Still leaping forward....3 wins in a row for the first time in the Big 10, consecutive home wins for the first time in the Big 10, 8th place for the first time in the Big 10, 4 regular season wins for the first time ever, first regular season win over Indiana, two consecutive wins over the Indiana basketball program. Superlatives all around. The seeds are all planted and now we are seeing the buds reaching out all around.
OSU was Pike's biggest win until Nebby became his biggest win, which has now been surpassed by the win over Indiana and to me now his biggest win of his tenure. When games start mattering and each game starts taking on more meaning than the previous then you know that a program is growing and this program is growing ALOT...more than anyone would have dreamed of. Just in 3 short weeks, we went from the up of OSU to walloppings on the road to now getting to the point where each performance is built on from game to game to game. Each win provides another opportunity...you want meaningful game opportunies. By beating PSU and now coming home and defeating Indiana, RU has set itself up for what could potential be yet another meaningful milestone vs OSU on the road. RU isnt going to win every game but its about being in the position for the first time in this conference to actual make noise.
Tonight's game...the way it went, the flat start, the absolute 9 minute **** kicking of Indiana spanning parts of two halves, and then repelling a couple of Indiana late runs by making the plays needed to do to win. This game had all the elements where Pikiell can watch how his players respond to situations...and now as you have seen from last year and early game this year, this team is responding in more positive ways and succeeding in areas where they were used to failing. I am not so sure what it is but this team takes its time to get warmed up. Last week they were down 31-18 to Nebby before going on a 15-2 run to close out the half. Tonight RU was down 29-19 looking dead in the water and closed the half with a 11-0 run. They would then take go on another 11-0 run capping off a ridiculous 22-0 over Indiana over 9 minutes of play where RU was stifiling on defense contesting everything and stepping into the passing lanes for steals that led to transition opportunity and on offense looked smooth passing the ball around and making Indiana fall a few steps behind on defense.
At 29-19 my thoughts in the game thread was that RU was just being outplayed by Indiana. They came ready to play and RU didnt, RU wasnt working hard on the defensive end but in addition they were atrocious handling the basketball. There is one thing that I notice about RU over the course of this season in the Big 10. RU will get shredded in transition. If they turn it over and do not make baskets things get out of hand quickly. We saw it vs Maryland, Minny, and Purdue and in the first half of the Nebby game. Usually turnovers are the cause and thats what was going on early on tonight, 8 RU turnovers....just wasted sloppy passes, you cannot waste possesions like that even early. But then in the last 6-7 minutes of the half, RU settled down, its simple...stop turning the ball over and rebound....and I noted at halftime two key stats....RU had come back to 29-28 and was outboarding Indiana 21-14 and 9-3 on the offensive boards....the other key stat 8 turnovers but again only one in the latter part of the half. What I loved about RU is that their half court defense was very good. Indiana was being forced to run alot of clock and not get open looks and RU was preventing 2nd chance opportunities. I felt good that RU would win if they cut down on the turnovers and rebounded...and thats exactly what happened. It went from an Indiana dictacted pace to one where RU controlled.
Lets just dig in to what went on in that 22-0 run. For starters its a totally asburd silly ridiculous stat....22 to freakin zero...what teams do that against similar competition? Huge step that RU is now capable of elevating their game to a dominant level. Ron Harper Jr was the catalyst for the run in what I believe was his best game and coming out party as a Knight .He had two rebounds, a fast break dunk that got the crowd into it and then a big 3 that made it 29-28 and followed that up with a steal in the closing minute. With Montez struggling and Indiana really clamping down on Geo and Gene, Harper provided the tonic for RU stepping in a big way and outplaying the much hyped Indiana players on both ends of the court. Coming out of the gate in the 2nd half, Harper continued his dominance on the court....a steal which led to Eugene breakaway, rebounds here and there, even a block, Ron just was all over the place...moreso on defense than offense....30 minutes, 4-8 shooting, 5 boards, 10 points.
