Did this team "underachieve"?

[MaxRU]

I predicted 8-12 last year and 12-8 this year, so they slightly underachieved for me this year and slightly overachieved last year...

Agree. Had no expectations last year and they overachieved. They were Cinderella. This year my expectations were high. And so were others. Preseason top 25. BIG commentators talking us up. RHJ All America etc. etc.

I'm hoping that they return to that earlier form. Will be rooting hard and will be disappointed if we don't make a run. This team has it in them.

 

[billgumpper]

Yes, we should have beaten Ohio St up 20, and the losses to Ped St, Neb, and a Mich St team that at the time was completely lost. We should have been 14-8 in conference.

 

[RUJMM78]

With the totality of the season including injuries and woeful shooting I think the team overachieved to win 10 B1G games.They had only two wins against league rivals with a higher ranking ,ie, Illinois and Purdue.The six wins against Northwestern,Minnesota and Indiana were unexpected but critical to the final win total.

 

[REDRICH65]

Good thing Silicon Valley doesn’t control this site. Cancel Culture would remove 1/2 of posters. Freedom of thought and speech dudes. Enjoy it.

 

[gigantor1024]

considering there were no fans, I would say no. We won how many games on the road this year? Again no fans but that alone is improvement.

get off your high horse or smoke a joint get on everyone else’s level

 

[kapyoche]

This team did underachieve based on how they did last year.
This year's team is not as good as last year's team.
This team scares no one.
Everyone wants to play Rutgers.
That was not the case with last year's team.
We will see. I hope they prove me wrong.

 

[AdamsGarden]

Coming out of halftime at the first Ohio State game, I thought this team was a sweet 16 team or better. Given where we ended up this team underachieved by two wins. Iowa and Wisconsin wins at home lead to a 5/6 seed and a top 25 finish. This is where Pikiell's team should be right now. The key factors in not getting there were below average 3 point shooting from RJH, Jr and others and MJ's foul troubles. W/o those both happen.

For what it's worth, Ohio State is a Sweet 16 team. So, you were kinda right, just wrong team.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

We did under achieve as far as the B1G conference record, but some of these losses during the B1G season don't happen if 1) we had more of an OoC schedule to better figure out the roster and 2) Cliff missing 5 games was pretty significant (OSU-OSU 1-4, ,1st game back Wisc- limited 0-1), threw our rotations and chemistry off quite a bit compared to no injuries in 2019-20(11-9). I think we finish at least 12-8,13-7 with no Cliff injury.

 

[King of S]

Go 2-1 in the post season = success. Go 0-2 then no success.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I think the OP is raising a fair point. It doesn't mean he's not happy with the team making the NCAA tournament. It's fair -- on a messageboard where the whole point is to have discussion -- to wonder if the team did better, worse, or about as expected from preseason "expectations."

For me, I think we slightly underachieved based on what I personally thought would happen this year. I thought that incremental improvements from everyone, plus substantially increased contributions from McConnell (who I thought, with Palmquist and Mag) would man the WF spot, would offset the loss of Yeboah. That didn't pan out.

As well, I thought that the team would continue to be strong in defense and rebounding, but both really faltered for numerous games this year, especially during the losing streak.

Further, I thought that we would improve incrementally from 3-pt range. We didn't. Last year, we averaged 31.3% from 3-pt range, and this year we averaged 31.6%, and that's after starting out the year at around 40% in the first several games, so we were AWFUL from 3-pt range in the last 15 or so games (making it SEEM even worse even though it ended up .3 percentage points higher than last year).

Last year, we competed and were "in" every single game, and our worst losses were by 11 or 12 points (neutral site vs. St. Bonnies, at MSU). This year, we got blown off the floor twice (at MSU, at Nebraska on the road, just inexcusable), and in several other games, we were non-competitive and got down by 15-20 points in the second half and shrunk those leads very late to make them "look" better (at PSU, at Iowa, at Michigan, home to Maryland).

We were 11-9 in league last year, and slipped to 10-10 this year. Yes, only a one-game difference, but I thought we had a realistic chance of improving to 13-7 or 12-8, so 10-10 (with several bad losses as indicated above) is below my expectations.

Am I THRILLED that we finally will be in the NCAA tournament (for real) this year? Absolutely. But if I'm being honest, I think the team slightly underachieved from my own objective preseason expectations.

 

[Doctor Worm]

We won't have a player on first or second team All B1G, and probably not third team either. With that in mind, the team may have overachieved, but certain individual players may have underachieved.

 

[zebnatto]

We achieved, as long as we get our name called on Selection Sunday.

 

[srru86]

Zach Braziller in NY Post
scroll down for Scarlet fever

 

[LotusAggressor_rivals]

This team didn't underachieve this season. They achieved.

 

[Knight Owl]

So the OP thinks beating Indiana twice (a team that has beaten Illinois twice), plus beating Michigan St and winning at Maryland for the first times ever is underachieving...and...not to mention beating a potential one seed in the NCAA’s- Illinois, and top 25 team-Purdue.
That said, based on the season as a whole, I think Sweet 16 is pretty much the ceiling for RU barring some well-placed upsets in the first two rounds. Of course RHJr might find his stroke again and not miss another 3 the rest of the way...

 

[RUsojo]

Yes