Nov. 28: Well, here we are.

[Zebnatto1!]

Nice to get a win.

Let's acknowledge that ND is meh team, and at the level Rutgers plays, UNLV a weak one..

But I think we also have to acknowledge that 2nd half of ND and UNLV game in its entirety were the best we've played. Contributing to this were a bunch of things that will come and go (some which won't too often be repeated), but also contributing were things that should remain, and in that I'm referring to team play. On both ends of he court we simply seemed to know what we were doing. Offensively we seemed to be more purposeful and play more of a team-game--not all iso. Similarly, on D, We did a better job, especially, I thought in defense near the rim. Props to players and coaches.

Biggest shout-out to EO for his hard work. If we can get something like 12/9 from him and that really solid help D on a regular basis, it'll be a big help.

I'm not ready to throw the towel on the European so I think we'll see a battle for minutes between them, Buchanan, and Nwuli--with Buchanan and Nwuli having the edge now off yesterday's strong performances.

You can't predict anything but 0-2 against Purdue and Mich. Seton Hall becomes a big but difficult swing game. We've got to come out of the two B1G games improved and with our our morale unbroken. Could be a very telling game. Then take care of our two end-of-year games.

 

[RUChet]

Nwuli made the difference start of second half with his defense. His offense will come around. Suspect He’s our starter going forward

 

[RUBigFrank]

Nice improvement -this is a roster of players for next year.

 

[ru66+]

ND gave Houston a game, they're not a top team but as usual the " the experts" are overly negative about any team we play to make RU look hopeless.

 

[seansherm]

ND gave Houston a game, they're not a top team but as usual the " the experts" are overly negative about any team we play to make RU look hopeless.

It's kinda interesting that this early in the season we already have four common opponents with Houston. Have always thought they were Pike's ideal program.

 

[Simce91]

Nice improvement -this is a roster of players for next year.

Agreed

Especially if Ogbole gets another year

I have a feeling we may see some of Powers this year as well.

I'm curious on how much we may see (if any) of Dortch and Ogbole on the floor together

 

[Mholinko]

Nice improvement -this is a roster of players for next year.

Hopefully if pike stays he can retain them because retention is his only path with his coaching style

 

[LeapinLou]

We had to have the win to prevent a prolonged losing streak. As I've said in another thread, I thought Pike's use of personnel and allotment of playing time during this tournament was excellent. While it would have been nice to steal one against ND, coming out of this tournament 1-2 is far from a disaster.

Purdue and Michigan are top 5 in the country and SHU looks like a tall order. They would be undefeated if they weren't majorly screwed by the refs against USC. Keep expectations low for the next few games and hope the team gets back on track when the competition is more manageable.

 

[RUDiddy777]

We had to have the win to prevent a prolonged losing streak. As I've said in another thread, I thought Pike's use of personnel and allotment of playing time during this tournament was excellent. While it would have been nice to steal one against ND, coming out of this tournament 1-2 is far from a disaster.

Purdue and Michigan are top 5 in the country and SHU looks like a tall order. They would be undefeated if they weren't majorly screwed by the refs against USC. Keep expectations low for the next few games and hope the team gets back on track when the competition is more manageable.

Michigan looks downright scary right now. Really not worth wasting time hoping we can do much but keep Purdue and Michigan below 20 point wins.

 

[RUDiddy777]

Nice improvement -this is a roster of players for next year.

I was a bit dejected after CCSU - then realized we have 7 freshman and 2 sophs, 3 juniors - not counting Fall who hopefully has seen his last minutes as a Knight (how the hell was he a 5*) and a senior.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I was a bit dejected after CCSU - then realized we have 7 freshman and 2 sophs, 3 juniors - not counting Fall who hopefully has seen his last minutes as a Knight (how the hell was he a 5*) and a senior.

I was frustrated with that one because I point blank felt that Pike did not coach a good game across the board. Grant and Davis were just plain off that day from opening tip. Obviously that was a big part of why we struggled but subbing a red hot Francis who had literally made like every shot he took early out for Zrno at the same time as you put clueless Fall in for Ogbole triggered that 13-0 run by CC that gave them the confidence to pull off the upset. It was such a bad decision situationally which became especially clear later when he subbed 5 out and used the frosh to press and it was effective. We weren’t in the bonus. Everyone except Francis struggling to score so why not try some press to generate offense. We weren’t close to 7 team fouls.

Instead - Bringing 2 of our worst defender in Zrno and Fall in to play halfcourt D schemes with 2 struggling starters (who let it impact the play in the other end that day) absolutely killed us. At least Pike could’ve waited for Francis to miss a few to take him out.

 

[RUDiddy777]

I was frustrated with that one because I point blank felt that Pike did not coach a good game across the board. Grant and Davis were just plain off that day from opening tip. Obviously that was a big part of why we struggled but subbing a red hot Francis who had literally made like every shot he took early out for Zrno at the same time as you put clueless Fall in for Ogbole triggered that 13-0 run by CC that gave them the confidence to pull off the upset. It was such a bad decision situationally which became especially clear later when he subbed 5 out and used the frosh to press and it was effective. We weren’t in the bonus. Everyone except Francis struggling to score so why not try some press to generate offense. We weren’t close to 7 team fouls.

Instead - Bringing 2 of our worst defender in Zrno and Fall in to play halfcourt D schemes with 2 struggling starters (who let it impact the play in the other end that day) absolutely killed us. At least Pike could’ve waited for Francis to miss a few to take him out.

Couldn’t agree more. Crowd got really into it with the press, was a lot of fun - and it worked. And then it stopped with the subs and it was like all the energy left the place. Fall was dreadful.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Couldn’t agree more. Crowd got really into it with the press, was a lot of fun - and it worked. And then it stopped with the subs and it was like all the energy left the place. Fall was dreadful.

As a kid, when nothing is going right on offense it’s really hard to maintain the same intensity on D. There was definitely a noticable drop off on that end from Davis and Grant playing through frustration. I’m sure Pike figured they’d snap out of it, but as a coach you cannot assume that is going to happen. The time to yank those two was when he instead pulled Francis and Ogbole and stuck Zrno and Fall in as the first set of subs off the bench. It was like he had preprogrammed his substitutions before the game and was going to stick with them outside of foul trouble. That was the time to bring in some combo of Nwuli, Mark, Dortch, Buchanan, etc. with only Francis until he cooled off and try to force some turnovers with the press. It was the perfect time for that. We had only 1 or 2 team fouls at that point. Instead we roll with the worst possible halfcourt defense we could put out there (the two struggling starters and our worst bench defenders) and continue in a slow paced game and the offensive stuggles continued.

More broadly - if Pike is set on doing that mandatory early mass substitution at the 16 min mark (where he brings in 2 guys and then 2 others a few minutes later) - that block of time should be dedicated to pressing the snot out of the ball as a change of pace until we get to the bonus.