You should be an expert on "loser mentality", since you and you up-voters fit the definition of one to a tee.
Fun Team To Watch
- Thread starter satnom
- Start date
Nailbiters?
Were you watching the same games I was? Lots of teams have had games a lot closer than any of ours.
In addition, we have had past tournament teams LOSE some games against "cupcakes" like these.
I have no idea how this team will play when we get to the "big boys", but they have been fun to watch so far.
It is disgusting to me to see people who call themselves Rutgers fans keep denigrating everything this team does.
I'll always Love Pike but I'm on board with moving on to somebody new. I think his thing has run its course
Agree. And the following part of your post is so true of comments from many posters who don’t recognize the positives, but only the negatives. Or who point out… had we not done this well, we would have lost. Such a pessimistic loser mentality.
“I cannot remember if it was in this thread, or another, but one poster was complaining that it took a strong FT shooting game to beat a low level team ... like they were complaining that RU shot FT's in quantity and well in this game! And if RU had shot FT's poorly, they would have said "See, I told you RU sucked" - even if RU had won the game but with poor FT shooting!”
Your definition of nail biters is different than mine.
Nailbiter for me would be Arkansas barely beating Winthrop last night.
I’ve said multiple times since last season ended that I expect to enjoy this season more than last (reason why I kept my season tickets).
It was fun watching Dylan / Ace for a year but the overall team was not that enjoyable last year.
I expect this team to play hungrier and have much more to prove, defend and rebound better (hopefully).
We might not win as many games or have the entertainment of watching 2 lottery picks put up 20-30 pts. a game each but I’m looking forward to watching a young team grow and develop, play hard and hopefully knock off a few teams we’re not expected to beat.
I've enjoyed watching this team. They play hard and have shown they're gonna compete hard all season. Good first step.
I do think they'll struggle against the top half of the B1G this season. To me I'm excited to see if they can show flashes like the 2018-2019 team did before making the leap the next year to a tournie level team. If they do, it will lead to a very important off season. If we can keep the core of the team together and add in an important piece from the portal (cough...a 5...cough) than we can get back to being dangerous/bubble type...if we see another mass exodus then sadly it's probably over for my favorite hoops coach ever (only started following late 90s).
I do think they'll struggle against the top half of the B1G this season. To me I'm excited to see if they can show flashes like the 2018-2019 team did before making the leap the next year to a tournie level team. If they do, it will lead to a very important off season. If we can keep the core of the team together and add in an important piece from the portal (cough...a 5...cough) than we can get back to being dangerous/bubble type...if we see another mass exodus then sadly it's probably over for my favorite hoops coach ever (only started following late 90s).
I've been a fan forever and unfortunately seen this show before. This team is going to get destroyed when they play any teams with a pulse.
He’s shooting a better percentage from 3 than Ron on similar volume for any year besides his senior year. He’s no Cam Spencer but who is.
Watch the games…the assist numbers were fine last year because Dylan is Dylan…but the ball isn’t stopping throughout the possession this year* the same way it did last year
*Except for Buchanan, whose defense doesn’t seem to warrant this current ball stopping when he’s not at all scoring well. Hopefully this is a Jacob Young situation where by January he figures out how to make layups and suddenly he’s important
It definitely is a lot more fun to watch a team overachieve than under achieve. Looking at all the quality players the other Big Ten teams brought in winning in this league will be no easy task. However, there are a number of positive signs that give some glimmers of hope.
The biggest surprise is how much the returning players have improved. In particular, Grant and Ogbole have far exceeded expectations. Dortch also brings energy and can defend, rebound and dunk. Davis is solid and doesn’t turn the ball over very much. Francis has also far exceeded expectations and has been a good pickup at guard as has Buchanan. Badalau has showed promise and doesn’t play like a freshman, Nwuli and Mark both show promise but play like freshman. The biggest issue is getting all of them to up their defensive intensity, which is something Pikiel has done on the past. It isn’t a given that this team will be bad. It needs to stay healthy and greatly exceed expectations, but so far Rutgers looks like it’s heading in the right direction.
The biggest surprise is how much the returning players have improved. In particular, Grant and Ogbole have far exceeded expectations. Dortch also brings energy and can defend, rebound and dunk. Davis is solid and doesn’t turn the ball over very much. Francis has also far exceeded expectations and has been a good pickup at guard as has Buchanan. Badalau has showed promise and doesn’t play like a freshman, Nwuli and Mark both show promise but play like freshman. The biggest issue is getting all of them to up their defensive intensity, which is something Pikiel has done on the past. It isn’t a given that this team will be bad. It needs to stay healthy and greatly exceed expectations, but so far Rutgers looks like it’s heading in the right direction.
Hoping this team looks like the 22-23 Nebraska team that rounded into form just as we played them in February. Started out 3-9 in conference and finished 6-2.
Though if be happier not going 3-9 to start
The biggest upside I see with Buchanan so far this season has been that he finishes in transition. We did a poor job of creating transition opportunities though vs American and Lehigh. That needs to improve.
