The Freshmen -Quick Thoughts

[RU_PAYBACK]

Cliff: Still very raw. Is a nice complimentary player that provides paint pts, passing, blocks, and rebounds. Will need to get stronger, the future is bright. Hopefully not a big fouler come B1G play

Oskar: He did a couple nice things yesterday, but obvi the shot is not there. Bogus foul call. I hope they can continue to play him so he gains more confidence, but not to the detriment of the team's success.

Dean: Can he borrow the jugs machine from Bo & Shaheem? Needs to be better at catching the ball. Strength & Conditioning will serve this young man well.

Mawot: Seems like a heady player. Will contribute in a few ways esp defense. I feel he'll be good on the offensive side in a year or three.Any update on his injury?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Obviously way too early to pass any judgement. After watching Myles and Eugene be non factors as 1st year players it is way early to come to conclusions.

This years team, the one with 10 ridiculous hard games coming up that may determine our postseason has a depth issue. It is obvious who are best 5 are and there is a HUGE drop off right now after that. Taking Cliff out of the mix as a big.....we need more in the 47 perimeter minutes not played by Ron, Montez and Jacob. 108 is way too many minutes for those 3 to play.

Geo comes back
Baker 32
Young 32
Harper 32
Mathis 28
Centers 40

That leaves 36 minutes.

 

[RU05]

Dean needs confidence. Has ability, and I think a pretty polished game, but needs to play more with the mindset of being better then opposition. Couple games back I thought he was ahead of the Swede, but the Swede appears to have taken the lead at the moment.

Would be nice to have Cliff come right in and dominate, but maybe we are better off in the long run if he comes in as a athletic role player now, and develops into that dominant player in the future.

A little unfortunate Mag was limited last night, but I think he has a similar chart to Cliff, but with a higher floor at the moment but a lesser ceiling in the future, but he's a ready to contribute role player now who I think could be an big impact guy in the upcoming years.

 

[RU05]

Obviously way too early to pass any judgement. After watching Myles and Eugene be non factors as 1st year players it is way early to come to conclusions.

This years team, the one with 10 ridiculous hard games coming up that may determine our postseason has a depth issue. It is obvious who are best 5 are and there is a HUGE drop off right now after that. Taking Cliff out of the mix as a big.....we need more in the 47 perimeter minutes not played by Ron, Montez and Jacob. 108 is way too many minutes for those 3 to play.

Geo comes back
Baker 32
Young 32
Harper 32
Mathis 28
Centers 40

That leaves 36 minutes.

We saw some of it last night and will probably see more of Cliff and Myles in the game at the same time going fwd.

Mulcahy and Mag's, will both contribute. Need the Swede or Reiber to get us to a solid 9 man.

 

[RU_PAYBACK]

Obviously way too early to pass any judgement. After watching Myles and Eugene be non factors as 1st year players it is way early to come to conclusions.

This years team, the one with 10 ridiculous hard games coming up that may determine our postseason has a depth issue. It is obvious who are best 5 are and there is a HUGE drop off right now after that. Taking Cliff out of the mix as a big.....we need more in the 47 perimeter minutes not played by Ron, Montez and Jacob. 108 is way too many minutes for those 3 to play.

Geo comes back
Baker 32
Young 32
Harper 32
Mathis 28
Centers 40

That leaves 36 minutes.

Who's passing judgement and coming to conclusions here?

 

[YoucancallmeRay]

Obviously way too early to pass any judgement. After watching Myles and Eugene be non factors as 1st year players it is way early to come to conclusions.

This years team, the one with 10 ridiculous hard games coming up that may determine our postseason has a depth issue. It is obvious who are best 5 are and there is a HUGE drop off right now after that. Taking Cliff out of the mix as a big.....we need more in the 47 perimeter minutes not played by Ron, Montez and Jacob. 108 is way too many minutes for those 3 to play.

Geo comes back
Baker 32
Young 32
Harper 32
Mathis 28
Centers 40

That leaves 36 minutes.

You forgot Paul in that mix. He's a very important factor in the success of the team. Cliff will get his minutes, but I think Mag and Oscar will be fighting each other for playing time. I could see Oscar getting more as the season progresses as I think he's a more well rounded player than Mag.

 

[RAC’emUp]

Cliff: Still very raw. Is a nice complimentary player that provides paint pts, passing, blocks, and rebounds. Will need to get stronger, the future is bright. Hopefully not a big fouler come B1G play

Oskar: He did a couple nice things yesterday, but obvi the shot is not there. Bogus foul call. I hope they can continue to play him so he gains more confidence, but not to the detriment of the team's success.

Dean: Can he borrow the jugs machine from Bo & Shaheem? Needs to be better at catching the ball. Strength & Conditioning will serve this young man well.

Mawot: Seems like a heady player. Will contribute in a few ways esp defense. I feel he'll be good on the offensive side in a year or three.Any update on his injury?

A little early to write off Oskar’s shot.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

You forgot Paul in that mix. He's a very important factor in the success of the team. Cliff will get his minutes, but I think Mag and Oscar will be fighting each other for playing time. I could see Oscar getting more as the season progresses as I think he's a more well rounded player than Mag.

I'd like to see him play 10-15 minutes.

