Today

[biazza38]

It’s pretty obvious coach did not play the best guys today
What on earth are we doing running the offense through Cliff and Hyatt to start the game?
Williams taken out early in the first half when he got hot.
Gavin not getting enough minutes.
I have no idea who our PG is.
This is as big of a mess as I’ve seen.
Mag needs to come back. Maybe, just maybe that will provide some stability on defense.
Not to mention Illinois killed us on the boards

 

[RutgersChow]

Good takes. Taking Williams out at the time he did was mind boggling, but then again he does it all the time. It's like he wants the kid to come out feeling good about himself. He's not a bad starting pitcher pitching a shutout through five innings.

 

[SBP]

It’s pretty obvious coach did not play the best guys today
What on earth are we doing running the offense through Cliff and Hyatt to start the game?
Williams taken out early in the first half when he got hot.
Gavin not getting enough minutes.
I have no idea who our PG is.
This is as big of a mess as I’ve seen.
Mag needs to come back. Maybe, just maybe that will provide some stability on defense.
Not to mention Illinois killed us on the boards

This was a head scratcher at the time?

 

[Scangg]

Pike needs to ride the hot hand. We don't have clear cut superstars. It's a bunch of role players. If someone is having a good game, play them. Don't over think it

 

[needmorecowbell]

Cliff did not play well today. Unfortunately he is one of their best options on offense. The team was out of rhythm and there is no one who can improvise and take over. Noah is the only guy who can create shots for himself and for others but he was shut down today. The team has holes. Not sure they can fill them this year.

 

[RUBlackout]

Taking out Williams when he was hot was a mistake...too often we rotate players out based on time rather than the game.
That said, getting Mag back will not suddenly change the dynamic of our team--people are really stretching every time his name is mentioned that its going to miraculously change our team and I think that is a lot to expect coming back from injury.
I would like to see Gavin more and I will take his weak defense for him to improve there considering what we COULD get out of him on offense

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Williams did come out for Gavin. He had Gavin to scorers table and yanked him back after the williams steal and vasket. 2 minutes later he eventually made the williams for gavin swap

 

[RAC93]

Cliff did not play well today. Unfortunately he is one of their best options on offense. The team was out of rhythm and there is no one who can improvise and take over. Noah is the only guy who can create shots for himself and for others but he was shut down today. The team has holes. Not sure they can fill them this year.

Agreed that he did not play well. Disagree that he’s one of their best options. He has no post moves, no back to the basket game yet they start every game trying to repeatedly chuck down low to Cliff for points. His offensive game and moves have not progressed, maybe a little progress but not enough to run an offense through him similar to how Purdue does with Edey. Cliff’s offensive game is dunks and layups off lobs, passes off a teammate’s drive and putbacks. He gets maybe a basket or two a game when he tries to go at his man in the post. Cliff scored more previous seasons because Geo, Ron, Paul, and Cam would lob/dish to him and look for him. There is not much lob game going on with this group this year, so Cliff’s “offense” is diminished. Cliff and Noah have shown “ZERO” on court chemistry this year as far as Noah feeding him for easy scores. They need to rely on shooting the 3 more, not trying to get scoring from Wolf and Cliff in the post as both are not reliable scorers down low. RU actually hit threes today but did not take enough of them for some reason.

 

[RutgersChow]

Agreed that he did not play well. Disagree that he’s one of their best options. He has no post moves, no back to the basket game yet they start every game trying to repeatedly chuck down low to Cliff for points. His offensive game and moves have not progressed, maybe a little progress but not enough to run an offense through him similar to how Purdue does with Edey. Cliff’s offensive game is dunks and layups off lobs, passes off a teammate’s drive and putbacks. He gets maybe a basket or two a game when he tries to go at his man in the post. Cliff scored more previous seasons because Geo, Ron, Paul, and Cam would lob/dish to him and look for him. There is not much lob game going on with this group this year, so Cliff’s “offense” is diminished. Cliff and Noah have shown “ZERO” on court chemistry this year as far as Noah feeding him for easy scores. They need to rely on shooting the 3 more, not trying to get scoring from Wolf and Cliff in the post as both are not reliable scorers down low. RU actually hit threes today but did not take enough of them for some reason.

