I don't agree. If we don't lose Cam and Paul at the time that we did I think this team is competing for another bid. Now that does not excuse Pike for not evolving on offense. That's all on him. But hard to say that we are where we are because of recruiting. It's a factor. But the prime reason is losing two of our key players before we expected to lose them
Pike’s ceiling?
- Thread starter scarletrat
- Start date
The big ten has been the deepest/best conference for years. An average big ten team over that span is a good team.
Facts
Noah is brought in to replace Jalen Miller
The transfer portal closed May 12th
Cam enters the Portal May 19th, grad transfer
Paul enters the Portal June 9th, grad transfer
Both leave for
.
We scrambled to sort through what's left in the portal after it closed
Exactly how does that affect how Pike coaches or recruits?? Ceiling or floor?
Nothing, nada, zero, zilch, nunca.
We have 4 guards that have played exactly 16 games together, Derek the only one with an extra year under Pike that Pike trusts. College basketball was, is and always will be a guards driven game. The inexperience of our 4 guards playing together and being on different pages at times during the wrong stretches in games is our biggest weakness in 23-24.
Noah is brought in to replace Jalen Miller
The transfer portal closed May 12th
Cam enters the Portal May 19th, grad transfer
Paul enters the Portal June 9th, grad transfer
Both leave for
.We scrambled to sort through what's left in the portal after it closed
Exactly how does that affect how Pike coaches or recruits?? Ceiling or floor?
Nothing, nada, zero, zilch, nunca.
We have 4 guards that have played exactly 16 games together, Derek the only one with an extra year under Pike that Pike trusts. College basketball was, is and always will be a guards driven game. The inexperience of our 4 guards playing together and being on different pages at times during the wrong stretches in games is our biggest weakness in 23-24.
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Don’t think it’s guaranteed that we are good next year either. We will have an infusion of talent but the B1G has really good players and coaches. It’s also freshman versus upperclassman
Reading these threads/posts makes it embarrassing to claim ownership of being a Rutgers fan.
Some of you really deserve the Eddie Jordan years again.
How fickle is this board. Holy crap, you guys go from one extreme to another. Tough start to the season. Let's see what he can get done and get set up for next season.
I didn't think we'd be better but some shills tried to sell us on the notion.
It'll be interesting the justifications if next year's team isn't extremely successful.
Imagine Indiana brought in our class?
Or Michigan?
Some would likely call it an immense failure if they didn't make the Final Four.
Hopefully we won't have to worry about that though and the team is great.
We'll be good talent alone. Question is, is the staff good enough to make us great?
So your goal then is to be an average B1G team - that makes us good? I want more, a lot more. And the B1G hasn't been the deepest/best conference for years. They were the third best conference last year, at best.
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Thats the precarious spot hes in. Hes never really had a freshman that was a “dude”. Now hes gonna have a bunch in program that lacks an offensive structure which is going to make things even tougher on a freshman.
He really runs the risk of being exposed next year as a guy who provides a solid floor but a very very low ceiling. And yes, I know ive been yelled at for years for that line but its true
He is certainly one of the more knowledgable posters here.
False narrative. Big ten has been a whole lott mehhhhh for decades.
Interesting thread. Virtually every player that matters has been identified as the reason(s) we are playing like ****. Sad that we have so many candidates for that honor.
Mag Hyatt and I guess Davis and Oskar are the players at least meeting expectations. Davis was a low rated freshman and Oskar a deep bench piece so expectations there are low. Oskar not shooting the 3 as he could. Davis making some freshman mistakes but showing signs of promise
Noah Gavin Cliff Simpson having disappointing seasons. Noah and Gavin would get a near unanimous F from the entire board so far this season. They have been worse than anyone could have imagined unfortunately. Cliff and Simpson having poor seasons but not to that level
He will but why your last sentence
There you go with your comically ridiculous statements. Do Kentucky and Duke with their top 5 or higher classes not show up in the top of the rankings every year. Maybe they don’t win the championship but they are a contender. You truly think with the talent that is coming in , that has never ever graced the Banks in 1 class before , is going to **** the bed and you think Pike will be not up to the task. Now we have supposedly the # 3 class in the entire country , and you want to **** on Pike . I guess your narrative for years was he couldn’t recruit. Well that stupidity of yours has Pike bringing in a FAB 5 and being mentioned with Duke and Kentucky , blue bloods , that no Rutgers fan ever thought we would be so mentioned. He is also recruiting 4 and 5 stars for 2025 when Dylan and Ace go pro. Your ability to question Pike when we are about to explode is just typically you. Low ceiling my ***. Cannot wait to **** on you
I think we went over this but pikes first 8 recruiting clases average rank amongst big ten teams was 12th best.