 

[RU_PAYBACK]

You forgot Paul in that mix. He's a very important factor in the success of the team. Cliff will get his minutes, but I think Mag and Oscar will be fighting each other for playing time. I could see Oscar getting more as the season progresses as I think he's a more well rounded player than Mag.
[/QUOTE

Paul is a sophomore.

 

[RU_PAYBACK]

A little early to write off Oskar’s shot.

Yes, no one should be doing that. Kid needs reps.

 

[bac2therac]

I'd like to see him play 10-15 minutes.

Paul will need to step up his game. He had a nice start last night but wasnt impressed after that. He is only a soph however with the depth issues and lack of bench scoring, he is going to have to find some consistency in a hurry

 

[MV9000]

Oskar had a few good plays after a slew of boneheaded ones. Cliff I think wasn’t ready for that level of zone. Dean, needs the jugs machine like noted and I think it’s nerves. Mag is bouncy and I think he’ll be solid defensively with the occasional three and put back.

it was not a great game for them but we did just a considerable level in talent from the sacred hearts of the world.

hopefully a lot of practice focusing on the small things especially defense and positioning.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

Our Top 6 is Geo, JY, MM, PM, RHJ, Myles, They will win us most games in the B1G. That's where 75-80% or more of our minutes, scoring, etc. is coming from on most nights. Last night, 100% of the scoring(5 guys).

It looks like all the freshmen were in their head, nerves, jitters in their first P6, B1G type of game, in a combined 31 minutes 0 pts(0-5, 0-4 from 3), 9 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk, 4 TOs, 5 PFs. We have got to get more of a contribution from their minutes than that if we want to beat the top teams of the B1G. Maybe this game will get those nerves out now against a team like Syracuse, we will find out Monday against Maryland. With a shorten OOC, its going to be hard to get any of them fully B1G ready but Cliff & Mag are the guys that seem to be the two most B1G ready players to fill out the rotation to spell the other 6 the most. Hopefully, we get Palmquist and Reiber a little confidence in an unscheduled OOC game or the home game against Purdue, Dec 29 before a very difficult Jan/Feb B1G schedule.

 

[Rhuarc]

A week ago, we had depth and now we don't? What did I miss?

 

[Degaz-RU]

A week ago, we had depth and now we don't? What did I miss?

I think people are reacting to the less-than-stellar play of the freshmen.

 

[Scangg]

Some might call it overreacting

 

[Rhuarc]

Some might call it overreacting

Impossible. Never happened on this board before.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Paul is a sophomore.

I think he was talking to the guy counting minutes for backcourt players.. if he counts RHJ as a guard then he should grant PM some minutes there.

As for the frosh.. if they don't take the frosh swoon in the spring.. ie wear out.. I think Cliff and Mawot with "have it click" for them some time after 5-6 Big Ten games. The other probably will not play enough to achieve that... though it could happen in practice since they are going against some pretty good Big Ten players every practice.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I'd like to see him play 10-15 minutes.

You will... and another 10-15 as well.

Here are some Big Ten stats.. leaders...

RHJ is doing well.. one of the top 5 players in the conference for certain thus far. Is among the leaders in several categories.

JY is next.. tops in assists per game and steals and shooting a solid 40% from 3. His only flaw is his assist/TO ratio of 1.9 (which is the same as Mulcahy's after this bad game with 4 TOs.. JY had 5 but had a much better game. PM was hurt by some inside passes for chippies not going in.. but that was a lot of TOs for him).

Myles is 3rd in blocks.

unfortunately we have 4 guys in top 10 for minutes per game.

 

[BillyC80]

I love that our freshmen have gotten some decent minutes of real game time. Pike is very good at giving guys a chance to develop in pressure situations when the game could still go either way. I trust that he sees something we don’t see in practice. One day soon the switch will be flipped for these frosh, like it happened for Caleb, and once again we’ll gain strength from our depth.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

An interested add to the JY early assists numbers.
Jacob Young is averaging 6.8 assists a game and Paul Mulcahy at 4.8 assists

The last time a Rutgers men's basketball player averaged 5.0 or more assists in a season is Brian Ellerbe in back to back seasons 1983-84(5.0) and 1984-85(6.2).
Quite a few 4.x assist guys since.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

An interested add to the JY early assists numbers.
Jacob Young is averaging 6.8 assists a game and Paul Mulcahy at 4.8 assists

The last time a Rutgers men's basketball player averaged 5.0 or more assists in a season is Brian Ellerbe in back to back seasons 1983-84(5.0) and 1984-85(6.2).
Quite a few 4.x assist guys since.

It is interesting that they both are in top three for average turnovers per game also.. I guess the more you work to pass to get a good shot for someone.. the more those passes get intercepted... and the more you handle the ball... last game I thought PM's assists to turnovers was a real negative.. but he had what should have been assists disappear with missed chippies.

And with him.. I think sometimes he is focused so much on seeing the whole court that he doesn't see the defender making a move on him. He does the same on D.. when his man is off the ball.. he is so intent on watching the ball.. possibly playing help D that he loses his man.

Now.. like JY's many turnovers.. I don't mind it.. within reason. Its like shooters that have to keep shooting. The plusses outweigh the minuses by a great deal. But PM has to be more careful.. he doesn't shoot/score enough to allow for many nights like the last one. He needs that assist and rebound number high and his TOs low.