RAPID REACTION - Lehigh
- Thread starter Degaz-RU
- Start date
For better or worse, Pike’s off-season “asset management” strategy is starting to at least make more sense. Pike’s greatest strength historically has been player development of kids who buy into his D first philosophy. We might’ve paid slightly more than the open market would’ve paid for the kids we retained but the 4 of them will likely produce more than what Pike could’ve “bought” in the open market for any of them.
In the portal - Pike focused on hedging his “bet”. He started with a versatile kid who could play every position if needed in Buchanan who he knew for sure wouldn’t be awful at D. He also couldn’t go into the season with J Mike as his only proven ball handler which meant he had to use some of his remaining allocation to buy a veteran guard who was going to be playable on D and could put up some points, because we lacked proven scorers. Tariq checked this box although Piek admitted he had reservations about Francis’ D but he said he’s been pleasantly surprised. While we may have doubts about how effective Francis will be in getting his shots off, his D is clearly playable and his ballhandling servicable. J Mike isn’t a great career FT shooter so adding an 82% FT shooting veteran to help close out games helpful. Out of everything Tariq being playable on D has been was one of the most promising off season developments. There will be mismatch situations where Pike moves away from the Davis / Francis combo but having 2 playable veteran ball handlers is a big deal.
1. Grant looked great and improving right before our eyes. 9-10, 90% from the line is a much needed jolt.
2. Ogbole looked like the 2nd coming of Jammin’ James Bailey. A double/double.
Granted lesser competition but would you have seen that last year? He’s improving.
3. Buchanan continues to be an unheralded positive. 8 rebounds can’t be ignored.
4. JMike had a very nice game offensively and a very nice 5-6 from the line. Francis had a rough shooting game but still managed 4 assists and 6 rebounds. Bandalu a non factor but no real worries. Still looking the part.
5. Really should have blew Lehigh out. Didn’t cover. Scary.
6. 3-13 from 3 is a real worry. Hope Zrno gets untracked. 0-4 from three is problematic.
7. It’s sad when 70% from the line is a huge improvement. We have to do better from the line.
Lots of coachable moments. Hope we develop and improve. Looks like it is happening with Ogbole and Grant. Fingers crossed.
Nice job Degaz.
2. Ogbole looked like the 2nd coming of Jammin’ James Bailey. A double/double.
Granted lesser competition but would you have seen that last year? He’s improving.
3. Buchanan continues to be an unheralded positive. 8 rebounds can’t be ignored.
4. JMike had a very nice game offensively and a very nice 5-6 from the line. Francis had a rough shooting game but still managed 4 assists and 6 rebounds. Bandalu a non factor but no real worries. Still looking the part.
5. Really should have blew Lehigh out. Didn’t cover. Scary.
6. 3-13 from 3 is a real worry. Hope Zrno gets untracked. 0-4 from three is problematic.
7. It’s sad when 70% from the line is a huge improvement. We have to do better from the line.
Lots of coachable moments. Hope we develop and improve. Looks like it is happening with Ogbole and Grant. Fingers crossed.
Nice job Degaz.
Big worry is defending the 3 we just hedge off of the guys way too much and always give the other team wide open 3 pointers
On the bright side, even most good college teams suck at running screen and rolls.
Good recap. I’d add that, while it is still way too early to write him off, Zrno looks like a ZERO so far.
And hopefully RU now has an AD who will succeed with this.
As well as Ogbole played that would have been a subpar night for James Bailey. For most of his career he was a way more dominant player. I very much enjoyed watching him play!
Based on the terrible roster construction you should have believed it before the first game was played.
My goodness! You can't be serious! This team sucks from top to bottom. The only B1G player that I see is Grant, and that's as maybe a 6th man. Davis is a passable defender in the B1G and Buchanan is a B1G bench piece. The rest of these guys should be playing in the MAAC or AE.
Thank you. Feel like I’m going crazy with so many folks preaching patience and hyping this roster in comparison to last year. The roster is bare
Anyone who thinks this year's roster is anywhere close to last year's roster is delusional.
The same delusional optimism is on the comment threads at the On The Banks site.
And watch this TERRIBLE team outperform last years team….
the players play much more like a team than I saw last year. Talent level is just not as good
the players play much more like a team than I saw last year. Talent level is just not as good
Well thank goodness you’re here to set everyone straight
It's a shame that this board got filled up with idiots like you. This board used to be a place for intelligent basketball conversation.
