didn't realize he played 35....that is very troubling. RU could really use 2 easy games leading up to SHU. i can see 1 out of 2 being easy.
Game 10: NJIT Thoughts
- Thread starter bac2therac
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didn't realize he played 35....that is very troubling. RU could really use 2 easy games leading up to SHU. i can see 1 out of 2 being easy.
Thiam could use more touches, but he also has to get more confident at taking his shot instead of looking to pass. That's coming along - expecting him to have real scoring potential as an upperclassman.
A per
And if you have Sanders and Williams on the court for too long together, Thiam gets the ball less. For everything Mike Williams is, he is not a distributor.
The guard situation continues. Baker must be the primary ball handler, and at times the first pass should go to Thiam, and not Sanders.
And if you have Sanders and Williams on the court for too long together, Thiam gets the ball less. For everything Mike Williams is, he is not a distributor.
The guard situation continues. Baker must be the primary ball handler, and at times the first pass should go to Thiam, and not Sanders.
Not sure how much to allocate blame between Issa and the staff. This was the opponent where Issa should have been a handful to guard by a team like NJIT. 9 points in 5 shots. a bogus kenpom stat had his offensive efficiency at 165 (128 is the highest for any player in D1 for the season). Why the blank did he not see the ball more. He was 1 for 1 in post ups.
Souf gets blasted by the board for his play. i argue that a guy playing the 3 spot in college basketball hurts his team almost similarly by not being a factor in the offense. You chose who to blame, but against NJIT he has to be an option.
Good points all around. Really afraid that Geo will hit the freshman wall in the 2nd half of the season at this rate.
I did love that they finally posted up Issa last night against a smaller guard. At 6'-9", he's almost always covered by a smaller guard and therefore needs to develop this part of his game.
Luckily Ron Harper Jr. will be tested his senior year at DBP. I plan on attending a game. Very good opponents.
He is a HS player, but the goal of any D1 player should be that you are fully entitled to make mistakes, but you should stand out among the crowd. That is all I look to see from him. When he gets to banks, the mistakes will be corrected. I see him helping next year with the summer in Piscataway.
He is a HS player, but the goal of any D1 player should be that you are fully entitled to make mistakes, but you should stand out among the crowd. That is all I look to see from him. When he gets to banks, the mistakes will be corrected. I see him helping next year with the summer in Piscataway.
Well, Souf doesn't do anything well - he can't play defense without fouling, he doesn't rebound, he hasn't scored, and he can't manage to go very long without getting his pocket picked.
Thiam is a different story. He's been a good defender and decent rebounder, and he doesn't foul or cause turnovers... so he's not a liability in that sense. He just needs to look for his shot more. On the season, he has the best 3P%, best FT%, and best FG% among guys who have taken at least 10 shots so far... so he *needs* to be taking more shots, and the offense needs to look to feed him the ball more for shot attempts.
My assumption is that he's been so focused on all the other aspects of the game that Pike has emphasized (rebounding, defense) that he hasn't looked as much to be an offensive presence. That needs to change as the year goes on, and certainly once he becomes an upperclassman.
If not for Omoruyi, he'd be the most improved player on the team from last year. Seeing howThiam/Omoruyi have progressed, I can only hope that Baker/Doucoure have similar developmental gains as sophomores.
There should be, but the ball is not always moved. Rutgers has six or so people right now that can score, but they have no been consistent together. The reason is what has to be solved by the staff.
Matchups have to be delved into. Thiam is the one you look at most. His development is key over to next year. Once he develops a consistent attitude to get to the rim, he will become a lot better. Part of that is him continuing to grow his frame and confidence.
In a vacuum, the Kiss transfer and the Johnson redshirt are both defensible. It's the combination of those two wasted scholarships this year PLUS Bullock being nothing PLUS Mensah being a negative that really kills us.
Pikiell has hit some singles in the transfer market with Gettys and Kiss (based off his Quinnipiac numbers), but hitting a homerun this off-season (like the Martin twins at Nevada, or Reggie Lynch at Minnesota) would go a long way.
Assuming Bullock is off the roster, we'll be better situated to handle a sit-out transfer next season since Kiss and Johnson will play and neither Montez nor Harper should need to be redshirted.
Getting a big-impact grad-transfer would be tougher since those guys are usually looking to make the tournament in their last season, but just this past off-season Illinois got Mark Alstork and Boston College got Deontae Hawkins. We desperately need a guy like that.