He was not a good recruiter. He has an elite 2024 class, but is it his recruiting abilities or hi$ recruiting abilitie$?
Anyway, I dont know why people get so offended when I say hes a great man, great defensive coach but a bad offensive coach. Unfortunately offense is what modern day basketball is about.
Im thankful for him, he took us from unwatchable to watchable. But i am skeptical of how he’ll do next season with all that talent.
1) Do we still continue to not have an offensive structure?
2) how does he get frosh up to speed to be THE guys from day 1? Hes never done this before.
3) how will fans react if we arent a top 25 team and at worst a 5 seed?
4) how will fans react if we dont get out of the first weekend?
I love Pike and he thankfully isn’t going anywhere, nor should he. He is the right man for the job. But the fact that he said several times in the preseason and early season that this team is built to score in the 80’s each game is mind Boggling! If he said that in a prospectus the SEC would sue him for fraud.
Michigan had 2 top draft picks and a ton of talent last year and we beat them with 1/3 the talent and they did nothing last year. Coaching does matter.
Some of the posts in this thread are embarrassing.
I will say though, Pike doesn't help himself out when he says things like "this team can really shoot the basketball" all off-season.
I will say though, Pike doesn't help himself out when he says things like "this team can really shoot the basketball" all off-season.
I would be surprised if we are a top 25 team next year. Blending all these young players into an effective unit against grown men in the first year is going to be a heck of a challenge. People with crazy expectations should look around a little.
He did a poor job managing his roster IMO.
We are about to find out what his ceiling is next season.
My biggest complaint is how long it takes him to figure out who needs to play where/when. Seems like every season he doesn’t figure out the proper lineups until we hit like 5 games into conference play.
Also, he needs to have a base offense that runs sets to get open guys. Want to run an iso offense? That’s fine but 1 out of every 3 positions I need to see off ball movement and picks happening. Go watch pre-Pike games on YouTube and you’ll be shocked how much cleaner the offense looked.
Mike Rice was a lunatic, but he was a better coach than Pike IMO
We are about to find out what his ceiling is next season.
My biggest complaint is how long it takes him to figure out who needs to play where/when. Seems like every season he doesn’t figure out the proper lineups until we hit like 5 games into conference play.
Also, he needs to have a base offense that runs sets to get open guys. Want to run an iso offense? That’s fine but 1 out of every 3 positions I need to see off ball movement and picks happening. Go watch pre-Pike games on YouTube and you’ll be shocked how much cleaner the offense looked.
Mike Rice was a lunatic, but he was a better coach than Pike IMO
Having an elite defense is great, but you still need to outscore the team you are holding back from their usual numbers. No doubt the losses of some top players have really hurt this team and the fact that they waited so long to depart really put Pike in a tough place to find replacements.
That said, the guys we do have just are not that good. Tired of hearing otherwise. Pike's pre-season talk of being a fast team have not happened. We get down to the other end of the court and just run around and then take a last minute three and give it back to the other team. As for being an 80 point team, it would take us about another 30 minutes of play to get there!
Next year's team in supposed to be real scorers. Can Pike coach a team that will probably not be as good defensively? With the way things are going now, we can only hope we find a few complimentary players for next season.
That said, the guys we do have just are not that good. Tired of hearing otherwise. Pike's pre-season talk of being a fast team have not happened. We get down to the other end of the court and just run around and then take a last minute three and give it back to the other team. As for being an 80 point team, it would take us about another 30 minutes of play to get there!
