Slim pickings? There are many good players still out there.
Pauly Paulicap....from Depaul - has exited the portal, no he hasn’t, yes he has
- Thread starter RUtix4me
- Start date
I don't get the love for Paulicap. Neither are really vying for starting minutes against Cliff, and both would serve more of a Shaq Carter role. Of the two, Harrar seems to be ahead in pretty much everything but blocks - and I don't see how that somehow supercedes everything else.
Harrar and Paulicap have played against entirely different levels of competition, and even then Paulicap was statistically behind. When looking only at games against higher-level opponents, it becomes more clear.
This past year, Harrar played 16 games against kenpom Top 50 teams, for a total of 387 minutes (24.2 min/g). In those games, he averaged 8.7 pts/7.6 rb, 0.3 blk and 2.9 pf. He shot .537 from the field, and .718 from the line (4.4 att/g).
This past year, Paulicap played 5 games against kenpom top 50 teams (UConn x3, Creighton x2), for a total of 106 minutes (21.2 min/g). He averaged 4.4 pts/3.8 rb, 1.4 blks and 3.8 pf. He shot .476 from the field, and .333 from the line (1.2 att/g).
I get the hesitance around Harrar (I'm not sold on him being a big benefit yet, either).... I don't get why Paulicap is somehow clearly better than Harrar, though.
We aren’t looking for a starter. We are looking for a guy to supplement minutes for Cliff who is a top 50 recruit who we expect to develop. Just like Shaq Carter supplemented Myles Johnson last year. Kid has a great motor, rebounds the heck out of the ball and can clean up near the basket while also rim protect.
But can he do any of those things better than Harrar, other than rim protect?
Last year against better competition, Harrar was a better rebounder and offensive rebounder. Paulicap had one more block per game than Harrar did (1.3/g vs. 0.3/g..... 1.4/g vs. 0.3/g against Top 50 kenpom teams).
I don't know about "motor" - I haven't seen enough of each of them to make a judgement on that. But while Paulicap might be a great get for us and show more here than he did at DePaul, I just don't see how he's even a marginally better get than Harrar would be.
I must have misread your post and if that was the case, I’m sorry. I wasn’t comparing him to Harrar, just explaining what I think we are after.
This exactly. We have 4 OPEN SLOTS. He plays defense, gets put backs, and doesn’t take bad shots. In the least, he’s going to upgrade Duke’s spot.
Pauly Paulicap is not going to supplement minutes for Cliff. He’s a more traditional four. If we add him he comes off the bench for 15 minutes with half of those minutes when Ron’s getting a break and the other half we bump Ron to the wing.
Harrar can supplement Cliffs minutes.
I doubt Harrar is coming here for a backup 5 role but if Pike can get him im good with it.
I think it’s unfortunate it doesn’t look like we will add a transfer of the quality who could come in and start and push a returning projected starter to the bench. So far it doesn’t look like we actively targeted that type of addition and instead more focused on adding role players.
I’m not going as far to say it’s a mistake because if I did say that I will get a bunch of “BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW it’s a mistake” replies. Just my view of the strategy right now.
You say he's a traditional 4, but he's been the 5 for four years now at two stops. Can he operate as a 4 with a 5 already on the court? Same question came up with Harrar, with people saying he'd be a 4 here... while he's currently a 5.
With neither of them shooting from the arc, it'd make us very post-heavy to have either on the floor with Cliff for extended time.
The most important thing we need right now is someone to back up Cliff. Reiber and Cliff are the only big men on the roster at this time.
The reality is what position he played on defense for Manhattan is pretty irrelevant when it comes to 2/3rds of our schedule.
I don’t see how he can operate at four. Doesnt look like he has a face up game and can’t step out and shoot it. Pauly doesn’t defend the PNR well from the limited tape Ive seen and nor is he a screen and roll lobs guy.
Seems like a guy from a lower-level that a bad team like DePaul would take a chance on to be honest. I don’t know for sure.
He wouldn’t really be a 4-5 “position player”per se. pike would get by playing him, CM and RHJ together in the 3-5 spots and we’d manage for 10-12 minutes per game. He’d also play the 5 minutes or so of any game that RHJ sits resulting in a combined 15-17ish mpg.
Possibly. But with 4 open schollies (and there’s no guarantee it won’t be even more) this would be a very good, perhaps even “strategic”, addition right now while patiently awaiting other options for the rest of the slots. We’re thin up front and this isn’t the kind of pick up whose going to turn another top big transfer off from coming to RU if otherwise interested. The bottomline is - we’re not adding 4 other guys better than him to the roster at this point.
