issue all year because it required Dean to play back-up center and not allow him to be more of a 4. Now had Agee worked out in the role, it wouldn't have been an issue. But what can you do? Agee worked out as a person and locker room presence.

 

[NBKnight]

I'm guessing that if Montez had stayed, we wouldn't have signed Jalen Miller. If Tez was then asked to play Jalen's role, the locker room may not have been so tight.

Jalen was signed before Tez decided to leave. Maybe, they don’t sign Hyatt.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I'm guessing that if Montez had stayed, we wouldn't have signed Jalen Miller. If Tez was then asked to play Jalen's role, the locker room may not have been so tight.

No - I disagree. He’d be playing plenty. Part of our limitations are depth. Ideally nobody would be playing more than 28-30 minutes. In addition to Jalen’s minutes everyone else’s could’ve been scaled back and we wouldn’t have had to worry as much about foul trouble.

 

[RUsojo]

Your comment had nothing to do with other players. You said he had been playing his best ball. It was a factually inaccurate statement.

If you expand the sample to beginning of season that was the case. Sorry that didn’t come across. That has been the premise of the point that has been discussed for the last year.

Yes, the one post did not include that. There’s a post somewhere where @S_Janowski disputes the relevance of strength of opponent from a year ago that has the full nuanced discussion (not re-litigating that with you bud, just pointing it out to psal in case he cares to go back). Can’t type it out every single time or it would be a Hawk length post every time and get redundant. I think you were in that thread too so probably don’t care to go back.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

If you expand the sample to beginning of season that was the case. Sorry that didn’t come across. That has been the premise of the point that has been discussed for the last year.

Yes, the one post did not include that. There’s a post somewhere where @S_Janowski disputes the relevance of strength of opponent from a year ago that has the full nuanced discussion (not re-litigating that with you bud, just pointing it out to psal in case he cares to go back). Can’t type it out every single time or it would be a Hawk length post every time and get redundant. I think you were in that thread too so probably don’t care to go back.

Fair enough. I do not dispute he would’ve been hugely helpful to this year’s team.

 

[FrankZ_RU93]

I moved on from Tez when he did.

I wish him well. With that said, I am pleased that the obligatory every transfer makes the NCAAs while we sit and suffer tables have turned.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

He wanted to play, not necessarily shoot. That’s not fair. Yes - he took his share of wild shots for us but part of that was about frustration with not playing,

The numbers are deceiving. Typical blended average trickery. He wasn’t playing anything close to 21 mpg by the end of the season at Rutgers. He played a ton early when Geo and RHJ were hurt and Caleb planned to redshirt.

Thank you. That’s my exact point .

People know I am a huge MM fan …from
The day we started recruiting him

By the end of last year , He was clearly the 8th man last year …getting 10-15 minutes a game

Likely , he saw he was gojng to be coming off the bench this year and made a decision to go elsewhere because he wasn’t going to easily get starter minutes …

This one wasn’t about personality conflicts or anything else but playing time. Especially since Caleb went to see MM play the hall last month at Walsh .

 

[RUPete]

If we're going to be petty then the thread should be "Pauly Paulicap has to be feeling some regret"

What did he wind up doing this year? I know WVU was disappointing as a whole.

 

[S_Janowski]

If you expand the sample to beginning of season that was the case. Sorry that didn’t come across. That has been the premise of the point that has been discussed for the last year.

Yes, the one post did not include that. There’s a post somewhere where @S_Janowski disputes the relevance of strength of opponent from a year ago that has the full nuanced discussion (not re-litigating that with you bud, just pointing it out to psal in case he cares to go back). Can’t type it out every single time or it would be a Hawk length post every time and get redundant. I think you were in that thread too so probably don’t care to go back.

Just to be clear I never argued or disagreed that the schedule wasn’t as strong after Pikiell pulled Mathis/Young out of the lineup.

The bottom line was that we went from a losing streak to a winning streak after this decision was made by Pikiell and that winning streak essentially saved the season.

