Up 9, we choked this game away.

[bac2therac]

Montez was bad in the first half, got pulled and given a 2nd chance and pulled the same exact routine. I trust Pike here

did any of his 7 shots hit rim or backboard

 

[albanyknight]

Not all that complicated. The shots did not go down on this night.

We will get our first win against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

How many layups can a team miss?

Rutgers MBB has a mental block against Mish

Played like trash both games against them.

Bad job tonight

 

[Hamilton's Cannon]

Some nights Young seems a bit too wild.........

Some nights??!? A lot of nights. But when he is good he is an X factor we desperately need. Problem is he is worse more than he is good. Unacceptable for a transfer who played 2 years, practiced with the team for a year but still isn’t consistent.

 

[JavaDunk18]

When Michigan went with big lineup, we could have still taken more higher percentage mid-range shots..Young should have played earlier and more, as defensively he was the only one who could stick with Simpson..Michigan got away with a lot of moving screens and illegal picks, which were the only way they could Clear off JY.. Michigan isn't necessarily more talented, they are just bigger, and more consistent from long range - they set up the 3 much better. It was predictably from the same spot, and should have been defended better this second time around...when we had 9 point lead, we should have pressed, and got some steals to put the game away there.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Bac

Agree..but here is the thing

Our gameplan has to use depth to wear teams out ...we didn’t do that last night ...deviation from gameplan where yeboah, Harper and baker played a total of 90 minutes ...And while we still brought the defense ...I think it has an effect on the offense not being nearly strong enough on the cuts ...or having fluidity because we weren’t moving fast or hard enough in the last 8

 

[RuBird]

BS. We went up 9 and had momentum. Geo goes 1 on 3 with a full SC and throws up a terrible shot and Mich scores quickly in transition. Kills the momentum and takes the crowd out of it.

nm

 

[IL Lusciato]

How about someone actually look at the game when we were up 9. While we had some bad turnovers it appeared we were trying to score in the paint and possibly draw some fouls on their bigs. It was our opportunity to put some distance on our opponent. It appeared to me refs were not allowing that to happen, giving Michigan an opportunity to get back in it. I am sure calls go both ways but seemed at the RAC and Garden we could not go to the line when shooting around the rim.

This can't be ignored or excused away either. Refs kept Michigan in to an extent

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

There's no other way to say it. We were up 9 feeling good about ourselves, and then for some reason the kids pressed when Michigan went on their run and not only caught up to us, but passed us. And then our kids couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Credit Michigan for keeping the pressure on us. Our reliable shooters the last several games especially Yeboah, failed miserably tonight. He had so many open looks from behind the arc and either air balled them or clanged them off the otherside of the rim, because he couldn't get into any rhythm. And once again, Harper is too damn inconsistent. We needed him and once again he disappeared. The same with Geo. He was awesome in the first half and then except for a few jump shots he too couldn't hit a shot to save his life. And where the hell was Myles? Even when Teske went out, he should have destroyed Davis underneath and our guards hardly tried to get the ball to him.

One last important observation: I thought Pikiell's substitution patterns were terrible tonight. When we went super cold in the second half, it took him more than 5 minutes to bring back any of our scorers. I love Young on defense, but on offense tonight, he was out of control. And Caleb is a mess. A mental mess. I've never seen a kid, with this talent and length shrink so much in the spotlight. He's gotta get it together and help us down the stretch.

I don't know about you, but I am SO SICK of losing to Michigan. This is becoming like our losses against WVU in football. I HATE Michigan. My sister graduated from there, and we don't get along. Enough said.

For whatever reason, our kids just tensed up and I don't know why. This game was more than winnable and we allowed a Liversless team to beat us on our undefeated floor.

I still think we're in good shape, but now the pressure is on. We HAVE TO win a road game now and beat Maryland at home. Not easy but doable. I'm angry as hell, but I still believe in this team!

They get tense because of posts like this. People put so much pressure on beating a team for no other reason than it is a team that someone wants to beat. This isn’t a rivalry game. It has no emotion attached to it yet we put pressure to win. It is just another game. Next....