Then this transfer season will have been a complete failure. Imagine 1100+ kids being available and not being able to pull one starter caliber player from the group.
The nonstop silly comments that the transfer portal is supposed to supply a starter is incorrect. RU starter 8 different players this past season....and all 8 played essentially the amount of minutes needed.
RUSojo and his nonstop bad posts.....boy oh boy.....you have to have a athlete who can play the 5, that matches against teams with traditional 5s as a backup to Cliff....and then you have to have the Paulicap quicker "5s", who match up with "4's", who play the 5 position with our opponents.
If you are playing some teams, like actually Penn State.....and let's assume Harrar stays at PSU.....in order to be effective against a team who goes smaller, like PSU, is to show that opponent different looks.
Harrar, if he stayed at PSU, or Maryland who didn't have a true 5 last year or Northwestern or Indiana or Iowa or Wisconsin......or EJ Liddell types at Ohio State....or the mobile bigs at Michigan State....these teams don't all have traditional 5s.......maybe Cliff still plays the same 20 to 24 minutes BUT you need someone who is quick enough (like Cliff) at the 5, when Cliff isn't on the court.
Paulicap can guard a Harrar.....guard a Nate Reuvers or Potter types at Wisconsin....guard the bigs at Northwestern.....be quick enough to guard the Trace Jackson Davis types at Indiana.
You then lean more on Cliff if you played bigs like Robbins at Minnesota, Cockburn at Illinois, Dickinson at Michigan and others.
The question is do you want Doucoure (if he stayed) or Reiber to guard for 20 minutes the different bigs in our league?? Or do you want a plus athlete like Paulicap???
It is mind boggling that fans can't comprehend matching up with what your league has from it's other 13 opponents. Maybe there are some phases where Cliff and Paulicap are on the court at the same time.....you also want someone to get offensive rebounds, which he led the Big East and can do well.....
An offensive rebound is as valuable as not turning the ball over....if he gets 2 offensive rebounds a game like Myles Johnson seemed to do most nights, you get an extra shot, an extra 3 point attempt, an extra time where you get fouled.
I honestly don't care if Paulicap takes any 3s....if he gets RHJ or the others an extra shot each half, that is a win.....an offensive rebound offsets what should be a team next year, that also takes care of the ball more.
Let's look at the extremes of what Baylor did to the shooters from Gonzaga.....The Zags actually shot OVER 50% for the game.....but that's useless, if you give up SIXTEEN offensive rebounds.....giving up offensive rebounds demoralized Gonzaga.....preventing offensive rebounds from your opponents makes your defense better......having a threat of Cliff and Paulicap able to alter or block shots, makes your defense better.
The fans that ask for 3 point shooters and "weak basketball ", wind up losing games in the B1G, more often than not. You must get a player who rebounds on both ends and can play the 4 and 5 against different opponents you see in the conference.
RUSojo and his nonstop bad posts.....boy oh boy.....you have to have a athlete who can play the 5, that matches against teams with traditional 5s as a backup to Cliff....and then you have to have the Paulicap quicker "5s", who match up with "4's", who play the 5 position with our opponents.
If you are playing some teams, like actually Penn State.....and let's assume Harrar stays at PSU.....in order to be effective against a team who goes smaller, like PSU, is to show that opponent different looks.
Harrar, if he stayed at PSU, or Maryland who didn't have a true 5 last year or Northwestern or Indiana or Iowa or Wisconsin......or EJ Liddell types at Ohio State....or the mobile bigs at Michigan State....these teams don't all have traditional 5s.......maybe Cliff still plays the same 20 to 24 minutes BUT you need someone who is quick enough (like Cliff) at the 5, when Cliff isn't on the court.
Paulicap can guard a Harrar.....guard a Nate Reuvers or Potter types at Wisconsin....guard the bigs at Northwestern.....be quick enough to guard the Trace Jackson Davis types at Indiana.
You then lean more on Cliff if you played bigs like Robbins at Minnesota, Cockburn at Illinois, Dickinson at Michigan and others.
The question is do you want Doucoure (if he stayed) or Reiber to guard for 20 minutes the different bigs in our league?? Or do you want a plus athlete like Paulicap???
It is mind boggling that fans can't comprehend matching up with what your league has from it's other 13 opponents. Maybe there are some phases where Cliff and Paulicap are on the court at the same time.....you also want someone to get offensive rebounds, which he led the Big East and can do well.....
