I’ve been critical of this team all season, but credit where credit is due, Francis can score against any team in the league.
Francis is a baller
- Thread starter rpiseman
- Start date
People who said he could not play. Great effort.
I’m ready to eat crow too
his inefficiency at NJIT probably a product of being on a truly awful team
he is at least getting enough help to create shots here
easily best portal find not named cam Spencer
his inefficiency at NJIT probably a product of being on a truly awful team
he is at least getting enough help to create shots here
easily best portal find not named cam Spencer
remember when people said he was just a nepotism hire?
He is cool as a cucumber.
Pretty fun to watch if he’s not forcing it.
Pretty fun to watch if he’s not forcing it.
Ill eat crow on Francis. He proved he was a gamer today. Incredible performance
he's got balls, love it, had no issue with that last three
The pseudo expects prove themselves wrong again. Add the anti Buchanan guys to the list.
Doesn't lack confidence either. Which is crucial
I’m pretty sure I joined that group. Sorry Tariq my bad, I’ll say 10 Hail Mary’s and 5 Our Father’s as my penance.
He came in with two years of really inefficient basketball, so I think the skepticism was fair, but he's been awesome and by far the team's best scorer. I'm curious if this is sort of a Jeremiah Williams-esque spurt and he'll revert back to his inefficient baseline, but if not, I think he's got another year of eligibility.
Pure hooper. Gets buckets. He's the same player when he got here. Everyone has finally just come around, including him.
He's should start and play 40. Him not starting and sitting after a timeout late is asinine.
He's our Jamal Crawford, just shorter.
He's should start and play 40. Him not starting and sitting after a timeout late is asinine.
He's our Jamal Crawford, just shorter.
Glad to see the acknowledgments. The kid deserves it. I can’t imagine what this team would be like without him.
He is a certified bucket. In the realms of Corey Sanders and Geo Baker, he has the ability to lift the team on his own and go on these little spurts where he simply cannot miss and has sick moves.
His stat line is just sick.
scarletknights.com
Men's Basketball vs Oregon on 01/05/26 - Box Score - Rutgers University Athletics
Rutgers University Athletics
Bucket getter.
@goru7 where are you? Come out and take your medicine. You had Tariq not even playing in the Penn game.
Kid has nuts and plays within himself but most importantly can put ball in hoop when offense goes into the desert.
Great get by the staff.
GO RU
@goru7 where are you? Come out and take your medicine. You had Tariq not even playing in the Penn game.
Kid has nuts and plays within himself but most importantly can put ball in hoop when offense goes into the desert.
Great get by the staff.
GO RU
Love the kid. He's our best scorer and very confident in his shot. Wish he were 3-4 inches taller but nothing we can do lol.
Played his tail off tonight.
Played his tail off tonight.
I was also skeptical of his pickup. As I was of Buchanan. Listen, we are still at the bottom of the league, and we beat Oregon, another bottom feeder this year. Nonetheless, Francis better than anyone predicted.
I honestly expected him to play this way I just didn't expect him to be the best player on the team. I really thought zrno and badalou were going to be special, maybe the coaches did as well. But I guess if they were as good as I expected they would be on the lakers lol. Francis is going to go off several times this season because no one else can score. Dylan Grant is the 2nd best scorer and he can barely dribble the basketball. Powers starting to get comfortable maybe in a month or 2 he can be another scoring option..he looks like a baller as well...mark a good defensive guard with speed. A few bright spots that can make watching Rutgers games fun..
Yeah - it’s a limitation on this roster but oddly it could present a glimmer of hope for offseason planning if Pike somehow survives the off season. A long way to go to see if that happens, but Francis is Pike’s most likely life vest if there is one…. On a high level, this season is a lost cause, but things get a bit more interesting imagining Francis playing alongside a proven ball handler with height who can distribute the rock.
The player you're describing is probably 25 years old and the tape shows he has that ability.....maybe it appears to be a lost cause because fans are fickle and in most cases, uniformed...... but President Tate and Kelli Zinn sitting courtside until the end of an exciting game, probably dont care how old Kyree Walker may or may not be.....if Pike is provided resources that are reasonable, he wins games.
I thought he was basically going to be a shorter version of Jordan / Acuff blend and I was completely wrong. First of all, Francis may not be a clear plus defender, but he understands how to play man schemes and is not a glaring liability. The biggest surprise for me was that he’s materially better on that end than both of them. For this reason alone, we would’ve been way better last year if you swapped him in for either of them.