Pikiell has hit some singles in the transfer market with Gettys and Kiss (based off his Quinnipiac numbers), but hitting a homerun this off-season (like the Martin twins at Nevada, or Reggie Lynch at Minnesota) would go a long way.
Assuming Bullock is off the roster, we'll be better situated to handle a sit-out transfer next season since Kiss and Johnson will play and neither Montez nor Harper should need to be redshirted.
Getting a big-impact grad-transfer would be tougher since those guys are usually looking to make the tournament in their last season, but just this past off-season Illinois got Mark Alstork and Boston College got Deontae Hawkins. We desperately need a guy like that.
The word is that he could not pass the conditioning test in order to play. Why do you think he should play?
Well, we're already getting an impact JUCO (Carter), so there is less need for a grad-transfer.
Disagree. If Corey leaves, we'll be in big need of a ballhandler/shooter. If he doesn't, we still need shooting.
I have no idea of his exact academic situation or desires, of course, but from poking around on KenPom, Stuckey Mosley on James Madison is the perfect target: He already sat out a year at JMU after transferring from Toledo, so it seems like he'd be able to grad transfer and be eligible immediately. 37% on threes his last year at Toledo, up to 42% so far this year. Gets to the free-throw line and shoots 80% from there.
Of course it's 9 games and they've played nobody of note (he did score 21 against Houston, and then 35 against Rider last week) but I'm moreso using him as an example of the type of player who would be a big, big help for next season.
Edit: Even a guy like Omari Greer in Eddie's last year would be welcome.
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Pete Marcotte. From Brookdale Community College. I don't know why I remember that.
Good analysis but not sure how you figure FDU or Fordham is a tougher test than NJIT. Look at their schedules to date. NJIT appears to be the better of the three and I don't think its close.
I was actually fairly impressed with NJIT. I expect them to have a good season. As a few here have pointed out, we were very lucky they were missing their jump shots at the end because they got open and could have made the end very interesting.
kenpom
RU 116
njit 262
fdu 273
frodham 230
stony brook 188
hartford 330
shu 18
msu 2
min 29
fsu 27
NJIT's guards offensively were bad.
How did they end up in the Atlantic Sun conference. All the schools are down south. i wonder if they recruit by saying you get 8 trips to Florida in the winter
How did they end up in the Atlantic Sun conference. All the schools are down south. i wonder if they recruit by saying you get 8 trips to Florida in the winter
Rutgers can overcome less than stellar performances against weak out of conference opponents.Against B1G opponents there is no way to mask offensive woes and the lack of productive depth on the bench .Achieving 5/6 league wins necessary for a winning season will be a difficult under taking because there is such a small margin for error.Doing the math its hard to see how Rutgers will score more than 65 points in league games based on 54 and 52 points in the first two games.Last year the average was around 60 points which wasn't enough against league foes.
If NJIT hits a bunch of those open 3's we would have been in trouble. Corey really saved the day by hitting his shots and driving like he does well. Sa is absolutely horrendous and continues to miss FTs. Souf is still a non-factor on offense and I don't see him improving at all. Geo and Eugene are my two favorite players. Fun to watch and unselfish. I was surprised that they rebounded so well against us and the #0 had an easy time with any of our big men.
I'm assuming Pikiell can get better defensive effort out of a player than Eddie did.
I think NJIT was awful....do not be fooled, RU played horrible defense and rebounded abysmally. On a normal night RU should have beat them by 30 plus just like WVU and SHU handled them
FDU beat Princeton, they are traditonally tougher than you think including beating RU a couple years ago...Fordham is a A10 school and yes while bottom feeder, its a step up from the likes of NJIT
Marcotte would be a huge upgrade over Mensah right now even if Marcotte was around 5-6. He'd run circles around Mensah, at least offensively.
You know he will get a chance to showcase his skills before then. He is a great HS shooter, which is obviously far different than D1. Right now, he is has not reached his ceiling at all. And a lot of that has to do with coaching. The coaches will get Harper to a level that he has not been at. When reached, he will definitely contribute.
Sanders most likely stays. The guards will be at a bit of a log jam, which is great for competition. They will also run three guards a bit, which will cut down on Harpers ability to see minutes. I still think he sees time before jr year,though. How do you view his game?