Transfer Portal Targets
- Thread starter rutgers93
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IMO we’re not good enough to be so worried about fit. We need as many good, B1G level players as possible. And it’s much easier price wise to find a good guard than a good wing.
you understand the point! So to make it easier then a PG that avg 5-7 assits! Better?
The larger point still stands! I don’t disagree w your wing defender or obvious back up center.(sounds like addressed)
Your not going anywhere with out a true PG ! Currently we don’t have 1! One player young and a year or 2 away. The other a great program guy who is not a power 4 player.
We should be pushing for more and not starting every post with how much money we have or don’t have left. IMO that’s a Keli problem! Seems to be doing well btw!
Not every team that makes the tournament has an elite PG. The strategy taken seemed reasonable. A pragmatic approach to managing our limitations. Pike isn’t the best offensive scheming coach. We have competent ball handlers who lack elite court vision. Pike went out and recruited more offensive weapons like Tariq who do not require an elite PG to feed them the ball to score. Your probably right that this isn’t the blueprint for the final 4 but it can certainly make us a lot better than we were.
On the other hand, it would be 100% accurate statement to say “we’re not going anywhere” aka zero chance of getting 18 wins, if we don’t significantly upgrade the defense. We know this to be true, because with a poor defense, that wasn’t even quite as bad as last year’s D in 2024-25, we had Dylan and Ace and still couldn’t win because of how bad the D was. A playmaking PG who would upgrade the backcourt defense significantly isn’t considering Rutgers right now no matter what the price tag is. Lino isn’t even a bad defender so the bar you’d be talking about would have to be unrealistically high. The improvement we need has to come down low because Zrno/Powers, Grant, and the center by committee at the 3-5 had nowhere to go but up (outside of Bryce Dortch and even he played out of position). So it can’t get worse, but we have done very little to make it better. That’s the concern.
We at least have a chance with a better defense, more offensive weapons and the hope of internal player development. Without upgraded D it doesn’t matter what else we do because the offense will not be better than it was with Dylan and Ace no matter what.
I get it but believe your philosophy maybe squeaks out 3 more wins?
TF will take an obvious step back under your philosophy. Your fingers are crossed at the PG position. You pray pike and staff has figure out to maximize multiple ball dominant players.
iMO a true PG cleans up most of what your hoping for or praying for.
Why does he step back? He doesn’t get doubled now in second halves of games. A PG doesn’t help him. He creates his own shot. A PG helps Cam Spencer. A PG helps Cliff. A skilled PG doesn’t do all that much for the kinds of players we’ve brought in. We need a game manager to protect the rock. we have several of those now including one who is a forward and might turn out to be the best distributor on the team.
We can both agree that the 3 new starters need the ball and 2 of them are high usage guys?
Considering are staffs lack of offensive philosophy and inability to run an effective game plan. That means ISO top of the key 1 on 1 ?
Last year one player could run that offense, and TF flourished to his credit. Now, two other guys minimum will be eating into his touches. Simply more players to keep happy.
One thing I have learned is people will complain about anything. I agree expanding is not good. Making the tournament should be the goal every year. A lot will depend on the final roster and the rest of the Big Ten.
This is why you don't build a roster starting with the end of the bench and leave the starters for last after you've spent most of your money.
Especially when you have limited funds.
As I've said, Pike and Sullivan have literally spent 1 maybe 2 off-seasons under this roster construction format.
This is a totally new set rules, objectives and constraints.
Play fantasy football and wait until you have RB2, RB3, WR2, WR3, WR4 is filled then see how much money is left for a RB1 and WR1.
It's insanity to build that way.
Especially when you have limited funds.
As I've said, Pike and Sullivan have literally spent 1 maybe 2 off-seasons under this roster construction format.
This is a totally new set rules, objectives and constraints.
Play fantasy football and wait until you have RB2, RB3, WR2, WR3, WR4 is filled then see how much money is left for a RB1 and WR1.
It's insanity to build that way.
