Coverage by the Associated Press. Depth cost us the game. The article allows an email response to them. Feel free to vent.
Associated Press article - Depth cost us the Ohio State game
- Thread starter Mr_Twister
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Not sure how many teams have enough depth to survive 3 injuries and a main player fouling out.
And with the way the whistle was being blown, he had to play walking on eggshells.
Our depth issues were caused primarily by biased officiating.
With four freshmen coming in, three of them will probably be with us all four years, Cliff being the sole exception since he's expected to leave early. If we had five frosh on scholly and four of them leaving at the same time, it could create a roster problem down the road. By holding onto this one, next year we have an additional one to give, and with Jaden Jones coming in and greater success this year that schollie can be used for another higher-caliber player who won't be exiting with this year's class.
That's my best guest regarding strategy, though as my ex-wife told me, "anytime I speak I might be wrong."
Both teams at full strength. Rutgers is undoubtedly better than OSU. We’ll be back. It’s December. Not March.
What is the time frame of Cliff’s injury?..this is why next year is the year for final four potential - if we get another high level 4/5...we really missed Eugene last game. Carino was right, if EO was here we would be a top 10 team..of course we could have cracked into top 10 last night if game not stolen. Depth is the issue however for staying up there..Geo not being at top form, and then JY getting hurt also cost us last night..,Ron didn't”t get as many open looks to trade 3s for OSU’s now uncontested 2s..
Their starting center. First foul with 5 minutes left in the game. That’s more shocking.
We have 3 centers. Depth isn’t an issue at the position that cost us the game. Merry Xmas.
The 2 benches played about the same # of minutes. They used 7 guys while we only used 3. Depth was definitely a factor ONCE things started to fall apart (due to the officiating and thuggery).
people forget that the three centers mentioned refers to center and big forwards - the 5 AND the 4 spot..Ron is really more of a 3 than a 4. So three players, with one injured and one with extremely limited playing time is definitely a lack of depth of Bigs..we lost Eugene, but nothing we can do about that. Hopefully Cliff comes back soon. Next year, we must get an experienced, talented 4/5 transfer, or establishing residency in the top 10 and an April '22 appearance in New Orleans will be very difficult ..
Your comment is spot on.Rutgers really doesn't have a prototype power forward that can score and defend against B1G competition.Harper really is a small forward .A juco transfer for next season should be a recruiting priority.
This is dumb. We have Caleb out with injury, young was injured, Cliff was injured. That is 3 of out top 8 guys. Then had our two big guys get questionable foul callls. What team would be able to perform at a superior level under the same circumstances?
Depth wasn’t an issue until the officials decided the game would be played their way.
I think injuries were the primary cause, the officiating enhanced the issue.
I think it is fair to say that when injuries pile up, depth then becomes an issue.
It is not fair to say we did have enough depth when our problems were at one position,
enough to cripple just about any team
The center position consists of Cliff, Johnson, then Duke....... we were crippled at that position with the first two out and Duke with four fouls early also
I guess we were supposed to roll out a fourth center and have him fare well against a top 25 team, at their place, with a set of refs calling everything against us
enough to cripple just about any team
The center position consists of Cliff, Johnson, then Duke....... we were crippled at that position with the first two out and Duke with four fouls early also
I guess we were supposed to roll out a fourth center and have him fare well against a top 25 team, at their place, with a set of refs calling everything against us
Depth is a fair argument in most cases...... Young out, Cliff out, Caleb out, Johnson then out, Duke saddled with four fouls, I don't think the argument is valid
You could argue that the ten through thirteen players did not provide depth, but, against a top 25 team it is a lot to ask from that end of the bench
I thought we were doing pretty well with Harper as the 4. The days of the prototype pf alongside a prototype center are behind us.
It wasn't until Cliff was hurt and Johnson was fouled out in 15 minutes that our lack of big men became an issue.
Now, I don't know if Pike thought he would be able to get some quality minutes out of Reiber this year, but looking at the roster I think he is the guy who most fits the role of the modern pf. I would have liked to have seen more of him, both vs OSU but overall as well, but I'm also not fooling myself to think he would have had too much of an impact vs OSU.
I dunno, in my lifetime of watching and listening to games, I think announcers have often made a statement along the lines of "depth will be an issue tonight" when guys are out. That was the situation we were in with Cliff out.
That situation was then made worse when Myles was in foul trouble after 10 minutes of playing time, and out of the game after 15(not to mention Young's injury as well).
So I don't think it's fair to say that overall we have depth issues. But I do think it is fair to say depth was an issue vs OSU.
I think Young's injury had at least as much of an impact as the 5 spot. The team seemed a little lost when he went out since he's so valuable on both offense and defense. Regarding depth, I'm concerned that Coach doesn't have enough confidence in Oskar to make him part of the rotation. I think we all thought he'd be getting more minutes at this point.
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Oskar and Reiber. Need to find them minutes, even if they are not quite ready yet. Big picture moves .
And I thought Oskar played fairly well in the earlier games, he was just not making his shots. Granted in the long run he does need to make his shots, but any player can go on a short term cold streak. His overall game I was liking though.
Sure,
If you have to go to the ninth and tenth players on your team, most teams then have a depth issue
It is a peculiar situation to have two centers
Foul out, or nearly foul out, coupled that a third center that usually starts being
injured
Put any team in that situation, have them play a top 25 team, it becomes tough to win
When we had a 10 point lead at the end of the first half, I was shocked that Pike left Johnson in. He could have gone with a small ball lineup or used Reiber/Palmquist just to give them some game time and avoid a bad foul situation. The refs sucked but Pike deserves some criticism for this, IMO.
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