Imo It’s not up to pike it’s up to Montez.
Mathis from here on out
- Thread starter RUSCFORMERLYRULOU
- Start date
PM has been coaching on the floor, pointing to where other players should pass ,always seems to be giving directions on defense.....I am watching on TV and find myself yelling at Paul. This board really thinks we turned it around sat. aft. I was surprised we hung on, the last 10 to 15 minutes we tried our best to give the game away. I think several players find PM a nuisance on the court, Mathis has been a major contributor since he came to rutgers, blaming him for the losses you have your eyes closed
Dude (and the whole team really) just needs to play relaxed, yet composed, serious, yet still having fun. MM early in the season when everything was going well was shooting 3s like he was never before. Where did that come from? Confidence and ease, probably.
Team needs to realize doubt and frustration spreads faster than positivity. If one man is frustrated, the other 4 see that and it just snowballs. I like Mulcahy and McConnell in the starting lineup just for the fact that they play calm and are not easily fazed. Hey, if the shot is not falling, make up for it on the other end, play lockup D, take a charge and grab the boards.
Team needs to realize doubt and frustration spreads faster than positivity. If one man is frustrated, the other 4 see that and it just snowballs. I like Mulcahy and McConnell in the starting lineup just for the fact that they play calm and are not easily fazed. Hey, if the shot is not falling, make up for it on the other end, play lockup D, take a charge and grab the boards.
Exactly. He wasn’t the only playing poorly. Maybe he lost his confidence. He sat at times last year and so did Caleb and so did Mulcahey. We need all of the guys to play well but it’s time to let our stars shine little more.
Disagree on the low basketball IQ comment. JY grew up playing this game and his family were all ballers. his style is not exactly what Pike preaches but he’s also too good not to play. He plays Phi Slamma Jamma style and we have a lot of guys who play slower. He fits well with Mathis and when they get on runs they can still really help this team. They just have to play D and hustle and rebound like everyone else.
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It was mentioned in off-season that Mathis was working hard on the three ball (and, apparently, ignoring FTs)
I like Mathis and Young coming in together at the first sub time.. but we should have them both pressuring the ball when they come in as a pair. If they create a TO and then drive and put up their own crazy shot in transition it doesn't seem as bad as doing it when we are forced into a half-court O. Both of these guys drove and dished in early season.. would like to see that come back.
Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that. I was talking about his behavior. Pretty much the whole team was sucking it up and playing selfish.
Yes, up to Montez. But this is a difficult time for him and Pike has to find a way to motivate him to bounce back. We need him. But can go either way in these situations. Winning ultimately cures all. We will certainly stick with the same starting 5 against Mich State. Paul M makes good decisions and has been looking for the 3 ball more often recently. Loves to feed Myles.
I don’t think there’s anything too complicated to this. Caleb is the best choice of the guards to slide to the 3 and would’ve likely started there at the beginning of the season had he been available. Between his defense and being 6-7 it’s really not debatable. The time he’s gotten from day 1 was less a matter of him stealing PT from Tez or JY and more a factor of us not having a better wing to put at the 3. When it’s not Caleb it’s usually Paul playing in that spot now. Occasionally small ball works for the match up but RHJ is already an undersized 4.
Tez is also the least versatile of the guards. He’s probably the weakest ball handler fo all 5 - so he’s not likely to play the 1 either. So think about it - we have Caleb and Paul able to play 1-2-3. JY and Geo the 1-2. Tez mostly plays only the 2. When he’s not shooting lights out that’s going to have an effect on his PT for sure.
Tez is also the least versatile of the guards. He’s probably the weakest ball handler fo all 5 - so he’s not likely to play the 1 either. So think about it - we have Caleb and Paul able to play 1-2-3. JY and Geo the 1-2. Tez mostly plays only the 2. When he’s not shooting lights out that’s going to have an effect on his PT for sure.
I am a PM fan.. but this season has seen some unusual choices by him. I like him taking open threes.. but prior to the last two games he had a run of games where he did weird things like il-advised alley-oop passes.
Agreed. Before this game, I wasn’t a huge fan of playing Caleb and Paul together that much. My feeling is that those two should generally split the 40 minutes at the 3 with Caleb as the starter. Paul plays bigger than the other guards for his height. He did a good job in that spot early on when we didn’t have Geo and Caleb. To close out a game with a lead, Caleb and Paul of course will both be on the floor for ball handling and FT shooting. And then, any time we aren’t playing 2 of Myles/Cliff/RHJ, Caleb has to slide to 4 with Paul at the 3.
The 1-2 rotation should mainly be JY, Geo and Tez unless there’s foul trouble. Playing the 3 of them together in a small ball line up with an undersized RHJ at the 4 just hasn’t worked that well. It’s mainly because none of them should really be playing wing in the 3 slot.
I agree PM annoys some of these guys. He constantly huddling everyone up and giving little speeches in between plays. He's only a sophomore. He needs to chill out a little bit.
I think Cliff contributes to the inaccuracy quite a bit. He does not have enough court awareness. He constantly drifts too far under the basket or backboard. Plus he does not have good footwork when he comes down. He is always off balance and stumbling.
Court awareness on D is a big issue also. He continually gets pull too far out past the ARC when he is stopping the dribbler on the high screen. He chase the dribbler too much and fails to get back to his man on the roll. We have either had 2 guys chasing the dribbler or a small guard matched up inside with the switch on a 4 or 5 too often.
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That may look bad to you, but he got the "nod" from Geo on leadership qualities last year. When things are going very poorly.. sometimes getting advice touches raw nerves.. still.. it is better to have it than not. But.. like everyone else.. PM has to start hitting FTs.. this is beyond ridiculous.
I wonder about the health of Cliff's knee/ankle... whatever it was.. he ran like a deer in early games.. maybe the injury has thrown him off. I have heard that when young players suffer their first injury they can lose confidence. One minute they are indestructible and never think of their body parts.. the next (after injury) they doubt them. Subconsciously.. the mind knows if the body does X.. it could hurt. Time is the only way to heal that.
Props to Montez for a very solid performance. Way to contribute, young man!
Young was pouting about his play. You could see it after each of the turnovers. He was mad at himself and he'd put his head down and mutter something. Teammates would talk to him.
I wonder if we’ll see more of a Geo, Tez Caleb line up. With Tez, knocking down shots that combo could be interesting.
Young definitely needs to learn to deal with things better. He's the oldest guy on the team, yet he has the worst body language and pouts constantly. I don't understand what's going on with him at all. He was out of control early last year. Then he settled in and for the rest of the season and the beginning of this year, he was absolutely terrific. Now the old Jacob is back. He's rushing things, throwing up wild shots, and completely unaware of what's happening around him on the court. We all know what he's capable of because we've seen it. It's so frustrating to watch him revert back to this form.
Total speculation on Jacob: he may be pressing because he wants to go pro next year and is trying to show what he can do. When he makes a mistake, he tries again to make up for it and makes another one. Then he gets mad at himself.
When he lets the game come to him, he is a force to be reckoned with. Jim Jackson had good advice: focus on the defense because that is where he truly shines.
He will bounce back and have more great games for us.
When he lets the game come to him, he is a force to be reckoned with. Jim Jackson had good advice: focus on the defense because that is where he truly shines.
He will bounce back and have more great games for us.
I don’t think he’s 100% from that injury. Also think the fast pace style we played early better suits his game. Unfortunately, that style hasn’t worked as well with bigger, grinder type BIG teams. I have a feeling Pike will start mixing back in change up pace as we continue to find our groove. Settling things down had to be the first focus though to get back on track.