I know in the world of NIL, tournaments like the Players Era become more attractive to schools looking for a quick payday. However, in the case of Rutgers, I believe that entering those tournaments just to get beat and lose any momentum in the season is not advantageous moving forward. Just a few years ago we were able to get 18-20 wins consistently year in and year out. Moving forward, Pike needs to consider the value of finding more of a balance in NIL exposure and playing winnable games. I see the value in playing high quality opponents but until we are equipped to play "primetime" we should focus on regaining our place in the NCAA tournament picture. There is no reason why we can't be in a similar position as Iowa or Ohio State. Curious to hear more thoughts on this.
How to gain wins moving forward
- Thread starter RUFan99
- Start date
Agreed. There needs to be a middle ground between Central Connecticut and Alabama, Houston, etc. Plenty of comparable programs in the Mid Atlantic region we can schedule early in the season.
instead of the constant parade of low majors at the RAC, wouldn't mind seeing one or two of our old Atlantic Ten foes. It would still be a game they should win, with a slight step up in competition. I understand you can't play five P5 out of conference games at home, but the Riders and Maines and Delaware States are getting tiresome
The problem is Pike takes so much of the early season to “figure things out”, longer than most coaches, and were ripe to be beat by any non cupcake.
Yes, need to hit the ground running. I like the idea of playing good competition early, but maybe as a scrimmage like St Johns in the past.
Non cupcake?
Nearly every year we lose to a cupcake.
Let’s actually beat all the cupcake for a year or two the worry about “resume” or better OOC teams.
Central Connecticut State
Kenner’s State
UMass
Princeton
Temple
Lafayette
DePaul
St. Bonaventure
remember how some were lauding the team this year because they performed well vs Towson in a scrimmage lol
and you can another one to that list next year...book it and his stans will excuse it as wait until February thats when Pike does his best work
Pikiel is using the cupcakes to develop players. Hopefully, he has enough $$$ so he can keep more players and get more experienced players in the portal so that we have a better chance to beat the more experienced teams. It would be foolish to avoid tournaments that pay players. We are lucky we got in the ones we did.
I rather keep playing the best teams we can!! Our OOC schedule is awful every year at home so stop ducking games and instead play the best and learn how to beat the best...home or a new coach
Other teams develop players against cupcakes but don’t lose to them
I am worn out hearing about Rutgers basketball. The one constant, Pike, has gotten a pass. He has won nothing!
Believe it or not, other teams lose to cupcakes too. When a team has a 90% chance of winning that means that they have a 10% chance of losing. Even playing against cupcakes most teams don’t have a better than 90% chance of winning. Simple probability would tell us that if any team including Rutgers plays seven cupcakes that it has a 90% chance of winning, the odds are better than 50% that it will lose one.
Of course. But it happens to Rutgers more often than the other power conference teams that are decent
Going back to my original post, the main contention is not over beating cupcakes but rather scheduling more teams that are the caliber of Rutgers especially early in the season given our history of slow starts. I am all for playing challenging teams but let’s do that later in the season. Villanova, Syracuse, Temple, Georgetown are good places to start.
No, I don’t remember that. I remember most of this board thinking the team would be in the 13-15 win range before the season started. Maybe a small % of people thought the team was better or significantly worse.
There was definitely scrimmage talk as if anything can be taken from those scrimmages
This is not logical. With each win over a cupcake the odds stay set at 90% chance of beating the next cupcake. If we beat 10 cupcakes in a row the odds of the next cupcake beating us do not improve. It's like flipping a coin. If it's heads 5 times in a row, the odds are still 50/50 that the next flip will be heads. The odds of it being tails do not improve. I might suggest a course in probability.
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Some think we should run it back with mostly the same roster because by getting older they will “develop” and we will just win 3-4 more games based on that
if only it was as simple as that …
if only it was as simple as that …
And they are counting on the fact that Oregon and Maryland will not be improved and the rest of conference will not simply reload their talent supply
Be careful bac if you don’t ooooze hopeless optimism on here you’re a bad fan
I was pointing out that the odds of playing 7 cupcakes that you have a 90% chance of beating and not losing a single one of the seven games is less than 50%. I wasn’t talking about the odds of winning a specific game. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and hope you don’t think that the odds of getting heads five times in a row is 50%, FYI it’s a little over 3%.
My basketball point is if you play a lot of cupcakes, which Rutgers does, odds are that you are going to lose to one of them. I’m not saying which one.
No one thinks our current front court is good enough to be in the top half of the conference - and there’s no one who even looks like they’ll get there.
You can still keep most of the roster and still address the needs. Aside from Badalau and Fall who seem unlikely to ever make an impact, I don’t have an issue with returning 7-8 guys with 8-7 scholarships still available (as if they matter anymore). We never saw Ware or Jone, but no issue returning Ware, Powers, Jones, Mark, JMike, Zrno, Dortch, Grant (at the right price for a backup 4), DBJ, Riq - and E if he wants to (but it seems like he’s decided to move on with life). If E returns, Dortch is probably the guy who leaves for money and playing time.
None of that changes the need to spend big money on a B1G starter caliber 4 and 5 - and the defensive 3 PSAL is clamoring for. Even if 11 guys above return, that’s still one more spot.
Blowing it up and starting over with 80% new guys is not a winning formula. You still need depth, and you need guys who won’t be total liabilities (like Fall) when they’re needed for 8-10 mins a game. And it’s not like we’ve got the resources (or cachet) to pay 7 figures for guys who aren’t going to get much time - that might fly at the blue bloods where you’re sitting behind NBA talent, but not at Rutgers.
I could maybe buy that if this was 2018-2019 and growing a roster over 4 years was the norm
not to mention pikes seat is red hot and as bac mentioned 2 teams below you in standings are HIGHLY likely to spend their way out of the basement and have better coaches than pike in Altman and buzz Williams
bigger issue as mentioned is what is reasonable growth bringing back this roster? 3 more wins doesn’t save his job
Doesn't your 90% number refer to each individual game against a cupcake? I've never seen a percentage number for how many cupcakes any team will beat on their schedule. I've never even seen the definition of a cupcake. I'm just saying that if you play 7 cupcakes in a row and you beat the first 6 you still have a 90% chance of beating the seventh.
We can only control what we do. We have a budget to work with and some big holes to fill. You’re unlikely to fully upgrade the roster with anything other than like for like players who won’t have the advantage of being in Pikes system another year.