Imagine when someone from Burma finally wins an NBA championship. Then I will get really excited . . .
Basketball Ron & Dylan Harper / Ace Bailey - NBA Thread
- Thread starter Tango Two
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By who though? A bunch of random people on Twitter and Reddit? Any legit reporters without a Rutgers/Jersey connection? We're also talking about how his run has started up the discussion again not what was happening in the beginning of the year. No doubt it was a colossal bag drop (and probably the most disappointing season of any team I'm a fan of) that probably doesn't happen with the NIL money they have this year but, so far, it's not a national story.
Does anyone not think last year was a tough year? I said it was the most disappointing season of any team I'm a fan off. And for Harper it wasn't just the losing. It was also the ankle injury and flu that made him drop 10 pounds.
Think there’s a lot of over thinking here
having OKC get to the finals over the Spurs is “better” for Rutgers
come on
to 99.999999999999999999% of the public it makes not a bit of difference
the only people who care are overly-invested-in-certain-aspects-of-sports middle-aged men. Nobody else cares.
and the only ones who matter are the super talented teenagers that we want to play for RU
you think they give a f$$k what some guy named Kratch(?) says?
they care about the $$$$ (which this has no effect either way) and they care if they can get to the NBA (and having Ace and Dylan succeed off the bat…. Well that can ONLY possibly help).
Your worry about this will fade once you realize that the only people who bring up such topics (1) have waaaay too much time on their hands and/or (2) have an anti-ru ad to grind; and no one else knows or cares about it.
waaaaaaay overthinking this
having OKC get to the finals over the Spurs is “better” for Rutgers
come on
to 99.999999999999999999% of the public it makes not a bit of difference
the only people who care are overly-invested-in-certain-aspects-of-sports middle-aged men. Nobody else cares.
and the only ones who matter are the super talented teenagers that we want to play for RU
you think they give a f$$k what some guy named Kratch(?) says?
they care about the $$$$ (which this has no effect either way) and they care if they can get to the NBA (and having Ace and Dylan succeed off the bat…. Well that can ONLY possibly help).
Your worry about this will fade once you realize that the only people who bring up such topics (1) have waaaay too much time on their hands and/or (2) have an anti-ru ad to grind; and no one else knows or cares about it.
waaaaaaay overthinking this
We have some strange fans that need to back off the ledge.
The perception that everyone is constantly talking about Rutgers negatively with Dylan and Ace is unique to this board because every post from every no name on social media is posted here
Are you saying you don’t think it will come up in discussion by game commentators during championship series that Dylan’s team at Rutgers somehow didn’t make it to the NCAAs? If so, I sure hope your right, but I’ll be very surprised.
It could come up, but does it really have any long term effect on our program? I highly doubt it. It's more about folks around here feeling embarrassed. Which I get. But once this season is over, it will rarely be spoken of again.
Nobody is allowed to mention the long bout with the flu and the ankle injury. Remember- the narrative is Rutgers is a laughing stock because they had two top 5 NBA draft picks and did not make the tourney. It is such a lazy and lame narrative when you consider that both Harper and Bailey were out for stretches of time and the rest of the players on that team were sub par because the AD was dead set against NIL, leaving Pikiell with no NIL budget to work with.
There is a segment of Rutgers fans that are a strange lot-they seem to revel wallowing in misery and celebrate every negative comment on antisocial media.
I don’t follow much NBA. But on more than one of the rare occasions when I happened to see one of them was playing and watched for a few minutes, the game commentator brought it up. Just a passing comment about how disappointing their college season was and how amazing it was that Rutgers didn’t even make the NCAA tournament considering what they had accomplished so quickly in the NBA. Those guys shoot the breeze about a lot of things, yes. But if I’ve heard this being discussed during more than one game broadcast this season (and I definitely have) - it’s not just some random guys with like 50 followers Tweeting out. I do watch the playoffs more than the regular season and had actually been thinking that I hadn’t heard banter about it recently. I agree with Kratch though I certainly hope what he predicted will be wrong. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it’s not brought up.
Yeah it’s annoying. I hate hearing it every time it comes up. I do believe that narrative crippled us last year in the portal. Not having money certainly didn’t help either.
But hey - in the long run, we created lifetime memories for those Kennesaw players who can one day tell their grandkids they beat Dylan Harper. Nevermind his 21 points on 10 of 18 shooting or the 9 assists. They still won because basketball is a team game and you can’t win with 2 great players and a collection of busts.
In the long run, showing we can win again with Pike is all that matters. Prove everyone wrong and get back to that tournament. Restore the brand Pike worked hard to build. And if he can’t do that, move on.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Dylan’s instant NBA stardom didn’t reflect well on the Rutgers coaching program, and the extension of that on display at the Garden right now is the furthest thing from a positive boost to the RU brand (again, maybe in a few years this changes but right now the association is not good. Down the road when he’s not a rookie and it’s just the university tied to his name when he’s announced in the line up, maybe then it’ll be different). But right now this crap is still one of the first things brought up. We’re still in the market for a few 2026-27 recruits!
To be clear, it’s not Dylan’s fault 2024-25 was a bust, and he’s a good kid. I wish him only the best personally and hope he has a great long term NBA career.
Will it be mentioned ? Yeah probably
but then you are making the assumption that it will have an effect on the recruiting decisions of 18 year olds
I can think of numerous reasons why it likely wouldn’t - but not going to bother - because I think we’ve already too much time talking about it
Money is the biggest tool for recruiting - program perception only has tie breaker type impact. Your right, it’s not a major blow to us like say the news of the Hobbs scandal for instance. Of course not.