 

[RUsince52]

Michigan went really big...that's what turned the game their way. I think they were 7'1, 6"11 and 6'8 for a good stretch. Mixed in some zone with all that height.

And all those guys can score which makes a big difference. They knock down 3 pointers too.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

Choke is a little much. We got up 9 for 4 seconds. We didn’t maintain a big lead at all. We got up 9 they came right back...

simpson was best player on floor. Best guard in the league. Couldn’t stop his penetration. I wish we would have hedges really hard to push him out of the lane and force other players to beat us. Simpson is too good

 

[RUsince52]

We didn’t choke, we just lost. Sometimes we miss a lot of shots.

More like a hiccup at the wrong times and no way to stop it. Yes give Michigan credit, but some of our passes looked like a 6th grader could intercept them.

 

[gordel1]

Choke is a little much. We got up 9 for 4 seconds. We didn’t maintain a big lead at all. We got up 9 they came right back...

simpson was best player on floor. Best guard in the league. Couldn’t stop his penetration. I wish we would have hedges really hard to push him out of the lane and force other players to beat us. Simpson is too good

Other players did beat us. Not surprisingly that Michigan got key contributors from Wagner, Dejulius and Castleton. In fact Castleton was the one who started it all and kind of out of nowhere. If you told me before the game we held Michigan to 60, and Teske or Johns didn’t do much I would have said we would’ve won by a lot. Simpson carries them in the first half and then their supporting cast came through. When Rutgers started their huge drought it didn’t seem like one really because we were matching defensive stops for a while until they finally started getting buckets in which it was essentially over at that point.

 

[SirScarlet]

Other players did beat us. Not surprisingly that Michigan got key contributors from Wagner, Dejulius and Castleton. In fact Castleton was the one who started it all and kind of out of nowhere. If you told me before the game we held Michigan to 60, and Teske or Johns didn’t do much I would have said we would’ve won by a lot. Simpson carries them in the first half and then their supporting cast came through. When Rutgers started their huge drought it didn’t seem like one really because we were matching defensive stops for a while until they finally started getting buckets in which it was essentially over at that point.

Good post

Castleton gave them GREAT minutes and his length on D really hampered us.

At the end of the day, we held them to 60 points and IIRC only one clean pick and roll. We just missed too many foul line jumpers and layups. When that continued we pressed and took some bad shots.

Just out of sorts last night offensively.

 

[fluoxetine]

More like a hiccup at the wrong times and no way to stop it. Yes give Michigan credit, but some of our passes looked like a 6th grader could intercept them.

Sure, but that’s bad play, not “choking”.

 

[RUforJERSEY]

Choke is a little much. We got up 9 for 4 seconds. We didn’t maintain a big lead at all. We got up 9 they came right back...

simpson was best player on floor. Best guard in the league. Couldn’t stop his penetration. I wish we would have hedges really hard to push him out of the lane and force other players to beat us. Simpson is too good

Winston and Cowan lead me to disagree.

 

[RutgersDom]

Michigan went really big...that's what turned the game their way. I think they were 7'1, 6"11 and 6'8 for a good stretch. Mixed in some zone with all that height.

Let's not mix in facts to counter the opinion that we choked LOL. The complainers seem to think we actually have a good/consistent shooting team for some reason. Surprised more teams should go big and zone against us. Was the issue at MSG. Couldn't get enough "good" looks close to the basket. It is what it is...Wisky next...Hopefully we steal at least one road win down the stretch...

 

[srru86]

Michigan went really big...that's what turned the game their way. I think they were 7'1, 6"11 and 6'8 for a good stretch. Mixed in some zone with all that height.

How many times were we on the wrong side of the size match up this year? Not many I think.

 

[RU MAN]

They get tense because of posts like this. People put so much pressure on beating a team for no other reason than it is a team that someone wants to beat. This isn’t a rivalry game. It has no emotion attached to it yet we put pressure to win. It is just another game. Next....

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