If Cliff could catch and pass out from the post it would be worth it to go inside to him, but as a scoring option it makes zero sense - seems Pike sees something that no one else does. Physical talent aside, we also lost the three guys who best knew how to play the game.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Agreed that he did not play well. Disagree that he’s one of their best options. He has no post moves, no back to the basket game yet they start every game trying to repeatedly chuck down low to Cliff for points. His offensive game and moves have not progressed, maybe a little progress but not enough to run an offense through him similar to how Purdue does with Edey. Cliff’s offensive game is dunks and layups off lobs, passes off a teammate’s drive and putbacks. He gets maybe a basket or two a game when he tries to go at his man in the post. Cliff scored more previous seasons because Geo, Ron, Paul, and Cam would lob/dish to him and look for him. There is not much lob game going on with this group this year, so Cliff’s “offense” is diminished. Cliff and Noah have shown “ZERO” on court chemistry this year as far as Noah feeding him for easy scores. They need to rely on shooting the 3 more, not trying to get scoring from Wolf and Cliff in the post as both are not reliable scorers down low. RU actually hit threes today but did not take enough of them for some reason.

Agree with some of this , the guards are not getting him the ball in good spots. He struggled today trying post up for sure. The big problem is our guards imo. They can’t penetrate so the d doesn’t need to help or rotate which means guys aren’t open for 3 often.

 

[RUJMM78]

The problem is roster composition.Small guards provide quickness but they have difficulty making layups and getting shots blocked.They also lack the height to throw lob passes to Cliff for dunks.Rebounding is far worse than in previous seasons caused by poor positioning and opponents jumping over smaller Rutgers players.The roster is composed mostly of complementary type players with no go to scorers.Player development isn't the answer when the problems are size and shooting ability.

 

[biazza38]

The construction of this team is moronic

 

[bethlehemfan]

Even our bigger players are not good rebounders.

 

[zappaa]

Agreed that he did not play well. Disagree that he’s one of their best options. He has no post moves, no back to the basket game yet they start every game trying to repeatedly chuck down low to Cliff for points. His offensive game and moves have not progressed, maybe a little progress but not enough to run an offense through him similar to how Purdue does with Edey. Cliff’s offensive game is dunks and layups off lobs, passes off a teammate’s drive and putbacks. He gets maybe a basket or two a game when he tries to go at his man in the post. Cliff scored more previous seasons because Geo, Ron, Paul, and Cam would lob/dish to him and look for him. There is not much lob game going on with this group this year, so Cliff’s “offense” is diminished. Cliff and Noah have shown “ZERO” on court chemistry this year as far as Noah feeding him for easy scores. They need to rely on shooting the 3 more, not trying to get scoring from Wolf and Cliff in the post as both are not reliable scorers down low. RU actually hit threes today but did not take enough of them for some reason.

Cliff would be excellent with good athletic forwards around him who command attention and need to be guarded.
Strangely, Pike is embarrassing Cliff by asking him to do something he’s bad at

 

[zappaa]

Allow Cliff to stop fighting and wasting energy trying to position himself for an entry pass everyone overplays and knows is coming…. Perhaps Pike should try letting him set picks and react to the ball so he can attack the glass for rebounds, put backs and dunks.
Let the kid do something he’s good at.

This team can’t be successful if Cliff is the first touch 10 feet from the basket….give it up!
Stop it.

 

[AshCatchEm]

Blind loyalty to your longtime players over your transfers is the perfect way not to attract transfers in the future.

They're coming here to play, not watch our other guys suck

 

[S.W.A.I.N]

Blind loyalty to your longtime players over your transfers is the perfect way not to attract transfers in the future.

They're coming here to play, not watch our other guys suck

Somehow I’ll go with Pike’s brand of loyalty than your expert guidance on how to handle the portal.

 

[AshCatchEm]

Somehow I’ll go with Pike’s brand of loyalty than your expert guidance on how to handle the portal.

