We’ve lost our best talent and will be rebuilding. Unless Lino and Zrno play out of their minds, this year is going to be very difficult. We have a young team that will be finding its way. People will just have to be patient.
I’m granting Steve a Mulligan for this year
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I'm not granting you a mulligan for this look at me post.
+1
Another stupid Al post. Pike **** the bed last year and will never recover.
Pike is going to get another after this season regardless, so no need to grant him anything. My guess is he will need to make significant improvements in 2026-27 to keep his job beyond that. I’m a believer in him as a coach but he will need NIL support to make it happen. Not sure they can turn it around that quick.
Pike had his mulligan already and then some.
Exactly that was two years ago when Cam & Paul jetted late after the portal closed using the grad transfer loophole.
I like Pike but let’s also be honest, what about his coaching has been impressive?
mare we giving him these mulligans because he followed the worst coach we have ever had? - EJ is neck and neck with Ash.
We’re giving him mulligans for results. He got us to the tournament and is now executing close to a full rebuild.
He has missed the tournament in mult years that he shouldn’t have. He gets credit for the first rebuild but his coaching just has not been impressive or his roster building
The worst coach Rutgers basketball was Littlepage. Those teams were beyond terrible. The RAC was so quiet that might daughter regularly fell asleep at those games.
Have to give Pikiel credit for finding and developing under the radar players and taking Rutgers to 2 NCAAs. In a world of NIL he has to developer players faster and find ways to get NIL in addition to revenue sharing to keep and attract players, none of which may happen. Most other Big Ten teams have gotten many more highly ranked players as transfers. Pikiel has a much harder hill to climb given how young his team is , but he does have tall athletic players that can fit his defensive system. Only way he can win is for his players to play as a team and out hustle, rebound and play tougher defense. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. The one advantage he does have as a coach is that there will be competition at every position and if a player isn’t giving it his all or is doing stupid things, he can take that player out without a huge drop off.
The only reason his roster building hasn’t been impressive is we don’t have any money. Same thing with football, you can change the coach, but you won’t change the results until people pony up.
It’s as much about the multiple missed recruiting classes, then the lack of NIL. The entire foundation of the team was lost because of three bad recruiting years.
After 9 years on the job, no one deserves a mulligan for the 10th
And ironically might have been his best coaching job winning 15 games with that team.
Then again still odd he let Simpson go, who carried that team. And yes I know Cliff.
What don't you understand, a guy that shoots 3-14 on average isn't good for your offense. And he didn't exactly light it up at St. Joe's last year. Basically matched his sophomore output as a junior in a mid major conference.
It's also why many didn't want them to take Francis in the portal. Similar type of player to Simpson.
He’s had 3 teams rank nationally in the top 20 for defensive efficiency and won one of the national coach of the year awards in 2020. I would say that’s very impressive.
Trevor Bauer won the CY Young in 2020…
pike did the unimaginable in getting to to be a tournament team and has **** the bed since.
He was given the gift of not just 1 but 2 lottery picks last year. And even without enough NIL to get another huge piece- he coached the tea to a crappy record. How is that even possible.
OK- the record, let’s not put that on him- we’re our 2 guys better when they left here then they were out of college. If Pike couldn’t win last year, his only job should have been to show he could make a lottery pick showcase themself
he did nothing, zero positive last year.
You asked and I answered. If you want to change it to last year, fine. Last year was not good.
My point is that 2020 is no longer relevant.
And while I get that trying to find additional players last year was difficult due to NIL- well, as a coach, adjust your coaching to play to the strengths you do have on the team.
it is embarrassing to have 40% of your team All World and you try to force fit them into a style of play that just couldn’t succeed
I saved,the PSU away game,from Simpsons freshman year
He looked like a future star and the tv announcers said so
Looks like it was a one time thing, or just maybe he had a fortunate matchup most of the game
If you have access to it, its an interesting watch
Yeah that was one of several B1G games where he converted his shots at a good clip and looked the part. Too bad he couldn’t do that more consistently.
