This is a fair point. But the thing about guys who play defense but are limited at offense is that outside the ones who stand out at 7 foot, they exist at all levels low major through high major. Their ability to contribute can easily fall under the radar since it’s not always tangible contributions that show up in the stats. The bust potential is going to be there no matter what when your talking about filling out spots 13-15 on a roster. What I’m saying is it would be far better to add someone who in the very least will grade out in the top 10 in at least “something” and finding someone who projects to rank top 10 on D (helpful for scrimmaging if nothing else) can’t be too hard based on our starting point. It’s unlikely Martin is one of the best 10 players on the team at anything. That just isn’t helpful at all.
BB Recruiting Rutgers Basketball adds Slovenian wing Martin Tonejc
- Thread starter Richie O
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This is a fair point. But the thing about guys who play defense but are limited at offense is that outside the ones who stand out at 7 foot, they exist at all levels low major through high major. Their ability to contribute can easily fall under the radar since it’s not always tangible contributions that show up in the stats. The bust potential is going to be there no matter what when your talking about filling out spots 13-15 on a roster. What I’m saying is it would be far better to add someone who in the very least will grade out in the top 10 in at least “something” and finding someone who projects to rank top 10 on D (helpful for scrimmaging if nothing else) can’t be too hard based on our starting point. It’s unlikely Martin is one of the best 10 players on the team at anything. That just isn’t helpful at all.
Oh please. Smith is a 3 point specialist. He’s not better than him at it. Jones shoots an extremely high volume of 3s. He projects to be a Geo style player - the kind of guy you look for to hit 3s. Sydnor nailed 49 threes as a frosh at Manhattan. You think we’re bringing this guy in to spot him up over finding Tariq? Even J Mike hits 3 at a high percentage. But it’s worse than this. Powers was disappointing from an efficiency standpoint but his recruited skill is also sharp shooting. Same for Duarte. And Chris Wooten shot the snot out of the ball at the HS level. This pick up makes ZERO sense.
The thing is - we basically know a random flyer who couldn’t get off the bench in his Euro league is not going to out shoot our entire roster. But when you look at our defensive options 2-4 above, the story is different. Jones projects to be decent. Everyone else above who plays these positions outside of Buchanan - is either unknown or at best, slightly below average on D (Tariq) - some of them are awful (Smith, Powers). It’s definitely possible to find someone cheap who is 6-6-6-7 and proven to be better at defense than Tariq, Powers, Smith. The bar there isn’t that high. Martin might not be better than any of them.
Let me add - I hated the Duarte pick up as our first portal addition, but now that the roster is filled out, I like it a lot and really hope he’s eligible. He’s a flyer too, but one who at least has some old film available that shows he’s a hustle player and a decent ball handler. While a complete mystery now, he wasn’t a bench warmer on Overtime Elite and we at least know the level of that. And he was offered a scholarship to play for NMS. He’s the kind of addition that could add some things that were not getting from the other guys we picked up. Not a guarantee but there’s a reasonable chance at least.
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There is absolutely room in the rotation for a defensive forward to replace Nwuli’s 10-12 mpg. Did we not learn from Mag’s injury in 2022 when the team imploded?
Clearly other teams understand the value of defense - look which 2 guys landed on high major rosters (Dortch and Nwuli). Look which soft Euros still haven’t found a home. Legends may be right. Maybe we can’t find anyone from a high major team whose D we like but there are tons of options from low major teams of hustle players with size. We don’t seem to be interested in them. We keep searching for that same unicorn.
If we are going for a bench player a big athlete who can defend the 4 and rebound would be our biggest need. The only reason I would think we aren’t going after one is if even the low major players without an offensive game are prohibitively expensive.
That can’t be. I watched the game between GG and Simpson. Temple had a 6-9 kid whose in the portal who looked like he played defense. He had a career high that day but only averaged 8 min per game- uninspiring stats. And he’s a Euro if that’s what we want. Played in the France before Temple. Only mentioning this one because I happened to see him play. Name is Bryant. There have to be tons of them.
Also - for an underclass kid who plays D but
Lacks much offensive skill, RU would figure to be an ideal landing spot. Prove you can add the same hustle on a high major team that lacks D. Perhaps even make a few situational baskets. Could be the difference between 200k and 600k the following year. The opportunity to get off the bench is much lower on teams where the projected starters / major rotational guys are better defensive players.
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I’m not sure what they are planning to “teach” that would account for situations where both Buchanan and Sydnor are unavailable to play the 4 (if one of them is hurt, sick or in foul trouble is the other playing the entire game?) Are you taking the under of this happening at some point in at least 5 meaningful games?
Any 3 guard line up your going to come up with paired with a front court combo of Smith / Gurdak at the 4 will project to be brutal on defense. Having to go with that for even 5-10 minutes could easily be the difference between a tight game and allowing the opponent to blow a game open. We won’t be able to stop anyone with 3 guards and a 4 who ranked among the worst 5% of defensive players in D1 (this includes MEAC teams and such). You say Dortch is “terrible” but circumstantially he’d be a way better option to fill minutes at the 4 in the situation I described than anyone currently on the roster - even with zero offense.
This is a major hole with the current roster. A similar hole caused us to crash and burn in 2022 when Mag got hurt (a little different - that team dominated on D with Mag and was only servicable at best without him. But similarly, we had no depth at the 4). It’s much easier to get by for 5-10 minutes with one weak offensive player on the court than it is an undersized defensive unit that can’t stop anyone.
