If you've followed this program for any significant length of time, the potential of a season like this one had to be at the back of your mind.
How disappointing was it, Ed?
- Thread starter zebnatto
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we can say that all we want but we have two kids that are going to be top 5 NBA picks after 1 year of college. there was a reason to expect that at the very least, we could make the tourney. even if it was 1 and done. It was a colossal failure on the coaches to not find the right pieces but also not even find a way to elevate the team during the season with good schemes and coaching.
The “roster wasn’t very good outside of Dylan and Ace.” That’s inexcusable.
I didn’t have high expectations. My only expectation was to build a roster that would be good enough to make the tourney without being on the bubble. That’s not a lot to ask for. Especially when you consider the fact that the B1G really isn’t that great at the top
Here's a question ... has there ever been a college team that missed the tournament and then had two players immediately drafted in the Top 5 of the next draft? Any team in college basketball history?
I can't think of one. Most players who are rated that highly wind up at schools that are in the NCAA Tournament every year.
I don’t know if inexcusable is the right word. It certainly was the issue caused by lack of NIL and a poor roster plan.
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There were multiple problems with this team but the biggest issue was Dylan getting sick and injured. Any chance to pulling it together died in January when that happened.
I phrased it incorrectly. You are correct. I would say it’s probably the most disappointing aspect of it. The roster should have been better. NIL was/is an issue. But I think most would agree there were some major major missteps and miscalculation on coach’s part while assembling the surrounding pieces
I just looked at every NBA draft since 1947. There have been 13 times that two players from the same college were drafted in the Top 5 ...
1969 - UCLA (National Champion) - Kareem, Lucius Allen
1979 - Michigan State (National Champion) - Magic, Greg Kelser
1984 - UNC (Sweet 16) - Jordan, Sam Perkins
1995 - UNC - (Elite 8) Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace
1998 - UNC - (Final 4) Antwan Jamison, Vince Carter
2002 - Duke - (Sweet 16) Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy
2004 - UConn (National Champion) - Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon
2005 - UNC (National Champion) - Marvin Williams, Ray Felton
2008 - UCLA (Final 4) - Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love
2010 - Kentucky (Elite 8) - John Wall, Demarcus Cousins
2012 - Kentucky (National Champion) - Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
2014 - Kansas (Round of 32) - Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embid
2019 - Duke (Elite 8) - Zion Willamson, RJ Barrett
So, to recap ... 13 times it has happened and every team had made the tournament, five won national championships, two more made the Final 4, three more made the Elite 8, two were knocked out in the Sweet 16 (both of whom were #1 in the country going into the tournament), and one was knocked out in the Round of 32 (they were #10 in the country going into the tournament).
If Bailey gets drafted in the Top 5, we are in some seriously rare (and embarrassing) air.
1969 - UCLA (National Champion) - Kareem, Lucius Allen
1979 - Michigan State (National Champion) - Magic, Greg Kelser
1984 - UNC (Sweet 16) - Jordan, Sam Perkins
1995 - UNC - (Elite 8) Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace
1998 - UNC - (Final 4) Antwan Jamison, Vince Carter
2002 - Duke - (Sweet 16) Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy
2004 - UConn (National Champion) - Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon
2005 - UNC (National Champion) - Marvin Williams, Ray Felton
2008 - UCLA (Final 4) - Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love
2010 - Kentucky (Elite 8) - John Wall, Demarcus Cousins
2012 - Kentucky (National Champion) - Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
2014 - Kansas (Round of 32) - Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embid
2019 - Duke (Elite 8) - Zion Willamson, RJ Barrett
So, to recap ... 13 times it has happened and every team had made the tournament, five won national championships, two more made the Final 4, three more made the Elite 8, two were knocked out in the Sweet 16 (both of whom were #1 in the country going into the tournament), and one was knocked out in the Round of 32 (they were #10 in the country going into the tournament).
If Bailey gets drafted in the Top 5, we are in some seriously rare (and embarrassing) air.
It’s absolutely inexcusable, stop trying to make excuses for this failure of a season.
NIL is most important for pure scorers, ball handlers, and a paint presence.
Outside sources covered your NIL tab for your scorer (Ace) and your PG (Dylan). Check, check.
We needed to add an experienced big. The coaching staff elected not to. You didn’t need a stud on the inside, you needed a rim protector and guy willing to do the dirty work. “Oh don’t worry, watch this offseason tape of Ogbole getting guarded by a grad assistant!” LOL.
The rest of the roster needed to be filled out by experienced, athletic players that are willing to play a role. Maybe you pick up one unathletic shooter. Maybe a guy that lives for defense and the opportunity to play at this stage. Maybe a long athletic wing you’d need to fine tune.
You didn’t need a bucket of NIL cash to flash around at B1G media day.
This staff put together a horrendous compliment of players, and the fan base knew it. There were so many posts here about “how is this all going to fit?” Because people knew it was a weird assembly of players. There was no goal or identity when collectively adding these guys.
There was clearly no goal of adding paint presence. I mean people were actually saying Martini is a great add because he’s a 3PT shooter that doesn’t have great rebounding numbers because “he does the little things to help the guys around him get the rebound instead” LOL.
