Negative posters

[mildone_rivals]

99 percent of the criticism has been directed at the coaching. How can anyone argue that it isn't warranted?

Who is arguing against criticism? Criticism is fine. Childish insults is childish.

I think the entire team, coaches and players, need to work harder on shooting. That’s criticism.

Pike sucks? That’s just a childish temper tantrum. A third grade insult.

Fire Pike? The guy led us to the tournament last season, which is something RU MBB coaches have only accomplished 6 other times in the past 110+ years. But fire him because recruiting is off and we’re not playing well at the moment?

That’s a ridiculous sense of fan entitlement. Or trolling for attention.

 

[walshtrips]

Criticizing individual players, by name, on a forum is inexcusable.

Criticizing a Coach earning $2,000,000+ is fair game. Pike has a good salary, great facilities and a healthy budget, there is no excuse that prevents him from winning more recruiting wars. I sense that he feels more comfortable with players who work hard and want to improve, similar to Kevin Willard. Not sure that he can effectively coach 5-Star players who demand more attention and coddling.

I'm a Seton Hall fan and appreciate being consistently in the top 20 to 40 range, we're competitive most years and get to know the players well over the 3 to 4 years they stay.

Blue collar basketball is Jersey basketball, appreciate what you have - it may pay dividends in the future.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I agree with you...BUT these same negative posters were saying the same **** when we were winning and going to 2 straight tournaments

Hence the description Negative Posters...lol

I'll buy that. But that's the problem. We have a lot of haters year-round. A few (or more) vocal faux-fans who are fans of other teams but likely are from New Jersey or live here now.

So, when we run into a situation where the team and coaches DESERVE some criticism.. the faux-fans have a field day... and if seems like the real fans who are critical are supporting the haters.

It is a tough spot for all-around.. for the coaches, players, AD, fans, pollyannas, the so-called "realists".. board moderators... everyone is having a tough time EXCEPT for the haters.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Criticizing individual players, by name, on a forum is inexcusable.

DIsagree. Well.. let's say well-founded criticism or carefully worded criticism is by name is okay. "professional" reporters can do it so why not fans?

AFAIK.. this has been the first year that I was overly harsh on a player by name. But there was no other way to explain what I thought was holding back the team. I could just use the position.. but everyone would know who I was talking about anyway.

Personal attacks, on the other hand, always inexcusable. And as mildone pointed out.. "sucks" is more a personal attack than a specific criticism.

 

[mildone_rivals]

DIsagree. Well.. let's say well-founded criticism or carefully worded criticism is by name is okay. "professional" reporters can do it so why not fans?

AFAIK.. this has been the first year that I was overly harsh on a player by name. But there was no other way to explain what I thought was holding back the team. I could just use the position.. but everyone would know who I was talking about anyway.

Personal attacks, on the other hand, always inexcusable. And as mildone pointed out.. "sucks" is more a personal attack than a specific criticism.

Yep. Gotta be able to criticize players and coaches. It’s a sports forum after all.

Just wish people would be semi-adult in how they go about posting the criticism.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Yep. Gotta be able to criticize players and coaches. It’s a sports forum after all.

Just wish people would be semi-adult in how they go about posting the criticism.

I wonder if young generations and future generations will be far worse in this regard.

So much trash talking you see in sports today were legitimate "fighting words" when I was young. There were things you didn't say unless you were willing to fight over it.

I don't see that today. Granted my experience is now limited in that regard.. but I have seen cases where I know if I were on either end of what was said.. there would have been some trouble of the physical kind.

So I wonder if these words just mean less to younger generations... and the idea that you can be too harsh with words is just a "boomer" thing.. unless, of course, those words are applied to certain protected ideas and classes of people.

Hmm.. best to stop there. Veering off-course.

 

[ScarletDog]

I think it’s because SO MUCH has gone wrong. Player development seems non-existent. Nobody developed physically in this great new facility and nobody developed skill-wise either. Recruiting seems to be off, despite recent success. We lost our toughness. B1G coaches used to complain about getting physically pounded at RU. Our defense was tenacious. Now we seem extra soft. We won three games but looked horrible…then lost three. Wheels are off when expectations were higher than ever…partly because of what Pike said pre-season. It’s not right to kill the kids personally, but they signed up for D1 basketball and they should expect criticism when they suck it out of the gym. And so should pike and his staff. This is a **** show and people have a right to be pissed. That’s what fans do. Quite frankly Rutgers basketball should read these boards and be thankful. They should be thankful as many of us still care. Because what they’ve done so far isn’t worthy of our love.

