In this context, Wenzel should not be in the conversation. Ha actually made the NCAA Tournament.
I agree... Wenzel's light began to dim towards the end. However, Pike's receipts don't quite add up to Wenzel's just yet.
In the Big East, Wenzel had some awful recruits such as Jason Maronge; Johnny McCrimmon; Darko M (from Yugoslavia and I recall Wenzel never even seeing him play) but he also did recruit Geoff Billet; Rob Hodgson and Earl Johnson if I recall. He wasn't a good recruiter but he did bring in some quality kids. When things never improved over several years (I believe 1998) - it was sayonara Bob and in with the Nudist - Kevin Bannon and his soon to be drama.
With the bigs we now have on the team I wouldn't say were going to rely on outside shooting. Eugene, Shaq1, Shaq2, Issa, Myles and Duke will
Ivy league admission standards? If you're talking about Rutgers College when it was still intact as a separate entity, it wasn't ever quite that high. Probably more like Michigan or UVA. That wouldn't matter anyway because the other colleges like Livingston college were there that were less selective.
Ivy League was tongue in cheek. We had higher than minimum NCAA standards at the time. Higher than other schools.
Did Yogi really say that? $$$$
I disagree that Wenzel fits into the conversation. I wasn’t happy, but calling him a “disaster“ is going too far. He inherited more of a disaster than Pike. His first NCAA team was before Duncan and Hughes were eligible. After they graduated, he was recruiting for local players in a league that had no television presence to speak of against a league that dominated the airwaves. Many, like Eric Murdoch, mentioned this specifically when they explained why they were not considering RU. It was an impossible recruiting situation. He was given two years once he got to the big east. That league was every bit as tough then as the Big Ten is now. He went 11-25 in the league as compared to our 6-30 the last two years in the big 10. I do think that Pike will be our best in living memory. However, Wenzel was not among our worst.
We all thought Wenzel was a genius his first year because he took the Littlepage teams to the NCAA Tournament. Then a few years later we realized it was because Jeff Van Gundy was on the staff
If we take Wenzels whole career at RU into account, I think Pikiels record is better already. And I'm pretty sure one of Pikiels teams could also have won the A-10 in 89. That was not a great league.
That guy had no business playing high division 1 basketball. He wasn’t even the best rec basketball player on Livingston campus. Recruits like that signaled the beginning of the end for Wentzel.