Everybody knew coming into the season that it was going to be an uphill battle. If your expectations are appropriately calibrated it’s much easier to watch without stressing. As long as they play hard with a good attitude then I’m good for THIS season. Pike gets one more year after this to retain the guys he wants to retain and improve via portal. If we’re still stuck in neutral then we can part ways in ‘27.
no reason to get fussed in the meantime
no reason to get fussed in the meantime
It’s the 3rd game of the season. Kenpom and such have no idea yet what caliber Lehigh is relative to last year’s Kennesaw St team. All it knows is a 12 point loss @ RU, an 18 point loss @ Houston and a 21 point loss WVU (the blow out win over D2 school doesn’t count).
Kennesaw didn’t play any other high majors last year but when they went to Santa Clara and San Jose St they lost by 20+.
Agreed. This season is stress-free, anything we achieve is gravy. In fact I fully expect us to drop one of the two next week. And it won't really kill anything for me. We'll have some moments this season despite generally being overmatched.
My stress comes from being able to retain kids like Grant and Nwuli next season.
This post is perfect. People on this board make me laugh because they claimed before the season started that their expectations were adjusted, then they come on here and crap on everything during the OOC. Some folks just enjoy bitching - it’s a hobby for them.
We did flash the middle some last night against the zone - a step in the right direction.
He certainly didn’t look comfortable against Lehigh. Prior to the Lehigh game he was shooting 60% from 3, but against Lehigh he went 0-5 overall and 0-4 from 3 bringing his shooting percentage down to 33% from 3. Right now his role seems limited to shooting 3s and playing halfway decent defense. Lehigh was the first team we faced that did a good job defending the 3. We will see how his shooting goes when we face better teams that defend the 3.
Last year when the season started Dylan Grant looked lost. He missed his first 9 shots. It took him most of the OOC to get good. It wasn’t until the end of the year that he was playing really well. How he is playing this year is truly next level. So far I am incredibly impressed with how much he has improved. But the short answer is he didn’t start at the beginning of last year because he wasn’t ready.
Grant's story last season is one reason I am holding hope for Nwuli being a contributor this season. It takes some guys time to learn the team defense concepts. Manage expectations for the team and cheer for the good whenever it happens.
It’s pikes 9th year…. I bang the pike drum as much as anyone and am grateful for what he did but he doesn’t get a big run way to fix this
he gets this year barring an 0 for in conference play and next year to get back on track but the expectations should just be better than “let’s play hard and maybe shock a couple teams” I’ll save that rhetoric for my cousins 5th grade CYO league
Yet we have fans saying it’s obvious from watching him play that he would be at best a 6th man on any other BIG roster. I scratch my head wondering what these posters are seeing that they are basing this on. Maybe he’ll drop off when we play better teams, but there’s nothing in the first 3 game film that should lead anyone to that conclusion. He’s averaging 18.3 ppg / 7 rpg in only 25 mpg on 60% shooting.
Most freshman aren’t ready to contribute day one. Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper were exceptions. The European players may not have as hard a time adapting to college level basketball because they played professionally in Europe. I think we will see several freshman players become contributors this season, which we will need. The two I think are most likely to be contributors are Nwuli and Mark.
My concern early on is the minutes distribution
There’s no real bench getting developed as we are going 7 maybe 8 deep at most against quad 4 teams
when are these other guys getting chances to develop
The two guards are averaging over 30 minutes against the 3 worst teams we’re going to play why should anyone expect it to change as season goes on god forbid an injury
There’s no real bench getting developed as we are going 7 maybe 8 deep at most against quad 4 teams
when are these other guys getting chances to develop
The two guards are averaging over 30 minutes against the 3 worst teams we’re going to play why should anyone expect it to change as season goes on god forbid an injury
Nwuli is going to play more and more is my prediction - especially based on the Rant interview. He walks into the room during it and Pike addresses him directly and basically says outright this one hasn’t shown what he can do yet but he will - right Chris? Or something like that. It was not a Chol like prop up. He basically said Nwuli will be playing. Nwuli just has to stop putting the ball on the floor for now and focus on the things he is ready to do to help the team. I think he’ll be a 15 mpg type at least. Core subs for now Buchanan, Nwuli and Dortch.
Pike seems to know there’s uncertainty at back up guard but it seems the direction he’s going for now is grooming Buchanan to slide over rather than throw Lino Mark into the fire. Zrno seems like a situation use type of sub. He can’t help with ball handling and his D is sub par. There will be days his shooting is on and then he’ll be a part of the rotation. Eventually Lino Mark might come along but doesn’t seem like he’s there quite yet. I think we can probably assume anything we get from Fall is gravy. Pike said in the interview Powers isn’t ready on D.