On the offensive side, Tariq’s stats beyond his ability to put up points don’t do him justice either in my opinion. I think a lot of us came in with a pretty strong bias that he’d be an inefficient chucker and it took a long time to reverse that narrative. He’s not that.
I’m not against adding him or anyone but realistically this season is probably a lost cause at this point. Look - I’m still getting over that line up to open that SHU game but the Oregon game was a big step in the right direction so we’ll see. For me, in some ways I’m now hoping Pike survives this season just so Francis gets an opportunity to show what he can do in a high major setting alongside a competent back court / inside out game (depending what pieces we could get with money). Kid has fought adversity and doubt his whole career and I’d like to see him get an opportunity to prove himself on a roster with legit surrounding pieces. Kid deserves that chance. Also - because of the Knight relationship, he’s the one kid who feels like as close of a “yesteryear” given that we could count on retaining if we want to with the current coaching regime. Kind of refreshing to have one kid on the roster like that who is producing.
I can’t believe we still have a few fans eating crow on Tariq only with a caveat that he’s been playing better the last few games as if the crap the kid was getting early on was warranted. He flat out doesn’t deserve that. Look - the 2019-20 team was one of the best teams we’ve had in recent memory. Tariq’s efficiency numbers are better than anyone averaging 20+ minutes on that team except the big men who only attempt shots at the rim. Everyone will have some off games, but it’s simply not true that he has ever been an inefficient chuck machine at any point as a Rutgers player.
Already gave him an apology and his flowers in the Rapid Reaction thread. Try and keep up. As I said I do not know if it was the humbling Seton Hall experience or Pike bringing him off the bench in the microwave role but he has been a ton more efficient and shooting with confidence in the last 2 conference games. Maybe hitting the game winner against Penn was the catalyst
We are not at the bottom of the league, we now are tied for 11th out of 18. Big Ten is top heavy this year. Right now 13 seed and Full game ahead of Maryland, Northwestern, and Penn State, and above USC and Oregon.
for real...
he's our best player by a good margin and really the only guy we have to can put the team on his back for long stretches.
he absolutely bittle on those high pick switches. had him in a blender time and time again. could not believe altman allowed that to go on as long as he did.
Dude - come on - stop. He didn’t just suddenly turn a drastic corner. He had a stand out statistical game vs Oregon, but stop making it like he’s suddenly improved drastically as if it was right to crap on the kid early. Hes been the only consistent baller all season long. Stop selling the kid short. How many RU guards in our history through 15 games do you think we’ve ever had showcasing a stat sheet like his - 45.8% FG percentage, 33.3% from 3, and 87.3% FT shooting (and he takes a lot of them).
As for SHU - that had nothing to do with his offense. It was Pike’s worst decision of his career to start Tariq at PG with that line up. If you ranked every scholarship player on our roster top to bottom only on primary ball handling skills, Pike put arguably the 4 guys who would rank dead last on the court with Tariq who is not a natural point (excluding Fall and Ware because they may as well be non-scholarship guys). Last place - Ogbole (clearly worst ball handler on the team). Two Euros easily the next worst ball handlers. They were out there too. The 4th guy starting was DG and his primary ball skills when pressured are poor too. The worst possible line up to experiment with Francis at point . That start at SHU was Pike’s fault. Full stop. Think about who wasn’t in the game with Tariq. Davis, Lino, Powers, Buchanan, and yes, even Dortch would’ve helped.
Ok Mr. “Lou , what you saw was him [Francis] getting exposed which is what has happened in the Purdue and Michigan games and will happen in BIg 10 play. I don’t care he is Knight’s nephew or how much he has received for NIlL, his minutes come 4th if at all, to mark , Powers and Davis. He only scored against lesser teams because he was a ball hound , chucked shots , and rarely fed Dylan or Manny. He might hit an occasional 3 if left all alone on a kick out but otherwise his height , defense are bad and his offensive game is not far behind”
What can we expect against UPenn? - Forums
Pike has been doing a lot of experimentation but now its time to settle in on something. I hope he doesn't see Penn and Del State as opportunities to continue to tinker. He has to know what he has at this point and play the guys that give us the best chance to win these game. This is how I...
LOL
GO RU
Francis would have been a great addtion on last seasons team as the third scoring threat with Harper and Bailey.His ability to create and make shots off the dribble as a small guard is outstanding along with his fouill shooting.