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We will see who Pikiel gets with his last open spot. The 4 really does seem like a weak spot. As for taking a European long shot, the only thing that kinda makes sense is that Pikiel is trying to build ties to Europe so that he can recruit there. There are a lot of talented European players who could make more playing for a college than playing professionally in Europe.
Smith shot 277 2s and 141 3s. I think his deficient athleticism and track record against HM comp suggest that ratio will be about even this year, but I’d hardly call him a 3-point specialist.
Come on. Did you consider Cam Spencer a stud 3 point shooter??? Cam Spencer came to RU 107 of 276 from 3 at Loyola (he got hurt in the second season so only a couple games). That’s 38.8%.
Over two season at CC, Smith was 93 of 229 which is 40.6% over two seasons. He’s a very good shooter. Full stop. 3 pointers aren’t the only thing he does on offense but my point is no “specialist” is going to be a better choice than Smith to come in and nail one.
For all intents and purposes Nwuli was a non-factor last season and nothing to replace.
As someone stated earlier 19yr from Slovenia at most can become a standstill specialist for a few mins per game.
GO RU
No - he can’t. Or at least, he is not needed for this role. Doesn’t have added value over many other options who could take the same shot he’d be checking in to take. Nwuli was only a “non-factor” because we weren’t close to a team that was going anywhere. He wasn’t an impact player, but he gave us plenty of meaningful spot minutes where using him put us in a clear better position than our other available choices at that time (whether it be because Grant was out with the flu or whatever it was). A first year player in our system playing in the NCAAs for the first time who doesn’t play defense cannot help us at all - ever. This isn’t a 4 year system kid like Oskar we’re talking about. He serves no purpose at all. There’s no reason to think he’s going to be a better shooter than any other projected bench player Wooten, Duarte, Powers, etc.
Nwuli was very athletic and had the potential to contribute and become part of the rotation as he gained experience. Fortunately for all the Pikiel haters, Nwuli will gain experience with Seton Hall and will likely play better as a sophomore.
Don’t disagree with any of the above. RU wanted him to comeback but I guess at a different price/role. Lots of potential but did not play significant mins and not part of the main rotation in first year.
Would have liked to see him come back but players move around now like teenagers watch TikTok videos.
GO RU
Egad. Not encouraging. Almost like going to a playground, finding a tall kid, and saying "Hi, I'm Steve. I think you have what it takes to be a Big 10 practice player."
The 9 rebounds per in the junior division was the best thing by far about his profile - but that was only in a random, lower level 3 game tournament (who even knows how accurate the non-scoring stat keeping is in those). He barely played in the division that more parallels college level competition. To those saying he was brought in to be a sniper off the bench - my question is - based on what - there’s barely any data - and why? It’s ridiculous to think we’ve found in him a materially better 3 point shooter than all of Smith, Jones, Sydnor, Tariq, and J Mike - even Buchanan isn’t awful from 3. Powers was a great shooter in HS and could be more efficient this year. Wooten shot the snot out of the ball his senior year too. Outside of the big men, Martin won’t project to be a better shooter (his specialty) than more than maybe one or two guys on the roster outside of the 5s. It really makes no sense at all.
We hope Lino improves but even still he’s a year away .
You’re over looking Pike and his Favorites! Pike will play JMike way too much . ( Pike unwillingness to move Paul off the ball cost us the tournament, not Mags injury)
Jones and Smith are Pgs like Tariq was ! Until they clearly were not !
We also played way too many ppl last year, so no need to constantly matchup minutes and players to last year. Pointless excercise. We sucked and played WAY TOO many guys.
Shorten the bench and play the transfers .
TF run the second unit
Down the stretch play the best 5
If Lino Mark plays like he did the last 12 games of last season then he is not a year away unless you think he is going to be an all Big Ten player, which even if he does get that good probably won’t happen next year. However, if he goes back to how he played at the beginning of the year we have a problem.
JMike will likely play at the end of games and in pressure situations because he has earned Pikiel’s trust. In Big ten play JMike had 49 assists and only 12 turnovers so I think he has earned it. Lino is flashier than JMike and has a higher upside while JMike is steadier. Should be a good platoon at point guard, but you never know until they play the games.
Francis along with being the team’s leading scorer also has a good assist to turnover ratio in Big Ten play with 62 assists and only 18 turnovers. Don’t see him coming off the bench this year.
This what I fear most. Making decision based on comfort and Steve's throat tightening up when the game is on the line. He might indeed hand JMike the ball in late game situations and it will be a huge mistake. We are not good enough to call off the attack until the cheerleaders are showered and gone home.
IF Lino plays like the last 12 than sure but let’s agree there will be young mistakes made.
JMike creates nothing for anyone on offense. He avg lerages less than 2 assists in starter minutes. Two small and not a great defender . Great program guy and hope he coaches here some day but he is not and never been ready to play at this level.
We can agree on paper with help from our GM we have gotten a lot better than last years team? If TF came off the bench for most of last year with zero talent on the team it would also make sense with the talent level raised he continue to do so. His ability to score in iso will be best served off the bench with less ppl demanding the ball.
Nobody said Smith, Jones or Tariq are true PGs. I said these 2 transfers, definitively, without any question, are much better ball handlers than everyone taller than 6-2 from last year’s roster.
Not every decent team has to have one guy as a designated PG. WVU went to the Final Four and earned a 6 seed the year prior to that playing mostly without a PG following Joe Mazulla’s injury. I’m not trying to say our guys are going to be anywhere near as good as Ebanks and Butler were - but the point is, when you have better overall ball handling in the unit on the court as a whole it makes a big difference. When we didn’t play 2 small guards our ball handling last year 2-5 was horrible.