Josh Baker Re-Opening his Recruitment
- Thread starter Mr. Magoo1
- Start date
I don't know what to think. He may be someone to help us but in the first game of the JUCO tournament he only shot 1-9 on threes. I believe if not him we will find someone else. It is a long time until August.
Kids are sometimes out of options, had no choice......the portal is gobbling up interest elsewhere for these JUCO kids that normally would have interest.
What does that mean? He had said he was down to RU, Houston and Loyola-Chicago. And now he’s not.
Assuming Geo is back I don’t think we really need another guard for next season. We need a 4/5.
Some guys want a starting spot or guaranteed XX minutes to go there and if they aren't guaranteed it, they won't commit. Do we need experience guy off the bench? Yes. I don't think we can live with such an inexperienced bench come the B1G schedule, with Miller, Jones, Mag, Palmquist and Reiber. Pike must feel that Geo and RHJ are 99.9% coming back, otherwise a player like this wouldn't reopen their recruitment. The only need right now, if Geo and RHJ on board, is a 15-25 minute experienced player that will accept that role, and 1 of the 5 returning starters has to accept a 6th man role and move a freshman in the starter role, most likely Jaden.
D1 experience in every conference beats JUCO every time. With the transfer portal the way it is this offseason, coaches are prioritizing transfers and the JUCO kids are unfortunately going to be left in the dust.
So you think Rutgers, Houston and Loyola all dropped him and not the other way around?
Loyola just announced 4 returning starters, Houston landed a guard in the portal, playing time in question...ya know Pike def doesn’t guarantee playing time for anyone especially a newcomer, .its always about playing time for a JUCO recruit
Don’t you think it’ll be sort of the same as this year with PM and Caleb rotating between starting line up and first guy off the bench? Both will play plenty regardless because of their ability to slide over to forward and play point. No PT / chemistry issue there IMO.
He's not because whatever he was going to choose, went in another direction via the portal....my guess is Houston would have taken him 2-3 weeks ago, instead, an unknown kid that wasn't available 2-3 weeks ago (probably the kid from Texas Tech after he entered the portal).......spots that may have been there prior to Bakers JUCO season ending, are now taken.
Houston definitely did. I thought they were the leader but they took a few kids through the portal. RU and Loyola have more question marks now than when he announced them as final schools. It’s possible they saw him as a complementary piece but now realize they need more impact players with D1 experience, he didn’t think they’d be close to the teams they were last year because of the recent roster movement, or a combination of the two.
Since he announced, Porter Moser and Loyola’s big man left, Young, Mathis and Johnson are gone, and we don’t know about Geo or Ron yet. As fans we can confidently predict they’ll be back, but as a recruit, you don’t want to commit until you’re sure there’s other major players around you.
But I always felt like he was ready to commit to Houston but they said no thanks, we’re targeting some guys ahead of you that just became available.
He obviously wasn't a priority for us... We can debate the merits of that but I think that's clear. Loyola Chicago also got a new coach like a week before he announced his top 3. Granted the new coach was an assistant there but the new staff probably had other targets. And he was a fallback plan for Houston who had the cache to go and get Kyler Edwards.
At this stage, nobody for the 2021 class is a “priority”. Pike said as much on the podcast. He thinks we’re going to be really good with what we have. He didn’t have to say he thinks the defense will be the best ever - he could’ve just said, I think we’re in “better shape than people think and I have confidence we’ll get to where we need to be”. He obviously expects to get RHJ (another star) and Geo back. He also said Jaden’s a really good shooter and Cliff will be the most improved player in the country.
The bottom line is we have about 75 minutes of production to replace, of which, Cliff and Caleb probably absorb a collective 15 minutes (he doesn’t make the defense comment with an intent to play Caleb less or the same). If everyone else returning stayed constant in PT, that would leave ~60 minutes of total non-garbage PT for all the returning frosh (Mag, Dean, Oscar), Jaden (who Pike said is a great scorer), Miller, AND all additional players brought in through the portal / JUCO / frosh. How do folks not see how difficult it is to sell this PT situation to a kid whose looking to come in and start immediately? Pike doesn’t want a cancer on the roster who resents not getting enough PT. Reading between the lines, it seems like the picture he’s selling is that it’s an opportunity to be a part of a really good team. But there will be a lot of competition for PT in the first year with the team. He knows there are fans who disagrees, but if that sell line is a put off to a player, it’s a hard “pass” for him. End of story.
He didn't have to say it but there's also no downside to him saying it.
Also Paulicap was very clearly a priority...
Yes Pauly was a priority - that should tell everyone something as he clearly accepted a likely back up role at WVU. He was a target because he’s looking for a chance to play on a tourney team rather than guaranteed PT. We obviously lost that recruiting battle to Huggins (that’s not an epic failure - it’s just a simple reality that WVU is more of a lock to be a tourney team) but the point is - we are priorizing additions that can help but are not being motivated by expectation of a huge immediate role.