RU's defense was good in those first 5 minutes that it led to everyone getting involved in the offense, Indiana was scrambliing and on the defensive. Eugene, Kiss, Carter, Geo, Montez all stepped up.... a team effort during that run in converting offensively. By the time the run was over at 27-3, the lead was 46-32 and RU was in total control and the question became could RU close it out. Thats when the leaders step up. Eugene like he has in all these wins was the steadying force to give RU points when they were struggling to get some. Man what does Eugene mean to this team...another double double 14 points, 10 boards and less rust from the injury. It wasnt the prettiest close out but lets be honest here. We know RU can play from behind, but could they play with a big lead. ...and you know what for such a young team they did a pretty good job. Yes we all want more free throws to go, we want more chippies to go down, yes this game could have been over with about 4 minutes to go if RU had made a few extra plays here and there. Still the benefit to a young team of being challenged by a wounded dog and shaking them off even as the lead was cut to just 6 and Indiana had the ball. RU only had one fg in the last 5 minutes but it was an emphatic one..a dunk by Kiss which made up for the Kiss turnover and the Kiss missed foul shots. Credit to him because that shot was big in sealing the deal. 7 points, 4 boards, on 3-5 shooting, Peter know is really settling into the guy we thought he could become, it may be a reduced roll, but its an important one. Then RU simply put the ball in Geo's hand, the guy you want to make foul shots. Geo had a quiet 16 but his impact was huge. 5 assists, did such a great job at running the offense in the 2nd half, one of his best jobs this year. Carter was grabbing rebounds right and left tonight...8 points, 7 boards, 5 of them offensive in just 15 minutes. That is knowing and playing his roll
McConnell, Doorson, Johnson all contributed minutes and boards and little things here and there to contribute to the team win. Montez Mathis...quiet night, he struggled in the first half, Obviously word is getting out about him in league, he was matched up with some tough competition. Struggles like this will always happen at times with freshmen but the good thing to see is that in the 2nd half, Mathis didnt allow his struggles to hurt the team, he settled down and helped out without having to be the man that had to make the plays.
We need sit back and enjoy this. RU is in rarified air right now. This is exactly how you want to see a program being built. We are not there yet but Pike is pushing all the right buttons and this great group of kids are working their butts off to simply grow and get better with each game. So so young, the ceiling is so high for the future. I have no illusions about winning at OSU, its a tough game, we know its tough to win on the road and OSU needs this game for their NCAA hopes but all we can ask is this team keep doing what they are doing and the chips may fall in the right direction. Michigan coming next week..house money game, should be a sick atmosphere at the RAC win or lose vs OSU. The first real game where you will feel the buzz in the era during the Pike era
OSU was Pike's biggest win until Nebby became his biggest win, which has now been surpassed by the win over Indiana and to me now his biggest win of his tenure. When games start mattering and each game starts taking on more meaning than the previous then you know that a program is growing and this program is growing ALOT...more than anyone would have dreamed of. Just in 3 short weeks, we went from the up of OSU to walloppings on the road to now getting to the point where each performance is built on from game to game to game. Each win provides another opportunity...you want meaningful game opportunies. By beating PSU and now coming home and defeating Indiana, RU has set itself up for what could potential be yet another meaningful milestone vs OSU on the road. RU isnt going to win every game but its about being in the position for the first time in this conference to actual make noise.
Tonight's game...the way it went, the flat start, the absolute 9 minute **** kicking of Indiana spanning parts of two halves, and then repelling a couple of Indiana late runs by making the plays needed to do to win. This game had all the elements where Pikiell can watch how his players respond to situations...and now as you have seen from last year and early game this year, this team is responding in more positive ways and succeeding in areas where they were used to failing. I am not so sure what it is but this team takes its time to get warmed up. Last week they were down 31-18 to Nebby before going on a 15-2 run to close out the half. Tonight RU was down 29-19 looking dead in the water and closed the half with a 11-0 run. They would then take go on another 11-0 run capping off a ridiculous 22-0 over Indiana over 9 minutes of play where RU was stifiling on defense contesting everything and stepping into the passing lanes for steals that led to transition opportunity and on offense looked smooth passing the ball around and making Indiana fall a few steps behind on defense.