To be honest, everything before the past 2 seasons. This year was destined to be a rebuild year, but I’m eager to see what the team looks like in Feb and March. Even in this coming down year, there’s still more talent on the roster than at any point since the 80s if not longer.
that’s totally on him. As PSAL rightly pointed out, he went with offense when he could have gotten solid defenders for the same cost.
also, he had some bad luck with the 23-24 team and the summer surgery/illness/injuries to Dylan.
Stop he had more money spent on last years team. He finished below 500 w 2 lottery picks.
Pike can coach D at an extremely high level.
He is a horrible X and O coach
Dreadful offensive coach
Extremely bad at portal transfers and evaluating talent.
His time has come!
2 top 5 picks and didn't even sniff the NIT
Steve's on the clock
Steve's on the clock
Sorry. but neither Pike or Greg get passes.
Yes, it does seem to be true that RU fans seem to be tighter with their wallets so that is likely hindering us (compared to other schools)
However, success breeds excitement, pride and hope. and excitement, pride and hope lead to people giving $$$. and neither have really done much to bring that. just bringing their programs back to respectability isnt going to be enough... neither has really made a SPLASH THAT INSPIRES THE FANBASE. sorry, but that what its going to take to get the $ really flowing. .500 teams dont inspire the fanbase.
so. sorry they dont get a pass.
neither has really done anything to BRING REAL SUSTAINED EXCITEMENT.
to the constrary - BB last year was a debacle. theres no other way to describe. lets be honest - all it did was bring huge DOUBT about Pikes ability.
and football - .500 ball year-in-year out withnot a single signature Big10 win in Greg 2.0. not a single win against a ranked team. thats the reality. I think most credit Greg for building the program back to respectability/ mediocrity. sure, we are generally not considered the total laughingstock we were under Ash. We are now solidly mediocre (but thats all we are right now... mediocre). mediocrity doesnt inspire the fanbase. and, again, as much as he SHOULD get credit for getting us out of the basement Greag has really not accomplished a SINGLE thing to suggest that he's not reached his ceiling
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You know what’s needed for excitement?
M-O-N-E-Y
we don’t have enough, so our ceiling is limited.
If the fanbase want to win, they have to pony up.
The reason we have multiple missed recruiting classes is the same reason football has multiple missed recruiting classes: money.
They do when they don’t have money to succeed. How much did you donate to NIL? Zero? I rest my case.
I'm glad you're the RU bookkeeper and know who donates along with how much..
As for donating, I do every year, just can't be considered a big booster , if it's any of your business.
So you can post your sarcastic insults and make accusations about things you know nothing about, to back up your opinion that's being disagreed with instead of showing some class in the reply defending your position.
But if that's what you need to prove your point, I'll give you a Mulligan
As for NIL money driving the bus, the way you think ,Pike doesn't have to win a game to get a pass..
You turned bitter Al, maybe all the times other posters put you down turned you that way from just being an overly positive supporter that would make a losing RU team into one that was on the verge of greatness.
That's the Al I defended, even if I disagreed.
This version I'm seeing isn't the likable optimistic poster of the past I felt was a breath of fresh air when things were looking down , then used an optimistic outlook in a reply to those who disagreed with him to defend his messages when. someone replied negatively to it.
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Do you actually follow basketball?
There was no NIL when the 2020 & 2021 classes were recruited and NIL for the 2022 class was nothing like it is today, another swing and miss.
Other than Cliff & Mag, the other 7 HS recruits were total busts or not high major players. That's a very low hit rate. And these classes were during the golden period of Pike's stint here where they made multiple NCAAs.
I'm glad you're the RU bookkeeper and know who donates along with how much..
As for donating, I do every year, just can't be considered a big booster , if it's any of your business.
So you can post your sarcastic insults and make accusations about things you know nothing about, to back up your opinion that's being disagreed with instead of showing some class in the reply defending your position.
But if that's what you need to prove your point, I'll give you a Mulligan
As for NIL money driving the bus, the way you think ,Pike doesn't have to win a game to get a pass..
You turned bitter Al, maybe all the times other posters put you down turned you that way from just being an overly positive supporter that would make a losing RU team into one that was on the verge of greatness.