An offensive rebound is as valuable as not turning the ball over....if he gets 2 offensive rebounds a game like Myles Johnson seemed to do most nights, you get an extra shot, an extra 3 point attempt, an extra time where you get fouled.
I honestly don't care if Paulicap takes any 3s....if he gets RHJ or the others an extra shot each half, that is a win.....an offensive rebound offsets what should be a team next year, that also takes care of the ball more.
Let's look at the extremes of what Baylor did to the shooters from Gonzaga.....The Zags actually shot OVER 50% for the game.....but that's useless, if you give up SIXTEEN offensive rebounds.....giving up offensive rebounds demoralized Gonzaga.....preventing offensive rebounds from your opponents makes your defense better......having a threat of Cliff and Paulicap able to alter or block shots, makes your defense better.
The fans that ask for 3 point shooters and "weak basketball ", wind up losing games in the B1G, more often than not. You must get a player who rebounds on both ends and can play the 4 and 5 against different opponents you see in the conference.
I didn’t say we can’t get one starter. I said there’s no way we’re taking anywhere close to 4 plug and play starters because 4
won’t choose us if Geo, RHJ and Cliff are all on the roster. Does anyone really think we’re landing more than a max of 2 plug and play starters? Perhaps PM and CM could both come off the bench. Nobody is assuming the other 3 will though when they chose RU. So that leaves 2 possible starter spots with 4 openings. We already have a tremendous frosh class. We don’t need 2 more frosh at this stage. Perhaps some of you would like to take 2 JUCOs with gaudy numbers instead. If you feel that way - let’s agree to disagree. I think Pauly is a better pick up for those last slots. But stop comparing him to Harrar - because if Harrar comes we then have no shot with kids like the East Carolina forward. If we bring in Harrar he’s going to be one of the top 2 we land for sure IMO. He won’t come otherwise.
There is a misconception that we don't have "3 pt shooters" on the team. We have 3 pt shooters on the team. It is a situation that we have no post presence to free them up, teams scouted and overplayed our guards/wings after about game 8/9.
Game 1-9 68-173 39.3%
Game 10-28 104-378 27.5%
Myles 28 games FG 98-156 62.8%, 5.6 shots
Cliff 23 games FG 36-57 63.2% 2.5 shots
Doucoure 11 games FG 6-12 50%
Reiber 12 games FG 3-10 30%
RHJ is not a "traditional" post, more wing pretending to play 4, he took 331 FGA, 145 3pt 43.8% of his shots.
Post FG totals 143-235, 8.4 shots
Team FG totals 741-1652, 59 shots a game
As a comparison, Luka Garza had over 500 FGA, last 2 years.
T. Williams 364, Jackson-Davis 354, Coburn 327, Dickinson 261, to name a few.
The disparity shows how weak our post presence is.
That is 14.2% of your teams shots from more traditional 4/5s. That's why opposing teams can overplay and defend our 2pt and 3pt shots from guards/wings, because they are taking 6 out of every 7 shots on the floor. The balance of shots needs to be better next year with picking up offensive threat down low or Cliff and Reiber need to develop quickly in the off season.
Game 1-9 68-173 39.3%
Game 10-28 104-378 27.5%
Myles 28 games FG 98-156 62.8%, 5.6 shots
Cliff 23 games FG 36-57 63.2% 2.5 shots
Doucoure 11 games FG 6-12 50%
Reiber 12 games FG 3-10 30%
RHJ is not a "traditional" post, more wing pretending to play 4, he took 331 FGA, 145 3pt 43.8% of his shots.
Post FG totals 143-235, 8.4 shots
Team FG totals 741-1652, 59 shots a game
As a comparison, Luka Garza had over 500 FGA, last 2 years.
T. Williams 364, Jackson-Davis 354, Coburn 327, Dickinson 261, to name a few.
The disparity shows how weak our post presence is.
That is 14.2% of your teams shots from more traditional 4/5s. That's why opposing teams can overplay and defend our 2pt and 3pt shots from guards/wings, because they are taking 6 out of every 7 shots on the floor. The balance of shots needs to be better next year with picking up offensive threat down low or Cliff and Reiber need to develop quickly in the off season.
Can we land one plug and play starter? Because paulicap isn't. He's a backup player
Yes. I believe we can and I’m optimistic we will. Give Pike a chance to be patient and strategic. He can’t sit on 4 schollies though. Unless you want Harrar to be that one guy we bring in, why be down on Pauly as one of the other 3? That was my point.