At 29-19 my thoughts in the game thread was that RU was just being outplayed by Indiana. They came ready to play and RU didnt, RU wasnt working hard on the defensive end but in addition they were atrocious handling the basketball. There is one thing that I notice about RU over the course of this season in the Big 10. RU will get shredded in transition. If they turn it over and do not make baskets things get out of hand quickly. We saw it vs Maryland, Minny, and Purdue and in the first half of the Nebby game. Usually turnovers are the cause and thats what was going on early on tonight, 8 RU turnovers....just wasted sloppy passes, you cannot waste possesions like that even early. But then in the last 6-7 minutes of the half, RU settled down, its simple...stop turning the ball over and rebound....and I noted at halftime two key stats....RU had come back to 29-28 and was outboarding Indiana 21-14 and 9-3 on the offensive boards....the other key stat 8 turnovers but again only one in the latter part of the half. What I loved about RU is that their half court defense was very good. Indiana was being forced to run alot of clock and not get open looks and RU was preventing 2nd chance opportunities. I felt good that RU would win if they cut down on the turnovers and rebounded...and thats exactly what happened. It went from an Indiana dictacted pace to one where RU controlled.
Lets just dig in to what went on in that 22-0 run. For starters its a totally asburd silly ridiculous stat....22 to freakin zero...what teams do that against similar competition? Huge step that RU is now capable of elevating their game to a dominant level. Ron Harper Jr was the catalyst for the run in what I believe was his best game and coming out party as a Knight .He had two rebounds, a fast break dunk that got the crowd into it and then a big 3 that made it 29-28 and followed that up with a steal in the closing minute. With Montez struggling and Indiana really clamping down on Geo and Gene, Harper provided the tonic for RU stepping in a big way and outplaying the much hyped Indiana players on both ends of the court. Coming out of the gate in the 2nd half, Harper continued his dominance on the court....a steal which led to Eugene breakaway, rebounds here and there, even a block, Ron just was all over the place...moreso on defense than offense....30 minutes, 4-8 shooting, 5 boards, 10 points.
RU's defense was good in those first 5 minutes that it led to everyone getting involved in the offense, Indiana was scrambliing and on the defensive. Eugene, Kiss, Carter, Geo, Montez all stepped up.... a team effort during that run in converting offensively. By the time the run was over at 27-3, the lead was 46-32 and RU was in total control and the question became could RU close it out. Thats when the leaders step up. Eugene like he has in all these wins was the steadying force to give RU points when they were struggling to get some. Man what does Eugene mean to this team...another double double 14 points, 10 boards and less rust from the injury. It wasnt the prettiest close out but lets be honest here. We know RU can play from behind, but could they play with a big lead. ...and you know what for such a young team they did a pretty good job. Yes we all want more free throws to go, we want more chippies to go down, yes this game could have been over with about 4 minutes to go if RU had made a few extra plays here and there. Still the benefit to a young team of being challenged by a wounded dog and shaking them off even as the lead was cut to just 6 and Indiana had the ball. RU only had one fg in the last 5 minutes but it was an emphatic one..a dunk by Kiss which made up for the Kiss turnover and the Kiss missed foul shots. Credit to him because that shot was big in sealing the deal. 7 points, 4 boards, on 3-5 shooting, Peter know is really settling into the guy we thought he could become, it may be a reduced roll, but its an important one. Then RU simply put the ball in Geo's hand, the guy you want to make foul shots. Geo had a quiet 16 but his impact was huge. 5 assists, did such a great job at running the offense in the 2nd half, one of his best jobs this year. Carter was grabbing rebounds right and left tonight...8 points, 7 boards, 5 of them offensive in just 15 minutes. That is knowing and playing his roll
McConnell, Doorson, Johnson all contributed minutes and boards and little things here and there to contribute to the team win. Montez Mathis...quiet night, he struggled in the first half, Obviously word is getting out about him in league, he was matched up with some tough competition. Struggles like this will always happen at times with freshmen but the good thing to see is that in the 2nd half, Mathis didnt allow his struggles to hurt the team, he settled down and helped out without having to be the man that had to make the plays.
We need sit back and enjoy this. RU is in rarified air right now. This is exactly how you want to see a program being built. We are not there yet but Pike is pushing all the right buttons and this great group of kids are working their butts off to simply grow and get better with each game. So so young, the ceiling is so high for the future. I have no illusions about winning at OSU, its a tough game, we know its tough to win on the road and OSU needs this game for their NCAA hopes but all we can ask is this team keep doing what they are doing and the chips may fall in the right direction. Michigan coming next week..house money game, should be a sick atmosphere at the RAC win or lose vs OSU. The first real game where you will feel the buzz in the era during the Pike era