I’m sorry, but what this staff did is inexcusable. They still have time here at RU to get their act together, but there needs to be some serious soul searching of what kind of program this will be. They’re not dead yet, the contract buys them time, but this isn’t trending well and won’t end well if there isn’t a shift.
This season pretty much killed any interest I have in Rutgers basketball going forward. I don't really watch the games anymore and don't really miss it. It's bad enough that I don't even know when the games are being played even though I'm on this board daily. I just don't really read anything about the season or team anymore and just skim for interesting thread headers.
We had 2 of our biggest recruits in our history and did nothing with it. I don't know how anybody can't be completed devastated by this season. I have no hope that we'll ever be competitive under Pike or pretty much any other coach due to our poor NIL situation. I will definitely be in "prove it to me" moving forward any season until we actually turn a corner, which I feel will probably not happen in my lifetime. I'm 50 years old. I will continue to donate to Knights of the Raritan and earmark it to the basketball team, but I'm giving up my season tickets and will pick up a game every once in awhile I guess.
We had 2 of our biggest recruits in our history and did nothing with it. I don't know how anybody can't be completed devastated by this season. I have no hope that we'll ever be competitive under Pike or pretty much any other coach due to our poor NIL situation. I will definitely be in "prove it to me" moving forward any season until we actually turn a corner, which I feel will probably not happen in my lifetime. I'm 50 years old. I will continue to donate to Knights of the Raritan and earmark it to the basketball team, but I'm giving up my season tickets and will pick up a game every once in awhile I guess.
What did you think their record was going to be before the season? Did you think they were a tournament team? You probably did and I bet Pike did too. It’s just didn’t work out and it’s easy to see why now.
the four most recent examples were all pairs of freshmen, kevin love was a freshman but westbrook was a sophomore, not sure beyond that and don’t feel like looking them all up
I’m not sure how you can ask anyone that question and use it as a basis for what you’re saying.
I’m not a talent evaluator. I’m not getting paid millions of dollars to recruit 17-22 year old kids to form a winning team.
Even with that argument, preseason I knew rebounding was going to be a massive issue because our conference had a bunch of 7 footers this year and we were coming in with 6’9”/6’10” 18 year old Lathan and Ogbole who obviously wasn’t going to fill the void left by Cliff.
With all that said, my prediction was that we’d be a bubble team because that’s what Pike has done here with his “competitive” teams in the past. There may have been moments where the fan base felt we’d be in the 6-9 seed range, but he generally finishes in the bubble range.
Again, I’m just some dope RU diehard posting on a message board. It’s not my job to make sure I’m building a team that’s going to be effective from start to finish in a season.
Any level of prediction here is based off the fan bases perception of the talent and coaching staff. That perception is now clouded which is why no matter who they add next year, there’s going to be next to no one predicting NCAAs for next season.
Hmm..
UCLA
Michigan State
UNC
Duke
UConn
Kentucky
Kansas
Hmm..
So weird all those teams did well.
It's not that surprising ... all of them (like Rutgers this year) had two of the five best NBA prospects in their starting lineups.
Does anything else about that list of schools jump out at you?
How did they do in the years where they don't appear on that list?
...but how many of them had four freshman starters? I'm going to go out on a limb and say none.
HOW DID THEY DO IN THE YEARS WHERE THEY DON'T APPEAR ON THAT LIST?
You have no idea if
UCLA
Michigan State
UNC
Duke
UConn
Kentucky
Kansas
are generally good at basketball outside of that small list of years?
And you expect to be taken seriously? ******* idiot.
Wait so you’re telling me Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, UConn, UCLA and Michigan State all had success in the NCAA tournament?
And they had 2 top 5 draft picks while having this success?!
No way!
Since 1947, Rutgers Athletics has fit right in with all of these schools!
The point (which has apparently flown right by yourself and others) is that this is the first time that Rutgers has had talent in the same neighborhood as these teams ... and while they all took that talent and went far in the tournament, Rutgers barely made their own conference tournament. The question is: Why? And the answer is: Pike is not a good coach.
Not so fast.
- What was the makeup of the rest of these teams? Surely not as pissy as the rest of Rutgers roster.
- How many of these teams had 2 true freshman as the top 5 picks? Surely not all of them.
- How many of these teams relied heavily on 4 freshman? Surely not many of them.
- How many of these teams had to essentially create a roster from scratch? Surely probably none of them.
We sucked this year.
Pikiell blew it. The players blew it. The donors blew it.
But these types of comparisons are moronic.
Who picked these "pissy" players?
Irrelevant to the discussion. Freshman or seniors, the NBA felt they were Top 5 prospects in all instances.
Who constructed the roster that required Rutgers to rely heavily on 4 freshman?
Somehow Pitino found a way to create a roster from scratch.
The purpose of my post wasn’t to defend Pikiell.
It was to make you realize that your comparison to all of those other schools is phucking moronic.
But clearly that went way over your head.
Well, maybe next year we can get three Top 5 picks on the team so our expectations can be a little higher than one-and-done in the Big10 tournament and watching the NIT from home. Oh wait, I forgot, we're not a blue blood so we can't be expected to win a game in our conference tournament with three Top 5 picks. I guess we'll have to pray for four Top 5 picks.
Nice strawman!
That was also not the point.
You must have a tiny head, lot of stuff going right over it.