To be clear, I’m simply tired of hearing it brought up, certainly don’t think it’s good pfor the program when it’s mentioned, and since my kids are big Knicks fans and so the games will be on, I’d personally have preferred for the Spurs not to have been in the game so I wouldn’t have to hear about it again.
Dylan’s participation in the finals is in no conceivable way, right now, a clear positive endorsement of RU’s program. It’s neutral at absolute best right now and any framing of otherwise is pure homerism IMO. Again - I wish only the best for Dylan and Ace personally. It’s nothing against either of them that I’d sooner just forget what happened that season.
Except it's almost always followed up with somehow Rutgers had a losing record with Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. To get that in is almost the only reason RU comes up. That stops next year when Dylan is in his second year and they rarely mention college.
There have been at least 5 other teams with 2 first-round draft picks that did not make the NCAA Tournament. For those of you who have followed the NBA since 2012 (I have not), do you recall a negative national outcry about any of theses schools?
- Michigan (2022–23): The Wolverines missed the Big Dance with a 19-15 overall record but still produced two first-round picks in the same year: Jett Howard (No. 11 overall) and Kobe Bufkin (No. 15 overall).
- Washington (2016–17): Despite a 9-22 record, the Huskies featured two first-round selections: Markelle Fultz (No. 1 overall) and Marquese Chriss (No. 8 overall).
- LSU (2015–16): The Tigers finished 19-14 and missed the tournament but rostered two first-rounders: Ben Simmons (No. 1 overall) and Tim Quarterman.
- Vanderbilt (2018–19): Despite going winless in SEC play, the Commodores produced two lottery picks who ultimately went in the first round: Darius Garland (No. 5 overall) and Nassir Little (No. 25 overall).
- Maryland (2012–13): The Terrapins missed the NCAA Tournament with a 25-13 record but had two first-round selections: Alex Len (No. 5 overall) and Dez Wells.
Only tangentially-related, but Filipino hoops fans from the Philippines are a very, um, passionate fan base. Years ago I worked with a guy who eventually got into coaching - he was coaching the Magic's summer league team a few years ago (coaches their G League team now) and the team had a Filipino guy on it. He didn't get much playing time and here's how that went.
Back to the main thrust of this thread - I definitely had my struggles watching Dylan thrive (and to a lesser extent Ace, who put together some really nice games later on in the season even as the Jazz went full tank) after our disaster of a year with them. Not surprisingly this is also a recurring theme in the RU group chat I have with some friends.
At this point, Dylan is so absurdly good so soon that I'm getting better at letting go and just enjoying the ride. Sure, every so often someone will tweet incredulously about us missing the tourney with those guys, but that's going to fade with time. In the long run I think it'll be more good than bad to have Dylan and Ace associated with RU.
Did you use AI for that because at least some of the data is wrong. For example, Nassir Little never played for Vandy. And Garland only played in 5 games for them before season ending injury. Fultz and Chriss didn’t play together for Washington - different back to back years. Don’t think Wells or Quarterman were drafted, and so on.
Sean hit the nail on the head though regardless. This has been blown up over and over by the media as a story line because Dylan and Ace are a pair of NBA rookie top 5 lottery picks who immediately panned out - both averaged double digit points in their first seasons in the NBA despite not only failing to lead RU to the NCAAs but not even having a 500 collegiate record at RU. I’m pretty sure the past comparatives have been done by the talking heads and RUs epic failure was a first in history. The point is - most of us are tired of hearing about it. As Sean said - the story line goes away when they are no longer only a year removed from college. Thank goodness.
Ben Simmons thing does come up frequently.
But more so as a shot at BS and not LSU.
"Even in college BS wasn't a winning player and missed the tournament."
The rest of those are poor examples as none of those players were nearly as good immediately in the NBA as Dylan or even Ace.
Let alone the combination of players.
Agreed. And as noted above, people who know college ball know that Rutgers had no money for a supporting cast (and did not even have an AD).
Agreed. It’s a throwaway line that doesn’t get into the nuance of what actually happened: the injuries, the lack of money for supporting cast, Hobbs firing, the fact that college bball was very old and the Big Ten is a conference for men, etc.
But it is cool to see our guys succeed and to see Pike being interviewed about them and the success they’re having. Absolutely love Ace, but Dylan is Rutgers.
It may not be on the minds of 18 year olds, but it will be on the minds of AAU coaches who are working with kids on the NBA radar, and they will not be encouraging their kids to go to Rutgers.
They never were, it's why it was noted heavily that Dylan and Ace would be a one-time thing for the program.
I love RU, but if I had a very talented son or daughter, I'd probably advise them to look elsewhere until the RU administration and the fan base show a desire to win. It was criminal what happened last year with our men basketball team.
I think it had an impact last year seeing that the only 2 Americans we could convince to come here were related to Brandin Knight and connected to the program previously. A year has passed and we’re in a much better place with this (time tends to help these things. Winning helps more.)
All this said, there’s nothing positive for Rutgers in Dylan being good enough off the bat to lead the Spurs to the Championship and returning full circle to the Tri state area to play half the games no less. Like it or not, it’s a story line that we can only hope most folks won’t pay attention to - which would make it net neutral at best.
Sports media is not known for nuance. Or perspective. Or intelligence.