Also - there is absolute downside to saying your next team is currently positioned to be the best ever if you feel like you desperately need to add a high level transfer to come in and fill 25+ mpg. Do you not think these recruits watch the podcasts before making a decision?
Pikiell believes the returning players along with the new additions will result in a very good team.Its assuming major performance improvement from these players .My concern is the loss of scoring without Young,Johnson and Mathis and how that will be made up to just achieve 60-65 points a game.
It’s assuming major improvement from one player - Cliff. He said as much in the podcast.
If Cliff absorbs MJ’s offense that would leave about 22 ppg of last year’s offense to be absorbed by a combination of Geo, Caleb, PM, RHJ, Jones, Mag, Dean, Miller and anyone else we pick up to match last year’s absolute point production. It’s not really that much to ask.
He was the priority because the player expressed interest and vice versa "at that time"........there are actually now better players than Paulicap in the portal, which have multiple years left vs just 1 season, since Paulicap entered the portal. Just best to let it play out.
Paulicap or Harrar are very good options for just 1 season. The ideal portal pickup has multiple seasons left of eligibility. So while we debate priority, it is priority based on that particular time.
If Geo and RHJ comeback, the rotation will shake out something like this.
1- Baker/Miller
2/3- Jones/Palmquist
McConnell/Mulcahy
4 RHJ/Mag
5 C.Omoruyi/Reiber
Not sure who slots into the 2s and 3s starters/bench, but those 4 should occupy the 80 minutes from that position. I think Mag adds weight to become that backup 4 to RHJ. Its a tough sell to experienced transfers, you aren't getting that grad transfer, 5th/6th yr seniors that want to play alot of minutes their final year. You won't get those top 50/100 players that haven't played on other top 25 teams to not playing for Rutgers right away. The only guys you can possibly get are players that might see limited/bench minutes this year but a chance to replace Geo or RHJ, next year or this year, if RHJ impresses in NBA combines or Geo gets an offer he can't refuse in basketball playing or coaching or outside of basketball. Anyway you look at it, we need 1 Frontcourt and 1 Backcourt for 2021-22 for emergency services.
1- Baker/Miller
2/3- Jones/Palmquist
McConnell/Mulcahy
4 RHJ/Mag
5 C.Omoruyi/Reiber
Not sure who slots into the 2s and 3s starters/bench, but those 4 should occupy the 80 minutes from that position. I think Mag adds weight to become that backup 4 to RHJ. Its a tough sell to experienced transfers, you aren't getting that grad transfer, 5th/6th yr seniors that want to play alot of minutes their final year. You won't get those top 50/100 players that haven't played on other top 25 teams to not playing for Rutgers right away. The only guys you can possibly get are players that might see limited/bench minutes this year but a chance to replace Geo or RHJ, next year or this year, if RHJ impresses in NBA combines or Geo gets an offer he can't refuse in basketball playing or coaching or outside of basketball. Anyway you look at it, we need 1 Frontcourt and 1 Backcourt for 2021-22 for emergency services.
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If the front court player we get is for emergency services, it’s going to be a long season. Omoruyi was getting pushed around quite a bit by B1G bigs and I don’t expect that to just go away. Also, his propensity for fouling is not just going to disappear. Again, lots of people expect Reiber to step up, but I’m less optimistic. If Reiber is our 1st big off the bench, we’ll be in the bottom 3rd of the league.
@PSAL_Hoops SHH! You are not allowed to speak logically and you are not allowed to assume that the coach-- the one with decades of experience and proven results, who gets paid millions of dollars as his career-- knows better than the geniuses on the board.
Great posts.
Jacob Young Article—
We cannot make a blanket statement like "he is not a priority for RU.....".....we were recruiting him well over a year ago and he mentioned or named RU in a Top 3, whether RU was 3rd, 2nd or 1st of his choices is up for debate. Baker is one of the kids RU has been linked with, if he has been linked with the school, he has to be a possible candidate, right??
This whole thing of "priority" is sure, I would have no problem with you picking us, but there's a dozen or so kids per class that a coach can also make that claim about, while potentially only landing 1 or 2 of those players.
Middlesex is trash, look at Brookdale kids..all jokes aside,, Brookdale is a good team every year..im not saying I expect any of them in major D1 but if you're looking for decent games, they're good
He may have been a “priority” when we offered. Then Jalen Miller committed and it now looks probable for Geo to return. To be fair, I think Pike probably still wants to add a sharp shooter, but from the podcast, you could read between the lines that he is not delivering the message to any recruit that they’d have “a good chance” of securing starter minutes or anything close to that. Sounded like he may be looking at some high school kids. Maybe there are some kids decommitting at HS level based on portal movement and he thinks RU is best positioned to take advantage of that (which probably requires some patience to see how the portal unfolds first). Did anyone think of that?
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Chas Kelley is listed as 2022 but I also see that he was listed as 2021 before. Who knows maybe he would decide to come in this year.
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