Yea that blind loyalty helped us miss the tournament last year thanks to how many minutes he continued to forcefeed mulcahy while he was nothing short of dog **** and could very well make us miss this year. Last night's lineup and the guys who were getting major minutes was an embarrassment.

Amazing how complacent our fans get thanks to two underwhelming tournament appearances.

 

[S.W.A.I.N]

Yea that blind loyalty helped us miss the tournament last year thanks to how many minutes he continued to forcefeed mulcahy while he was nothing short of dog **** and could very well make us miss this year. Last night's lineup and the guys who were getting major minutes was an embarrassment.

Amazing how complacent our fans get thanks to two underwhelming tournament appearances.

Mulcahy, the guy who he told he wouldn’t take back, the opposite of your claims of blind loyalty? Try again.

He’s no Ash, but hey…

 

[RutgersChow]

The problem is roster composition.Small guards provide quickness but they have difficulty making layups and getting shots blocked.They also lack the height to throw lob passes to Cliff for dunks.Rebounding is far worse than in previous seasons caused by poor positioning and opponents jumping over smaller Rutgers players.The roster is composed mostly of complementary type players with no go to scorers.Player development isn't the answer when the problems are size and shooting ability.

If smaller players block out they can be efficient rebounders. Most of our guys don't even look to block out.

 

[RutgersChow]

Yea that blind loyalty helped us miss the tournament last year thanks to how many minutes he continued to forcefeed mulcahy while he was nothing short of dog **** and could very well make us miss this year. Last night's lineup and the guys who were getting major minutes was an embarrassment.

Amazing how complacent our fans get thanks to two underwhelming tournament appearances.

Fernandez is not in Mulcahy's world as an overall player. When Mulcahy wanted to come back, I would still like to know who on the staff or team was against it, and exactly why. We've already established that we could have made room for him. I still don't believe this was a decision Pike would have made unless others got into his ear. Paul admitted he made a mistake and Pike is too much of a stand-up guy not to accept that. So exactly who do you think was complaining about Paul and why?

 

[RU84]

I thought that was one of the better Illinois teams I've seen in awhile. They're bigger across the board than RU which contributed to the massive rebounding margin. They did a better job of attacking the paint off the dribble to generate points than RU. They were able to hit cutters across the baseline or open players in the post for easy layups. If Cliff had some arc or used glass around the basket he probably could have had another several points.

 

[cm_13]

Fernandez is not in Mulcahy's world as an overall player. When Mulcahy wanted to come back, I would still like to know who on the staff or team was against it, and exactly why. We've already established that we could have made room for him. I still don't believe this was a decision Pike would have made unless others got into his ear. Paul admitted he made a mistake and Pike is too much of a stand-up guy not to accept that. So exactly who do you think was complaining about Paul and why?

We haven’t established we could have made room for him, you just keep saying we could have.

 

[phlop87]

I would never have Cliff and Wolf on the court at the same time. Whichever is on the court I would keep them just outside the weakside block. With occasionally reading the D and popping into the paint and in the case of Wolf I would let him pop to the foul line ( I believe he is a better passer and has show. He can catch and take a dribble or two at the rim). It would keep them in better rebounding position and put them in a position to get a lob or pass from someone driving to the basket if their defender dropped them to pick up While at it I would also have the perimeter players set off ball picks for each other

 

[RU84]

Fernandez is not in Mulcahy's world as an overall player. When Mulcahy wanted to come back, I would still like to know who on the staff or team was against it, and exactly why. We've already established that we could have made room for him. I still don't believe this was a decision Pike would have made unless others got into his ear. Paul admitted he made a mistake and Pike is too much of a stand-up guy not to accept that. So exactly who do you think was complaining about Paul and why?

So I guess if Mulcahy was here instead Fernandes we beat Illinois?

 

[jakeknight]

Yesterday was not a surprise, at this point Illinois is a better team, substantially bigger, two legitimate very good players (Shannon and Hawkins), more aggressive, if you watched any of their games yesterday was no surprise.
We eventually could be a good team, if our guards can consistently score the ball, if wolf is going to start he needs to rebound much more aggressively. Team can't sleep walk the first five minutes of the game.