Let’s not call Tariq bad. Ace Bait is bad on both ends and it’s unfortunate that loyalty is the reason why Pike is keeping him regardless of possible other adds at guard. In fact, nevermind the waste of money he is, minutes he will surely get may be a big part of the equation preventing someone better at the same position from coming here
Targeting a Euro center, according to Jerry Carino, Pike is in Europe recruiting. Another Badalau special coming
That’s not accurate. It’s what we all expected Tariq’s entire game to be but he doesn’t play that way at all. He actually had a good number of assists considering nobody could make shots and we have no interior scorers. His big picture numbers are pretty deceiving. He started out so many games playing a highly efficient game with smart shot selection. When the coverage would change to focus on him and our other guys still couldn’t make wide open looks he’d later start forcing some. But he’s a willing passer. The hope is that when there are other major scorers to account for, he won’t be in these situations as often and will be more efficient.
Huh! What’s not accurate?
Your pibk sky version of what you “ hope”? Sounds like your Pikes son. Hoping to save his job.
3 ball dominant players one ball and no offensive mind on staff.
Duarte made no sense early cycle. Nobody else was picking him up. Unless he’s basically free.
The narrative suggesting that Tariq is a me first player who thrives on forcing shots. Thats the underlying message in what you imply and to be fair, all of us, me included, interpretted that from his NJIT metrics. But he’s not that at all. In fact, if you go back and watch the second half of the season, he went out of his way to try to distribute until games slipped away from us. His efficiency numbers don’t really do his overall game justice. The bottom line is - he’s not the kind of player who doesn’t make the right basketball play pass. Not at all. He might score less points with us having more alternative scoring options but his efficiency numbers should not be impacted negatively and will hopefully improve.
He is forced to be a me first player because we don’t run an offense and NO one on the team can score or shoot! I was implying ISO top of the key is now the play we run for 3 ball dominant players and not just TF.
That’s why if we are successful he HAS to take a step back this year. You can point to games were he was trying to pass the ball but ultimately he was a scorer who shoots first.
I don’t know who he thinks we’re getting to run the point. You were correct in pointing out some concerns with the cadence at which Tariq runs the offense as the primary ball handler but the suggestion that he’s too short to make passes to put players in good position is ridiculous and misguided. TF averaged only one less assist than Dylan Harper did the year before in our offense playing off ball and 5 less mpg. It’s simply not true. Darren Smith is going to be a big help addressing Tariq’s on ball issues IMO. Smiths defense in combo with Tariq whose servicable at best definitely a concern though.
Why bother? I don’t understand this one at all. If this is all we can afford we should just role with Ware. Another Fall is a waste of money. 2 years at Florida and barely played in deep garbage time.
My bad, wrong player. According to the podcast we are after a Slovenian center. AI mishap. Sorry
Without knowing what RU actually spent on retention, I am not sure how you can make this point.
Well that’s a relief. I can’t imagine Pike going for someone who averaged less rebounds per game than Ware and scored only 14 garbage time points on the season. I don’t care whose bench he sat on.
I think his point
1) Unless Duarte was literally free, what was the rush with him?
2) If Pike got a good deal with retaining the backcourt, then fine. Run it back with an emphasis on year over year development knowing those are your starters and use your remaining funds to fill out the rest of your roster with starting / rotational caliber players at the 3-5.
I could be wrong, but I think he’s well past the point of debating whether we should’ve started over in the backcourt. His point is - we didn’t - so that has to mean we’re cool with sticking with what we had. You can’t keep all your starting guards on the roster go into the market, hoping you now land someone better to beat them out for PT. It’s ludicrous. We can’t afford the highest level studs and nobody wants to come in to compete for PT with starting incumbents. It’s an arse backwards strategy as he said.
All schools try to figure out who is staying first, you can’t plan the additions until you know what you need, but you set a max your willing to pay a particular player so it does not impact the amount you budgeted for potential starters out of the portal.
Nobody is free, but if we are paying him the equivalent to league minimum there is no damage getting on board early. Carino’s article mentioned when reached out to high centers up front but they were out of our price range. Teams have the ability to reach out to potential starters and reserve players in the portal at the same time. They can’t control who commits first.