So I always had a very hard time accepting the notion that Young/Mathis weren’t getting a fair shot or Pikiell was playing favorites (like you 100% said multiple times last year). That’s why I debated you so much.

College basketball is a long season and kids develop or go into funks so it’s okay and expected to have lineup that looks different throughout the year.

 

[RUsojo]

What did he wind up doing this year? I know WVU was disappointing as a whole.

A bit more than Agee but basically nothing

 

[RUPete]

I moved on from Tez when he did.

I wish him well. With that said, I am pleased that the obligatory every transfer makes the NCAAs while we sit and suffer tables have turned.

Yeah, almost forgot about that. That really sucked every year. Even Sankes was thrown in our face one year.

 

[ImBadRU]

Montez is a very limited player. Good defender I can say that. Beyond that....?????

 

[RUtrumpet92_rivals498139]

A bit more than Agee but basically nothing

I don't think "Paul's Corner" would be as good as "Ralph's Corner".

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Montez is a very limited player. Good defender I can say that. Beyond that....?????

That’s just not true. Not a good outside shooter or FT shooter. Could get wild when he tried to do too much with the ball. Tendency to make poor decisions on when to pentrate.

BUT - he’s an above average rebounder for a guard. Pretty good slasher when going 1 on 1 (not driving into triple teams). Super quickness - very good transition player. Does plenty of good things.

 

[RedTeamUpstream94]

I read none of this thread. dont see the need to since....

it seemed pretty clear to me that Mathis' time here was over. He needed a new scene. It happens all the time in virtually every program

had no issue with him leaving.

 

[RUsojo]

I don't think "Paul's Corner" would be as good as "Ralph's Corner".

Never seen it hear good thinga

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Hyatt > Mathis

I agree with this. I think Hyatt takes the RHJ role next year.

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

fair.

I will say this and then leave it alone. I sat around Mathis' family / support group multiple times over multiple years.

let's just say they wanted him to shoot A LOT more than he shot. Like CONSTANTLY.

just connecting dots, I imagine this has something to do with his decision to move on.

In fairness, that's probably like most families.

 

[Perricone7]

Less can be more in college basketball. It was a bit clogged in the backcourt/wing with mulcahy, geo, Caleb, Montez, Jacob, and rhj. Hyatt is far from perfect, but he seems to relish his role off the bench. I don’t think Montez wanted that role.

 

[RUJMM78]

I have no inside info on this but my guess is that Tez and Pikiell had an offseason chat about what Tez would want his role to be and what Pikiell saw his role to be and the two were not that well-aligned and so he entered his name in the transfer portal, with Pikiell's blessing/support. Mike Anderson contacted Mathis and talked about his up-tempo offense and it seemed like it would be a better fit so he jumped on it. Then once he was on St. John's his minutes/shot volume was limited by the same things that held him back here: he's not a good jump shooter, he's not a good finisher at the rim, and he's not a good foul shooter. St. John's also added another guard late in the transfer cycle, two months after Mathis committed.

The head coach of Illinois said Rutgers out wotks opponents but they are not great shooters.The comments about Mathis could apply to many of the current Rutgers squad as well as players on other teams.Shooting is a skillset that many college players never improve upon.

 

[RUPete]

Less can be more in college basketball. It was a bit clogged in the backcourt/wing with mulcahy, geo, Caleb, Montez, Jacob, and rhj. Hyatt is far from perfect, but he seems to relish his role off the bench. I don’t think Montez wanted that role.

I think Hyatt will improve. He just needs to play a little less with his hair on fire.

 

[mugrat86]

Never got the Young didn’t get a fair shake. He had a short leash at time due to his tendencies to get outta control pump out 5 TOs unforced then go on a wild scoring streak. I think our stable of guards at the coaches spots did wonders for him. He also played I believe 30+ Min a game. So he definitely got a fair and even favorable shake

He has the same short leash at Oregon. His two former teams are going to dance