Question on Pike Recruiting

[BillyC80]

Is he getting better at evaluating talent relative to B1G competition?

It may seem obvious but initially he may have been judging talent through the lens of Stony Brook’s schedule.

Also, early on he was just looking to fill slots with the best players available to him.

Has 3 years in the B1G honed his ability to evaluate and recruit what we need to win?

 

[Westcoast]

I don't think his ability to evaluate talent has anything to do with him getting better players. Mensa and Bullock were probably the best he could do on short notice with a terrible program.

 

[dkostus]

Is he getting better at evaluating talent relative to B1G competition?

It may seem obvious but initially he may have been judging talent through the lens of Stony Brook’s schedule.

Also, early on he was just looking to fill slots with the best players available to him.

Has 3 years in the B1G honed his ability to evaluate and recruit what we need to win?

I feel like your initial post lends too many variables. He may have been a Srony Brook guy just looking to fill slots?

Except he played and coached on UConn teams that were D1 elite, so I dont think he has a disassociation between what we need and what we're recruiting

 

[BillyC80]

His first 2 recruiting classes were tough, for sure. I’m thinking he looked at Kiss as a player who would have fit in at Stony Brook and would have thrived in their conference.

He did well with Geo and Myles as under-valued and under-recruited guys who could compete against B1G competition.

Then in year 3 he lands 3 good freshmen who are playing now plus a quality transfer and senior in HS who will both play in year 4.

I personally hope he lands a center who can score with the open scholly for next year. I wouldn’t mind a grad transfer like Gettys was — someone who is an offensive threat who can mentor Myles and give him another year to develop.

I see Gene, Carter and Doucore as 4s, and several guys who can play the 3 spot for us, so a savvy offensive center could be the missing piece for us to dance next year, imo.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Is this a serious question. Do you really think he was basing recruiting on what he saw and competed against at stony brook? Really???

 

[BillyC80]

Is this a serious question. Do you really think he was basing recruiting on what he saw and competed against at stony brook? Really???

Only in his first or second year. It’s just a theory, that he was conditioned to think a player of that caliber would help him compete, until he gained a better measure of what it takes to compete in the B1G. That’s why I asked the question. Open to bashing...

 

[Scarlet83]

Is he getting better at evaluating talent relative to B1G competition?

It may seem obvious but initially he may have been judging talent through the lens of Stony Brook’s schedule.

Also, early on he was just looking to fill slots with the best players available to him.

Has 3 years in the B1G honed his ability to evaluate and recruit what we need to win?

Pike knows what he is looking for. And he knows what we need to complete and win in the B1G. But recruiting takes time.

The first year he had a lot of openings and very little time to recruit the players to compete in this league. As Pike and staff have had the opportunity to spend more time, his recruiting success has improved. For example, Pike recruited Mulcahy for almost 2.5 years before Mulcahy committed. It takes time to properly recruit really good players to a team that has had no recent success. Pike and his recruits are turning it around right now, in front of everyone to see, and I think and hope that Pike’s recruiting success will continue to rise.

 

[Scarlet83]

Only in his first or second year. It’s just a theory, that he was conditioned to think a player of that caliber would help him compete, until he gained a better measure of what it takes to compete in the B1G. That’s why I asked the question. Open to bashing...

Not bashing, but that is wrong. Pike knew what he was looking for, he just couldn’t spend enough time to land the top of his recruiting board. See my post above.

 

[Plum Street]

Pike did a nice job recruiting . But he’s going to need to step it up and add some pieces.

 

[TDIrish27]

So much of recruiting is fit-----does the kid fit into the culture that we have in our program.

You have to trust the coaches on that.

Recruiting IMO is like picking a spouse------you aren't certain what you have for about 2 years.

 

[80yrdPacheco]

Only problem I have with Pike was his wasted time recruiting Naz Reid. He didn’t even include RU in his top 10 after he gave Bullock a scholly. I bet he gets his 5 star NJ kid soon.

 

[JonathanAlan]

Is he getting better at evaluating talent relative to B1G competition?

It may seem obvious but initially he may have been judging talent through the lens of Stony Brook’s schedule.

Also, early on he was just looking to fill slots with the best players available to him.

Has 3 years in the B1G honed his ability to evaluate and recruit what we need to win?

I think you under estimate how tough it was for Pike to recruit players after the awful Jordan years. As much as he accomplished at Stony Brook that probably had little impact persuading top recruits to take a chance on him and Rutgers. That's why he had little choice but to take a chance with Bullock and Mensah. After all, Stony Brook isn't any basketball blue blood then and now. He had to first build some credibility with the recruit base and their coaches to give Rutgers a second look. And I believe it's happening what with the success of the freshmen and landing Mulcahy in 2019. I doubt Mulcahy ( or Mathis) would have even given Pike a look two years ago.

 

[MadRU]

Pike and staff are good at evaluating talent, its just a matter of selling that talent on Rutgers which has not been an easy thing. Pike is changing that.

 

[Big East Beast]

Some good comments here. I think for all of Pike’s success at StonyBrook he was still a relative unknown and didn’t know how to pitch RU right out of the gate. He’s certainly been able to instill a culture and style of play with the program so there’s an identity and you can see he has a formula that can work at this level.