I know. Of course that backup will play 16-20 minutes a night, so it needs to be serviceable.
couldn't be free else he would have waited hoping for a buyer. Pike must have paid to land him so early
They should be spending whatever they need to spend on the starters first is the point.
Good point…. That’s probably true. And we don’t even know if he’ll be eligible. Total head scratcher.
God, will it ever end. JMike is a Power 4 player - decent defender, good TO to assist ratio, 37& from three - might have even been the third best rebounder on the team. And he will still play at least 14 mpg. next year for a plus .500 Power 4 team. That would make him a Power 4 player. If he were playing down a level, he would have just have finished a 15+ ppg season , and we would be all over him. If we don't get a top notch PG for next year JMike will play as many minutes as Mark whose arse Pike kissed down the stretch in order to keep him.
Your primary handler is usually your point guard, and your point guard is usually your primary handler
That’s fine. But not every offense is dependent on a primary ball handler to be the guy to create for others. When your offensive weapons thrive on scoring off the dribble and creating for themselves rather than catch and shoot, that skill is less important. We need someone who can get the ball over the court without turning it over and as Sean said, preferable someone with better cadence than Tarik in bringing it up to get it going faster in the shot clock. We don’t need a super star 6 apg type court vision guy with the pieces we have (we’re not getting that anyway but it isn’t necessary to have a decent team). Better defense IS necessary.
Under normal circumstances, perhaps, but regardless of relative individual talents we will not be able to win by playing 3-4 tiny guards together at the same time outside of a few isolated opportunities on press.
The situation we’re in right now is that we have 11 scholarship players and 3 of them fall into the “flyer” category to make the core rotation - Duarte, Ware and Wooten (frosh). Let’s assume the centers on the roster only play the 5 (very likely) - including one not yet on the roster.
That means we currently have 7 potential rotational pieces for 4 spots. It’s not simply a matter of ranking all these guys and playing the best 4 the most because 3 of them are tiny, Powers is 6-4 but currently the weakest defender on the team and probably ranks last in terms of anticipated PT going into the season (though that could change). And Smith isn’t really a forward despite his length and also ranks in the bottom 5% of NCAA on D. Sydnor has potential but hasn’t played in 2 years, and Buchanan is simply not a 30 mpg guy on a good team. Adding another PG on this team, if the kid turns out to be good, only eats into J Mike, Lino and Tariq’s playing time - nobody else. We have massive holes right now on defense 3-5 that likely can’t be managed by rotations because the only servicable option on D is probably Buchanan and Sydnor playing together. If Smith is truly bottom 5% - that means he defends like PJ. The good new is he can handle the ball so he can slide to the 2. But again - that puts him in the guard rotation. We desperately need someone with length who can defend.
Whoa now. I figured it out. All these years and you’re not even discussing Rutgers.
Offensive weapons ? Thrive scoring off the dribble ?
What team are you talking about ?
I described Tariq Francis and the scouting report on the other players we added who play this style.
I’m hoping to have the best season possible, yeah, so if that happened I suppose you could argue that would result in Pike being retained. But my post had nothing to do with Pike and I’m doing the opposite of defending him.
You keep talking about “needing” a utopia land PG who delivers 7+ assists. Wake up and smell reality dude. Oregon retained nobody. There is no doubt they had more money available than we have to spend on a PG (without knowing anything else, this much can be taken as a given). They landed Boston College’s Fred Payne (listed 6-1) to run their point. Do you think adding a kid like this would help us? Tariq didn’t even play points, played 7 less mpg and still finished with more per game assists than him. A kid like that would not be a material upgrade in the backcourt over our current options. That is the type of kid we’d have a chance to land and realistically - not even - because why would a kid like that want to compete with our existing backcourt.
It makes no sense at all that this is our focus. We probably have enough money to get a good proven defensive player who doesn’t score that much. If almost as if Pike did a 180 and decided let’s only focus on kids who score and continue on the path of historically poor defense. We haven’t added enough yet to have much chance of materially upgrading the D. No matter how hard you try to argue otherwise, we’d upgraded the offense significantly but the problem is - it still won’t be as good as Dylan Harper’s team and the defense is trending to be worse.