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My thoughts on 2022, 2023, and beyond

Let's revisit this, now that the emotions have subsided for some people and we now have the 1st 2 rounds of both the NCAAs and NIT out of the way.....and let's debunk anything that stated I said Mag wasn't a B1G player, that's never been said by me...if anything, I am probably too "Pro RU player" so let's stop with the BS.

We have 1 recruit in the last 4 recruiting classes of 2019 to 2022, that was a 4* player (Cliff Omoyuri). Whether fans want to believe this or not, Cliff is probably at worse the 3rd best big in the B1G.

It is the following beyond that we somehow have fans blinded by emotion or fandom, instead of taking off their Scarlet glasses and looking at the entire landscape of the B1G OR a national level.

Beyond that, we had a PG at 33 MPG average around 8 PPG.....that's lowest by 2 full points per game vs the 13th PG in the B1G. That's not a rumor, it's what we watched over 30+ games.

We had another transfer guard in, who averaged 13PPG and is a excellent 3 point shooter and 90% FT shooter.

But Spencer shot 58.5% from 3 in 10 games that were not good opponents (Q4 games, plus 2 vs Minnesota and 1 NIT game vs Hofstra).....in those 10 games, Spencer averaged 17.3 PPG.

In the other 24 games against decent OOC opponents (Temple, SHU, Wake and Miami and the rest of the B1G except Minnesota)....the 3 PT% drops 20 points from 58.3% to 38.5%..... and the PPG drops from 17.3 PPG against softer, slower (not good competition), all the way down to 11.4PPG. Is that a concern or do we put our heads in the sand and ignore it?? 6PPG is a huge dropoff if you just look at overall stats for the entire year.

Mag, somehow evolved into the sole reason RU wasn't good after his injury, or became the 2nd coming of Ron Harper Jr.....he averaged 7PPG in his 1st 15 games of the year...which is good for a 1st time starter and developmental player.

In Mags last 8 games, that production jumped from 7PPG to just under 9PPG.

In either case, the injury or not, as a starting SF in the B1G, it is below average for our competition in terms of production, even if I take the trend UP to 9PPG. Is that the standard some fans are looking and asking for as unbeatable??

Our other forward is also at around 9PPG and is the co-defensive player of the year, but I have a duplicate player in that type of player with Mag as a defense-1st glue guy, who is not a player that gets his own offense or a volume shooter from 3. You simply could not or should not have both players as starters and I would not have taken out the defensive player of the year, for Mawot Mag, under any circumstances.

These are the items that we are looking to upgrade or improve upon, yet fans are still wondering if 8PPG is the standard for 33MPG from our Point guard and 7 to 8PPG is what fans are in love with from 1 forward, while mixing that with another defensive 1st guard forward??

Add the SG who absolutely must be left wide open to shoot and cannot generate his own shot.....aren't ALL of these things on the table to consider as needing improvements??

Or are we just looking for fans to say "they were right" when the numbers and watching the games that matter the most, tells or shows something else??
I agree with your point that Mag was no RHJ and some made his loss out to be like that and who knows - maybe our reactions even contributed to the national notice that the committee took in correlating the loss of a 24 mpg guy to our demise.

That said - Mag and Hyatt combined to make for a solid full time spot in the line up at 4. So your wrong about that part. Hyatt in particular is a problem as a guy expected to give big minutes because he’s not good on defense so when his shots don’t fall he sometimes really hurts us. With Mag that was never the case. And he was always a good transition player too on a team that didn’t have much of that.
 
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Let's revisit this, now that the emotions have subsided for some people and we now have the 1st 2 rounds of both the NCAAs and NIT out of the way.....and let's debunk anything that stated I said Mag wasn't a B1G player, that's never been said by me...if anything, I am probably too "Pro RU player" so let's stop with the BS.

We have 1 recruit in the last 4 recruiting classes of 2019 to 2022, that was a 4* player (Cliff Omoyuri). Whether fans want to believe this or not, Cliff is probably at worse the 3rd best big in the B1G.

It is the following beyond that we somehow have fans blinded by emotion or fandom, instead of taking off their Scarlet glasses and looking at the entire landscape of the B1G OR a national level.

Beyond that, we had a PG at 33 MPG average around 8 PPG.....that's lowest by 2 full points per game vs the 13th PG in the B1G. That's not a rumor, it's what we watched over 30+ games.

We had another transfer guard in, who averaged 13PPG and is a excellent 3 point shooter and 90% FT shooter.

But Spencer shot 58.5% from 3 in 10 games that were not good opponents (Q4 games, plus 2 vs Minnesota and 1 NIT game vs Hofstra).....in those 10 games, Spencer averaged 17.3 PPG.

In the other 24 games against decent OOC opponents (Temple, SHU, Wake and Miami and the rest of the B1G except Minnesota)....the 3 PT% drops 20 points from 58.3% to 38.5%..... and the PPG drops from 17.3 PPG against softer, slower (not good competition), all the way down to 11.4PPG. Is that a concern or do we put our heads in the sand and ignore it?? 6PPG is a huge dropoff if you just look at overall stats for the entire year.

Mag, somehow evolved into the sole reason RU wasn't good after his injury, or became the 2nd coming of Ron Harper Jr.....he averaged 7PPG in his 1st 15 games of the year...which is good for a 1st time starter and developmental player.

In Mags last 8 games, that production jumped from 7PPG to just under 9PPG.

In either case, the injury or not, as a starting SF in the B1G, it is below average for our competition in terms of production, even if I take the trend UP to 9PPG. Is that the standard some fans are looking and asking for as unbeatable??

Our other forward is also at around 9PPG and is the co-defensive player of the year, but I have a duplicate player in that type of player with Mag as a defense-1st glue guy, who is not a player that gets his own offense or a volume shooter from 3. You simply could not or should not have both players as starters and I would not have taken out the defensive player of the year, for Mawot Mag, under any circumstances.

These are the items that we are looking to upgrade or improve upon, yet fans are still wondering if 8PPG is the standard for 33MPG from our Point guard and 7 to 8PPG is what fans are in love with from 1 forward, while mixing that with another defensive 1st guard forward??

Add the SG who absolutely must be left wide open to shoot and cannot generate his own shot.....aren't ALL of these things on the table to consider as needing improvements??

Or are we just looking for fans to say "they were right" when the numbers and watching the games that matter the most, tells or shows something else??

You've only focused on one side of the ball and I imagine your better than this based on your generally thoughtful posts. Pretty much everyone who posts here regularly recognizes that RU has challenges on the offensive side of the ball and that Mag was by no means a star contributor in that regard. However the marked change in defense when he went down should also be apparent to most.

Mag has an incredible 7' 6"+ wingspan, could essentially guard all 5 positions and is extremely quick on defensive rotations. The team went from a serious threat on both Full Court press / Half Court Trap to a more token level after he went down to injury. The constant pressure defense worked to wear the opponent offense down and likely cause both offensive set and shooting inconsistencies.
 
Mag’s offense was growing the last 5 games before the injury. In the game he got injured, he scored 7 and had 3 rebounds in just 11 minutes before being injured. Potentially was a 20 point game for him. I excited about seeing his return next year.
 
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