I won’t really even get hung up on how we look against Tennessee or the 3rd opponent in Vegas
to me the notre dame game will give us the best bit of information as to what this team actually is
notre dame is a similarly average on paper power conference team who we have recent history against and will give a solid idea if we’re ready to be competitive against big ten mid to bottom tier teams or if we’re more likely the actual bottom
if you told me we’d be 9-3 going into January and beat notre dame seton hall all the cupcakes and lost the other games I think that’s a reasonable hope
to me the notre dame game will give us the best bit of information as to what this team actually is
notre dame is a similarly average on paper power conference team who we have recent history against and will give a solid idea if we’re ready to be competitive against big ten mid to bottom tier teams or if we’re more likely the actual bottom
if you told me we’d be 9-3 going into January and beat notre dame seton hall all the cupcakes and lost the other games I think that’s a reasonable hope
The reality is you will see what you are looking for. If you think they stink, you will find lots of that. If you are happy with what you see, you are looking at the positives. If you ask an expert, they would probably say the team looks better than expected but not sure that changes any of the projections. ESPN and other better services have Rutgers projected at 14-16 for the regular season and 6-14 in the Big Ten.
Paul and Cam left in May. Hard to blame Pike on that.
You are right about regression in the NIL era. But averaging wins over Pike's 10 years is not fair and ignores the deep hole RU was in then he took the job. He really had the program headed in the right direction as a developmental program until NIL came around. Having said that, with NIL the game may have passed Pike by. Even with more money, teams have constant turnover making it hard to run a complicated defensive system and to develop players in that system.
That was the team with Cam and Paul - but lack of depth behind Mawot killed us. Lack of depth is a fair criticism of Pike and an area we need to improve. Hard to have equivalent or even close depth behind Dylan Harper, but we need to be more resilient when an injury happens.
Agreed. I live Pike and hope he can adapt - but when your biggest talent is developing players into legit major players and that skill is less important…
At the same time, the school needs to get its *** in gear. If Pike can’t adapt or has just run out of answers, a solid coach isn’t going to jump into the same piss poor NIL situation.
Agree, and just to add some context about FTs:
If we take 16 shots from the field and make 2-6 (33%) from the arc and 5-10 (50%) from 2-point range, we get 16 points.
If we get fouled 16 times in the act of shooting, we only have to make 50% of 32 shots from the line to match the above total, so it’s like shooting 33% from 3 and 50% from 2.
If we make 63% from the line in that scenario, we score 20 points, which is like 2-6 (33%) from 3 plus 7-10 (70%) from 2.
For me, 63% is the critical percentage to meet or exceed at the line without it costing you the game, because it’s still likely to be as good or better than what you would have shot from the field, had you not been fouled.
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I'll tell you 1 thing.. those two end of half plays where the ball was thrown over the top (1h) and then that guard drove uncontested to the rim (2h) were terrible defense. Both of those shots should have been made by Ametican for 4 more points. If you dont focus at those times
4 games lol.
My new 6 cylinder Toyata SUV is getting 22 mph..vs. the 18.5 my previous Acura 6 cylinder got. Just happens that I only drove the new car home via I-95 vs. The 20 years in the old car.
???? I think that is pretty much exactly what I said. The poster said we were sharing the ball more. I pointed out the asst. Numbers were near the same vs. last year. (so far).
Give you a like for the post prior and bs for this position. Have debated this before. Perhaps Cam used Pike ..check. But Pike pushed Paul off the ball and was completely ignorant to the implications. Nor could he have creatively come up with a way to get Paul back on the roster when he wanted back.
I agree with OP and your reply entirely
Rutgers needs to take a long look in the mirror at the end of the day as to what type of athletic department not just basketball program that it wants to be
the landscape is the landscape and trying to create a winning scenario in revenue sports where NIL and portal chaos aren’t embraced is a losing proposition
You can win overnight now in college sports it just requires a different recipe than pike is an expert at
he is a program builder the old school way and it remains to be seen if that’s feasible at the major conference level in this day and age
if Rutgers had even a mid pack NIL Chest I think pike with his development abilities could do wonders but we don’t even have that
Me. I'm the one with 4 paws. I was biting those annoying nails on the side of my paw. Still don't know what they are for.
It’s disgusting to me how much of this fanbase are losers who live in pollyanna lala land and who have no expectations and hold the program to zero accountability.
Or spelled backwards as in ive had NUF.
At least with football we have some NFL bound players and even the biggest GS fans (myself being one of them) are honest about the defense.
Saying this is a “fun team to watch” prior to tonight is just straight delusional. Yes, it’s so much fun trotting out a team with almost no B1G players
Saying this is a “fun team to watch” prior to tonight is just straight delusional. Yes, it’s so much fun trotting out a team with almost no B1G players
The team is awful. Effort yes but undersized, out matched, and out coached. Watch our offensive sets vs our opponents it’s laughable.
Wait on how bad it gets!
Ok throw them out! Pike peaked during Covid and has been in a downward spiral every year since. Crashing into a Moutainside last year. The only reason he is still coaching is RU refuses to act like a true power 4 school.