Next year's team in supposed to be real scorers. Can Pike coach a team that will probably not be as good defensively? With the way things are going now, we can only hope we find a few complimentary players for next season.
and a tougher schedule likely too. As good as Ace and Dylan are, you have to learn to win in college hoops so I expect some bumps early on. Again I have seen better coaches than Pike struggle to get footing with top recruiting classes. Its not automatic
plus the beat writers and people around the program, mods, guest commentators blow the team up as better than they are.
no and that is why I have concern a bit for next year while being excited too
I tend to agree but the hype train is here. Indiana always brings in these top 10 frosh’s and are basically like bubble teams. Our fan bases expectations are through the roof next year to the point I believe anything short of a sweet 16 and people will actually call for pikes head, warranted or not. @bac2therac is that the vibe you feel amongst the fan base too?
Back filling is the hidden key here for the longer term
Sommerville, Grant, and Dortch have to wind up big ten quality, with added talent to that thereafter, and our two young guards have to progress
I think there will always be a segment that calls for head if we dont win at a super high level....HOWEVER, I think most reasonable fans feel making the NCAA tournament is going to be enough. Anything less would be a disappointment, no Pikes job should not be in jeopardy but I think a failure to make the tourney and criticism thrown is way.
Things can happen in the ncaa tourney, look at one seed Virginia so I do not think its fair to set bars on what has to happen there. I think getting back to the NCAA tourney is important. To me it might be more important to show the program can get there with a 22-10 type season being a 7 seed rather than being the bubble team every year we have been under Pikiell. That is the step forward the program NEEDS to take.
So balance becomes a key... We need others beside our two superstars to be scoring threats
Based on analytics we are fast
Issue is we play out of control, bad shot selection, and inefficient in FG%
Glad to see you post this, agree completely. Having a good season is much more important than hyperfocusing on the result of a couple games in March.
against michigan state we actually ran some decent stuff including a continuity set that we see in high school a lot with diagonal back screens and screen the screener action. We actually got some layups and looks off of it too. First time i’ve seen us run anything like that. We also had some other good action that we either got decent looks and missed or michigan state finally started to snuff out and our players aren’t good enough to create with limited space.
Hopefully we can continue some of this for the rest of the year.
Hopefully we can continue some of this for the rest of the year.
Nah. Pike has never had enough offensive skill on the team. The schemes consistently generate decent looks that we just don’t have the players to make.
I think merely just making the tourney again in 2025 isnt gonna be enough for fans. I think if anything it’ll cement the idea that he has a high floor, low ceiling if he merely just gets to the tourney as a 7-11 seed with 2 lottery picks
SBNation lists top 11 recruiting classes of the 2010s(max games are 40)
What they did the year before the class and with the class.
11) 2017 Texas Tech from 18-14(32) to 27-10(37)
10) 2016 Gonzaga from 28-8(36) to 37-2(39)
9) 2012 Michigan from 24-10(34) to 31-8(39)
8) 2015 Villanova from 33-3(36) to 35-5(40)
7) 2018 Duke from 29-8(37) to 32-6(38)
6) 2013 Kansas from 31-6(37) to 25-10(35)
5) 2014 UNC from 24-10(34) to 26-12(38)
4) 2016 Virginia from 29-8(37) to 23-11(34)
3) 2011 Kentucky from 29-9(38) to 38-2(40)
2) 2014 Kentucky from 29-11(40) to 38-1(39)
1) 2014 Duke 26-9(35) to 35-4(39)
I'm not saying we have a top 10 or top 20 in the 2020s, but just what classes like ours have done historically before and after as a record stand point.
What they did the year before the class and with the class.
11) 2017 Texas Tech from 18-14(32) to 27-10(37)
10) 2016 Gonzaga from 28-8(36) to 37-2(39)
9) 2012 Michigan from 24-10(34) to 31-8(39)
8) 2015 Villanova from 33-3(36) to 35-5(40)
7) 2018 Duke from 29-8(37) to 32-6(38)
6) 2013 Kansas from 31-6(37) to 25-10(35)
5) 2014 UNC from 24-10(34) to 26-12(38)
4) 2016 Virginia from 29-8(37) to 23-11(34)
3) 2011 Kentucky from 29-9(38) to 38-2(40)
2) 2014 Kentucky from 29-11(40) to 38-1(39)
1) 2014 Duke 26-9(35) to 35-4(39)
I'm not saying we have a top 10 or top 20 in the 2020s, but just what classes like ours have done historically before and after as a record stand point.