I’m not sure he’s figured out how to recruit local guards yet but that is probably will require our reaching the next level as a program.

 

[RUJMM78]

Pike knows what he is looking for. And he knows what we need to complete and win in the B1G. But recruiting takes time.

The first year he had a lot of openings and very little time to recruit the players to compete in this league. As Pike and staff have had the opportunity to spend more time, his recruiting success has improved. For example, Pike recruited Mulcahy for almost 2.5 years before Mulcahy committed. It takes time to properly recruit really good players to a team that has had no recent success. Pike and his recruits are turning it around right now, in front of everyone to see, and I think and hope that Pike’s recruiting success will continue to rise.

Winning speeds up the recruiting process of attracting higher level talent.Perception matters and at Rutgers its been a prolonged process.

 

[Scangg]

Pike hit on the underecruited in EO Geo Myles Caleb and Mathis Harper Young Doucoure are 4 stars. He has been crushing it in recruiting considering the state of the program when he got here. Next season is another step forward and each step makes it an easier sell to the top level talent.

 

[RAC’emUp]

I like Pike a ton but his misses on Souf and Bullock were not because they were the 2 best guys available. He just misjudged. There were many better players available, certainly not great ones or maybe even good ones, bit guys far better than those 2. He just missed. It’s okay, everyone does.

 

[KnightTerrors]

Only problem I have with Pike was his wasted time recruiting Naz Reid. He didn’t even include RU in his top 10 after he gave Bullock a scholly. I bet he gets his 5 star NJ kid soon.

you’d have to think that came from his Roselle catholic connection. Probably thought or was told he had a shot.

As for Bullock, at the time it made sense. Needed to fill a slot and he was coming off a season where he carried RC to state finals. Maybe you catch a break and he’s a good player from a prominent in state program. The gamble certainly didn’t work out lol.

 

[JonathanAlan]

you’d have to think that came from his Roselle catholic connection. Probably thought or was told he had a shot.

As for Bullock, at the time it made sense. Needed to fill a slot and he was coming off a season where he carried RC to state finals. Maybe you catch a break and he’s a good player from a prominent in state program. The gamble certainly didn’t work out lol.

I think Bullock was Pike's way of saying to the NJ coaches that Rutgers was trying to build bridges again with the top NJ high school coaches and programs. It was also his way of reconnecting with the Roselle Catholic HC for the Warney years at Stony Brook.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

This post is absolute bonkers. Rutgers might be the worst major conference job in the country and people want to know why pikiell is not recruiting all 5* players into a program that had 1 big ten win and maybe one big ten player. A team that hasn’t been to the ncaa tournemnt in 30 years. Let me repeate that A PROGRAM THAT HAD 1 BIG TEN WIN AND MAYBE ONE BIG TEN PLAER. A TEAM THAT HASNT BEEN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT IN 30 YEARS. Why do you think Hurley or Lonegran didn’t take the job? This job sucks. Pikiell is finally giving this program credibility so he can recruit the players needed to compete for big 10 titles.

Just stop with this nonsense. I really don’t understand where the thoughts of superiortity comes from here.

Rutger is a middle of the pack team with a bunch of freshman. Pikiell is recruiting good kids, from good families who are under recruited and want to play hard and get better. Everything right now is on track for Rutgers basketball. Baker, Mathis, Harper, McConnell and Johnson are the foundation. A foundation that is showing signs that something special is brewing.

Instead of focusing on those guys let’s focus on souf and bullock. News flash every team has an 11th & 12th man.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

you’d have to think that came from his Roselle catholic connection. Probably thought or was told he had a shot.

As for Bullock, at the time it made sense. Needed to fill a slot and he was coming off a season where he carried RC to state finals. Maybe you catch a break and he’s a good player from a prominent in state program. The gamble certainly didn’t work out lol.

This wasn’t a gamble. Rutgers sucked. They needed a player late in the game. Why not take a kid from an NJ power with guys like Naz Reid. This was common sense.

 

[dpwhite]

This post is absolute bonkers. Rutgers might be the worst major conference job in the country and people want to know why pikiell is not recruiting all 5* players into a program that had 1 big ten win and maybe one big ten player. A team that hasn’t been to the ncaa tournemnt in 30 years. Let me repeate that A PROGRAM THAT HAD 1 BIG TEN WIN AND MAYBE ONE BIG TEN PLAER. A TEAM THAT HASNT BEEN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT IN 30 YEARS. Why do you think Hurley or Lonegran didn’t take the job? This job sucks. Pikiell is finally giving this program credibility so he can recruit the players needed to compete for big 10 titles.

Just stop with this nonsense. I really don’t understand where the thoughts of superiortity comes from here.

Rutger is a middle of the pack team with a bunch of freshman. Pikiell is recruiting good kids, from good families who are under recruited and want to play hard and get better. Everything right now is on track for Rutgers basketball. Baker, Mathis, Harper, McConnell and Johnson are the foundation. A foundation that is showing signs that something special is brewing.