 

[RUInsanityToo]

........Fire Pike? The guy led us to the tournament last season, which is something RU MBB coaches have only accomplished 6 other times in the past 110+ years. But fire him because recruiting is off and we’re not playing well at the moment?

That’s a ridiculous sense of fan entitlement. Or trolling for attention.

Unfortunately too much of this.

 

[AshCatchEm]

Idk what you expect after losses to DePaul, Lafayette and umass. Tournament chances are basically done. Season is now a wash so we will treat it as such

 

[AshCatchEm]

Who is arguing against criticism? Criticism is fine. Childish insults is childish.

I think the entire team, coaches and players, need to work harder on shooting. That’s criticism.

Pike sucks? That’s just a childish temper tantrum. A third grade insult.

Fire Pike? The guy led us to the tournament last season, which is something RU MBB coaches have only accomplished 6 other times in the past 110+ years. But fire him because recruiting is off and we’re not playing well at the moment?

That’s a ridiculous sense of fan entitlement. Or trolling for attention.

Are you gonna be singing this tune once cliff enters the transfer portal and we get to watch the starting combo of mag palmquist reiber?

 

[RUInsanityToo]

............. Quite frankly Rutgers basketball should read these boards and be thankful. They should be thankful as many of us still care. Because what they’ve done so far isn’t worthy of our love.

This is an interesting sentiment. My kid is 13 and plays AAU and Travel. Does the same sentiment apply if expectations are high and they lose to a seemingly lesser opponent? To me this appears to be the sense of entitlement that Mildone was referring to.

We've had a steady progression over the past 5 years from the depths of where this program was.......but as soon as the team hits a downswing..........comments like this start flying around. I think this is why this thread was created.

Criticism is warranted. Recruiting needs to be better. Offensive scheme & sets are not dynamic. Players not being in position or missing open shots / foul shots. But college players on the team that your follow/root for not being "worthy" of your love? Histrionics.

 

[DHajekRC84]

I just find it funny when people get mad at coaches for their coach-speak.

But the coach lied to us.



I wonder how many people only bought season tickets because Pike said it was the best team he's coached. I would NEVER buy season tickets for any sport or any team based on the coach's preseason statements. Because coach-speak.

Anyway, I highly doubt Pike expected to be shooting as miserably as we're shooting right now. And if we were shooting at a reasonable percentage, we'd probably have at least a couple more wins right now. Still wouldn't be pretty because of defensive woes and poor play on offense in general. But winning is a better place to build from than losing.

Besides, Pike might well have felt very positive about the team ahead of the season. He may still be very positive. Because, if you think about it, what's the value in the coach being negative about the situation publicly or in front of the players? Should he be saying the season's over, like some fans? Should he be telling the players they suck, like some fans?

Of course not. Not a very motivational coaching approach for most college kids I know.

ok, now there's the level headed poster I respect.

 

[mildone_rivals]

Are you gonna be singing this tune once cliff enters the transfer portal and we get to watch the starting combo of mag palmquist reiber?

What tune? I'm observing that adults throwing childish temper tantrums, for any reason, is never a good thing. No matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, I'd still be saying that.

Are you seriously trying to argue that there are valid excuses for adults to behave like spoiled children?

 

[mildone_rivals]

Unfortunately too much of this.

What's weird to me is that people keep not hearing my point. They're responding as if I'm saying "don't be disappointed". I'm not saying anything remotely like that. Be disappointed. I'm disappointed, too.

My point to them is that they should consider handling their disappointment like an adult. I guess they don't want to admit to themselves that they've acted just like a little kid that didn't get that puppy they wanted for their birthday and threw themselves to the floor to pound and kick and cry. It's not a pretty sight to see when a kid does it and it's even worse when an adult does the sports fan equivalent of it here.

 

[ScarletDog]

This is an interesting sentiment. My kid is 13 and plays AAU and Travel. Does the same sentiment apply if expectations are high and they lose to a seemingly lesser opponent? To me this appears to be the sense of entitlement that Mildone was referring to.

We've had a steady progression over the past 5 years from the depths of where this program was.......but as soon as the team hits a downswing..........comments like this start flying around. I think this is why this thread was created.

Criticism is warranted. Recruiting needs to be better. Offensive scheme & sets are not dynamic. Players not being in position or missing open shots / foul shots. But college players on the team that your follow/root for not being "worthy" of your love? Histrionics.