I haven't seen last nights game, but have admitted previously that he has well exceeded my expectations for him. His off the bench scoring role is perfect for him and he's done a good job of not forcing things. 3 pt shooting is inline with his first few years, but it's his two pt that gotten much better. His ability to draw fouls was unexpected, of course he's doing it at over double his historic rate.
What is your point dude. ? Already apologized on the board thread saying that he was not going to do it in BiG 10 with bigger guards and I and a lot of people were obviously wrong. He proved in the Ohio State and Oregon games that he can. If you do not see a difference in his confidence , his efficiency the last few games then you have blinders on. He has been on a heater and his pump faking and drawing fouls was outstanding against Oregon and knocking down foul shots 10-11 was even better. His role off the bench as the microwave shooter has worked real well and limited our scoring draughts. He is still playing 30 minutes a game.Ok Mr. “Lou , what you saw was him [Francis] getting exposed which is what has happened in the Purdue and Michigan games and will happen in BIg 10 play. I don’t care he is Knight’s nephew or how much he has received for NIlL, his minutes come 4th if at all, to mark , Powers and Davis. He only scored against lesser teams because he was a ball hound , chucked shots , and rarely fed Dylan or Manny. He might hit an occasional 3 if left all alone on a kick out but otherwise his height , defense are bad and his offensive game is not far behind”
What can we expect against UPenn? - Forums
Pike has been doing a lot of experimentation but now its time to settle in on something. I hope he doesn't see Penn and Del State as opportunities to continue to tinker. He has to know what he has at this point and play the guys that give us the best chance to win these game. This is how I...www.on3.com
LOL
GO RU
My point is he’s the same player to start the season versus ooc, in conference, mid/major, top 10, and cream puffs opponents. Same skill sets and same team player. Has never been a ball “hound” since arriving at RU.
Totally agree that his confidence has shot up [no pun intended] but doesn’t get overly excited. That’s the type of player I want leading my squad. Pound for pound he’s the best scorer on this team.
Would have been awesome if he would have hit the last shot in regulation for another buzzer beater.
GO RU
My favorite aspect of his game is his ability to draw fouls and get to the free-throw line... and hit them. Who is the last RU player to consistently do it as well?
He's converted 87 percent of his foul shots this season.
He's converted 87 percent of his foul shots this season.
Don't want to get into an argument about which player vs which player in our recent past is most important. But I will say that TF is essential to this team. He changes the way teams prepare for and defend us. Even at that, if TF becomes a wiling passer, if other players learnhow to move and position themselves when he has the ball, then catch the ball cleanly and hit available there's a lot of room for the team to evolve.
Okay Think what you want but if you do not think his last 4 games against Oregon , Ohio State, Delaware State and Penn where he scored 30 points , 17 points, 19 points and 34 points on shooting 10-16, 6-16, 5-13 and 9-14 was any different than the prior 6 against seton hall , Michigan , Purdue , UNlV , Notre Dame and Tenn where he scored 6, 9, 5, 11, 10 and 9 on shooting 2-7, 4-6, 2-5 , 3-7, 2-7, and 3-6 then the contrast is not evident to only you. It also corresponds with his being brought off the bench in the microwave role starting with the Penn game.
Yeah cool - some of that’s true and several good points. but in terms of efficiency improvement, that’s really only true of the Oregon game which would be a career day type performance for anyone. His efficiency numbers vs OSU were actuall a bit below his season average.
The bottom line though is he’s not, and never while at Rutgers, been a chucker. The paper data tells a completely different narrative about him suggesting that most of the time, we NEED him to take more shots, not less. We’re 6-2 when he attempts 10+ shots and the CC and OSU losses certainly were not on him. By the way, he scored 17+ points in 7 out of 8 of these games with Maine the lone exception (he had 12 in that one - I’d argue that one was his worst offensive performance of the season)
Meanwhile, take a look at the seven games where he didn’t record more than 7 shot attempts. We were blown out in 5 of them - so arguably we would’ve been better off deploying a strategy to try to get him the ball - he certainly wasn’t chucking up bad shots as he didn’t take all that many. And guess what - the 2 games we won with him attempting only 7 shots happened to be the 2 games where our post presence showed up from Ogbole (Lehigh and UNLV). Once again evidence that when others are producing, it’s not the case that he’s on the court trying to “get his”.