Instead of focusing on those guys let’s focus on souf and bullock. News flash every team has an 11th & 12th man.

This. This all day. It's not like kids were knocking down doors to come to Rutgers. Pikiell is doing yeoman's work here.

 

[Goku]

This post is absolute bonkers. Rutgers might be the worst major conference job in the country and people want to know why pikiell is not recruiting all 5* players into a program that had 1 big ten win and maybe one big ten player. A team that hasn’t been to the ncaa tournemnt in 30 years. Let me repeate that A PROGRAM THAT HAD 1 BIG TEN WIN AND MAYBE ONE BIG TEN PLAER. A TEAM THAT HASNT BEEN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT IN 30 YEARS. Why do you think Hurley or Lonegran didn’t take the job? This job sucks. Pikiell is finally giving this program credibility so he can recruit the players needed to compete for big 10 titles.

Just stop with this nonsense. I really don’t understand where the thoughts of superiortity comes from here.

Rutger is a middle of the pack team with a bunch of freshman. Pikiell is recruiting good kids, from good families who are under recruited and want to play hard and get better. Everything right now is on track for Rutgers basketball. Baker, Mathis, Harper, McConnell and Johnson are the foundation. A foundation that is showing signs that something special is brewing.

Instead of focusing on those guys let’s focus on souf and bullock. News flash every team has an 11th & 12th man.

That ought to wrap things up on this thread. Well said. Pike is doing a nice job

 

[BillyC80]

I like Pike a ton but his misses on Souf and Bullock were not because they were the 2 best guys available. He just misjudged. There were many better players available, certainly not great ones or maybe even good ones, bit guys far better than those 2. He just missed. It’s okay, everyone does.

This makes my original point. Can any of us imagine Pike looking at a Souf or a Bullock now and thinking that’s what he needs to compete in the B1G?

My point is that Pike is now entrenched as a legit B1G head coach and he appears to be evaluating B1G talent better now than in his first year or two.

 

[dpwhite]

This makes my original point. Can any of us imagine Pike looking at a Souf or a Bullock now and thinking that’s what he needs to compete in the B1G?

My point is that Pike is now entrenched as a legit B1G head coach and he appears to be evaluating B1G talent better now than in his first year or two.

I don’t think it was so much “evaluating talent” as it was “ did players want to come here?”

 

[Scarlet83]

This post is absolute bonkers. Rutgers might be the worst major conference job in the country and people want to know why pikiell is not recruiting all 5* players into a program that had 1 big ten win and maybe one big ten player. A team that hasn’t been to the ncaa tournemnt in 30 years. Let me repeate that A PROGRAM THAT HAD 1 BIG TEN WIN AND MAYBE ONE BIG TEN PLAER. A TEAM THAT HASNT BEEN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT IN 30 YEARS. Why do you think Hurley or Lonegran didn’t take the job? This job sucks. Pikiell is finally giving this program credibility so he can recruit the players needed to compete for big 10 titles.

Just stop with this nonsense. I really don’t understand where the thoughts of superiortity comes from here.

Rutger is a middle of the pack team with a bunch of freshman. Pikiell is recruiting good kids, from good families who are under recruited and want to play hard and get better. Everything right now is on track for Rutgers basketball. Baker, Mathis, Harper, McConnell and Johnson are the foundation. A foundation that is showing signs that something special is brewing.

Instead of focusing on those guys let’s focus on souf and bullock. News flash every team has an 11th & 12th man.

And it takes TIME to recruit a Baker, Mathis, Harper, McConnell, Johnson foundation.

 

[Scarlet83]

This makes my original point. Can any of us imagine Pike looking at a Souf or a Bullock now and thinking that’s what he needs to compete in the B1G?

My point is that Pike is now entrenched as a legit B1G head coach and he appears to be evaluating B1G talent better now than in his first year or two.

No. Our horrible hoops record and having no time to develop relationships with B1G talent, Pike has to piece together a team in the early going.

With time, he has recruited very well, and has built this Geo and freshman foundation.

He always could evaluate. He needed the time to recruit the players at the top of his board.

 

[zebnatto]

I think Souf was a mistake but that Bullock criticism is Monday morning qb’ing. Matt could play, was from local power, and was First Team All State. I think Pike gambled that Matt could work his way into being a productive bench player. Didn’t work out.

 

[80yrdPacheco]

I think that practice facility is going to open up doors in recruiting nationally we have never seen before.

 

[BillyC80]

I think Souf was a mistake but that Bullock criticism is Monday morning qb’ing. Matt could play, was from local power, and was First Team All State. I think Pike gambled that Matt could work his way into being a productive bench player. Didn’t work out.

I can buy that. I actually thought Bullock looked pretty good in the short spurts that he got to play for us. I think the frustration of us fans was in wondering why Pike gave a scholly to someone he hardly played.

 

[TDIrish27]

He wasn't a D-1 player-----evidently from his current status he isn't a D-2 player either.

Recruiting is a crap shoot------you have to reach sometimes and sometimes you miss.

Neither Mensah or Bullock were Big Ten players.

Jury still out on Duocoure