I’ve got a 16 year old who also plays AAU and varsity HS basketball too. It’s not the same and you know it. When you choose to play high D1 basketball you choose to play in front of thousands of people…millions if big stage TV. So you absolutely open yourself to scrutiny.

You can take my “worthy of our love” statement however you want. But my point was that most of us obviously love RU, love the program, love rooting for our players, etc. Or we wouldn’t waste our time here discussing it. The point was also that the players, the coach, the program in general isn’t delivering right now. We still love it or we wouldn’t be here. Maybe don’t take every word literally. The basketball program is performing like dog crap and deserves major criticism…but not personal attacks.

 

[AshCatchEm]

What tune? I'm observing that adults throwing childish temper tantrums, for any reason, is never a good thing. No matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, I'd still be saying that.

Are you seriously trying to argue that there are valid excuses for adults to behave like spoiled children?

So now fans, short for fanatics, who dissect the bad as well as the good, are throwing temper tantrums.

Is there a valid excuse to dictate what people say about what amounts to a child's game?

 

[mildone_rivals]

ok, now there's the level headed poster I respect.

These days, I'm pretty much always level headed, even mild. Except when I pretend not to be for the sake of laughs or poking the bear (childish of me, I know).

 

[mildone_rivals]

So now fans, short for fanatics, who dissect the bad as well as the good, are throwing temper tantrums.

Is there a valid excuse to dictate what people say about what amounts to a child's game?

How is posting "Mulcahy sucks" dissecting anything? Please explain.

And I'm not dictating anything. I'm just a fan (short for fanatic) of the team and of this community. So if I want to "dissect" our community some, you've got my back about that. Right?

 

[Eagleton95.99]

Also I'll add pike set super high expectations with the "best team ever" and " Cliff and Agee are my best 5 by far" comments.
pike drove up high expectations. People bot season tickets on that hype and now are pissed

Yes, a big part of this was expectations. If Pike had said: we have a nice young inexperienced core, but it's going to take time to develop them, the reaction would have been different. That's why coach speak is a thing. Coaches learn never to do what Pike did this off season. There is no upside and only downside.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Coaches learn never to do what Pike did this off season. There is no upside and only downside.

Well.. it just might be the case that Pike thought saying this would help him recruit. Or maybe he wanted to get the students into the RAC earlier in the season than usual for them... OR.. and this is a completely uninformed guess.. what if there is a clause in Pike's contract paying bonuses for the number of sellouts or overall attendance?

AS you can see.. when something seems unexplainable.. I tend to think there is a reason.. a logical explanation to be found if you look the right way.

 

[Eagleton95.99]

Well.. it just might be the case that Pike thought saying this would help him recruit. Or maybe he wanted to get the students into the RAC earlier in the season than usual for them... OR.. and this is a completely uninformed guess.. what if there is a clause in Pike's contract paying bonuses for the number of sellouts or overall attendance?

AS you can see.. when something seems unexplainable.. I tend to think there is a reason.. a logical explanation to be found if you look the right way.

Those seem highly unlikely, conspiracy type, explanations. The more logical explanation is that Pike actually believed it himself, and being new to the spotlight, just learned a hard lesson about why coaches speak in coach speak.

 

[ancienthooper]

Interesting that even though there's a level of disagreement in this thread, it's composed and rational. Noteworthy that those who contribute the really mean-spirited rhetoric and toxicity are not participating in this discussion.

 

[needmorecowbell]

People are looking at the poor recruiting and what's ahead in terms of player developement. The future doesn't look bright. It's more then 3 close losses and you know that

In basketball, transfers and recruiting can change immediately. This isn’t football where you need 3-4 years of recruiting and development.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Pike actually believed it himself

now who is talking in low-probability explanations

 

[e5fdny]

The lecture post/thread only 6 games in.

Nice.

 

[bowlgoal]

I will say the fans really came alive tonight and were a big part of the win. We should have a much better record but at least we got this win tonight.

 

[ScarletDog]

I will say the fans really came alive tonight and were a big part of the win. We should have a much better record but at least we got this win tonight.

Was a great crowd, especially for a late start and after the letdown of the last fee games. Crowd showed up and the players did too. Hats off…fun night at the RAC

 

[bowlgoal]

Was a great crowd, especially for a late start and after the letdown of the last fee games. Crowd showed up and the players did too. Hats off…fun night at the RAC

A lot of fun. A little stress when they cut it to a 1 point lead but it seemed like old times to overcome the run and close it out!