That's the Al I defended, even if I disagreed.
This version I'm seeing isn't the likable optimistic poster of the past I felt was a breath of fresh air when things were looking down , then used an optimistic outlook in a reply to those who disagreed with him to defend his messages when. someone replied negatively to it.
I don’t think you can just scream money. I think part of it is money, part bad luck, and part some mistakes on Pikes part (admittedly, when you don’t have money, you don’t have the talent to hide the mistakes). But he does need to get us back to the tourney by 2026-27 (baring some kind of external factor like injuries, etc).
I do hate the fact that if he flips over every stone to find the next Ron, Geo, Caleb, Myles, he may not be able to keep them for long.
It’s not the fanbase. Larry Ellison buys a QB as a birthday present for his girlfriend for more than the net worth of even affluent fans. You either have the 9+ figure donors or you don’t. We don’t. And that’s on the school to sort out.
Yes I follow basketball, have you followed basketball? Doesn’t seem like it. Do you see the caliber of players we’re recruiting? Have you compared to the caliber of players the competition is recruiting? How can anyone expect us to successfully compete?
You don’t seem to understand the competitive recruiting environment Rutgers faced pre NIL. Players were paid under the table pre NIL. St John’s paid players. Villanova paid players. Seton Hall paid players. Our big ten peers, especially Michigan, paid players.
Despite this adverse environment, Pike built competitive teams which went to the NCAA’s, thanks to hitting three moonshots in Harper, Baker, and Macconnell.
NIL deals became legal to kids July 2021. This really didn’t impact us, since we didn’t have much NIL. But As NIL has become more of a thing it has become harder and harder to recruit, because the moonshots we’ve been recruiting haven’t panned out.
And not having competitive NIL support cost us a chance to keep Spencer for the ‘24 Season, one of the transfers that worked out, and consequently cost us a chance at the tournament.
instead Spencer led UConn to a National Championship.
NIL deals became legal to kids July 2021. This really didn’t impact us, since we didn’t have much NIL. Amounts that used to be paid under the table were now paid legally. So it isn’t surprising to see our classes struggle, because we continue to recruit moonshots, class after class, because we don’t have the support to recruit better players.
My question wasn’t whether you donated. My question was did you donate to NIL, expecting your answer to be negative, because hardly anyone is donating to NIL and only making that point. If you did donate any amount to NIL, I apologize.I'm glad you're the RU bookkeeper and know who donates along with how much..
As for donating, I do every year, just can't be considered a big booster , if it's any of your business.
So you can post your sarcastic insults and make accusations about things you know nothing about, to back up your opinion that's being disagreed with instead of showing some class in the reply defending your position.
But if that's what you need to prove your point, I'll give you a Mulligan
As for NIL money driving the bus, the way you think ,Pike doesn't have to win a game to get a pass..
You turned bitter Al, maybe all the times other posters put you down turned you that way from just being an overly positive supporter that would make a losing RU team into one that was on the verge of greatness.
That's the Al I defended, even if I disagreed.
This version I'm seeing isn't the likable optimistic poster of the past I felt was a breath of fresh air when things were looking down , then used an optimistic outlook in a reply to those who disagreed with him to defend his messages when. someone replied negatively to it.
the bottomline, is either the team has adequate support or it doesn’t. Till date, the team doesn’t, and if the teams fortunes are to change, that is going to have to change, unless we start to hit our recruiting moonshots more consistently, which is unlikely.
We don’t have 9 figure donors. But we should have 1000 fans willing to pony up $5,000 in a 600K strong alumni base. Doctors, lawyers, landlords, Wall Street professionals come to mind. But the alumni base hasn’t been conditioned to support athletics, unlike at Villanova, Michigan, and Ohio State.
That’s 1 out of every 8 fans who attend bball games. And they have to give year over year.
I agree with your point that failing to invest decades ago has most fans passively interested, but 5k is still a lot of money, even for people doing well. And even schools that had interest for decades are struggling to keep up with schools who have sugar daddies.