My question is whether Paulicap can do what you're saying he can do. He has three years of MAAC experience, and one in the Big East where he didn't even face Villanova (and in 3 matchups against UConn, whose bigs are both 6-9, he averaged 18.3 min, 4.3 pts, 2.3 rb, and 4.3 fouls).
Is he really the matchup benefit you seem to think he is against a guy like EJ Liddell, who is a lot better than UConn's Whaley and Sanogo?
I don't disagree that we need a solid backup for Cliff who can defend - I'm just not convinced Paulicap is it.
Career 3P% for our returning players.... which one of these is a 3pt shooter? Mulcahy's the closest, and he's only had 80 total attempts.
.375 - Mulcahy (30/80)
.325 - Baker (185/570)
.312 - Harper (113/362)
.284 - McConnell (44/155)
TBD - Mag (1/3)
TBD - Palmquist (2/10)
TBD - Rieber (0/3)
TBD - Jones (1/2)
TBD - Miller
What type of player do you have in mind who would realistically entertain transferring to RU to be Cliff’s back up that’s going to have a better profile than him? A starter who can play 4-5, with RHJ sliding over to 3? Absolutely. But we can still get that kind of player with Pauly coming in.
There are currently 69 available PF/C in the portal between 6-8 and 6-10, 225-250 lbs.... 12 of them already on a major conference team. I haven't done a deep dive on them.
It's entirely possible that Paulicap is a steal like Gettys was - a guy who was never utilized well before coming to Rutgers, who was able to buy in to what Pike was doing and parlay that into a professional career overseas. I'd love to see it.
Right now, though, I see a foul-prone guy with limited upside and a SF/PF frame seemingly being slotted in as the first center off the bench in the B1G. If we bring him on, I hope he becomes much more than what he's shown so far.
I assume your talking about Mathis? Most people complained more about him taking ill advised shots (driving into traffic hoping to be fouled and getting stuffed) time and time again. In any case - we had arguably one of the best passing centers in the country in MJ and he still only had 0.8 assists per game - so to have any expectation at all of an undersized kid who played the 5 slot having a ton of assists (and comparing that to Mathis’ who is a guard) is apples to oranges.
Yeah, Ast/TOV ratios are more of a guard metric, and especially more of an on-ball guard metric.
That said, Paulicap turned the ball over a lot for someone who isn't being asked to create with passes.
Eh - it was offensive fouls. An undersized kid starting and playing the 5 and trying to be a scorer on a team lacking any playmakers. 1.5 turnovers per 22 minutes under those circumstances isn’t really bad. I don’t see this as an issue at RU for him in the role that he’d play. I see him as a very good replacement for Duke but we still need to land someone to start at the 3-4 alongside RHJ or be a 6 man that plays a ton. He’s not that guy. He’s a utility 10-15 minute kid who can give quality time for brief spurts and maybe even a defensive spark without hurting us.
A replacement for Duke? Duke played just 61 minutes last year as our "in case of emergency break glass" center in 11 games (and 21 of those minutes came in one game against OSU, when Omoruyi was hurt and Johnson was in foul trouble).
If that's the role he's expected to play here, he's an upgrade over what we had. But that means we'd still need a backup center.
I think Pauly would be better than Duke and could deliver more like what Carter or Doorson provided giving 10 or so solid, but foul intensive minutes. I think what we will do instead is go for a power forward type who expects to start coming in. The type of player I’m really hoping for would be a Yeboah type who would start and shift RHJ to the 3. More of those types in the portal. With Caleb on the roster, Cliff could easily sit for stretches with Caleb, RHJ and a Yeboah type in at 3-5.
more mobile than them all put together...totally different makeup of player/style, IMO
I just want to know how many of you were over joyed when Yeboah came here? I don't think many were blown away, but he was clutch for us
Okay, poked around the portal a little bit. Looked at players who:
- Were listed as PF
- 6-8 to 6-10
- 230-260 lbs
- Had not committed to a new school
- Started 50% or fewer of their games in their last season played
- Played more than 100 minutes in their last season played
- Had fewer than 6.0 PF/40
- Had more than 7.0 RB/40
- Had more than 10 pts/40.
That took the list down to 8 guys, sorted by Pts/40 (all stats shown are per 40 min)
Jalen Dupree, RS Sr, Samford, 6-8/235.... 20.4 pts, 12.0 rb, 1.5 blks, 5.7 pf
Efe Odigie, Jr, UTEP, 6-9/255... 18.7 pts, 10.1 rb, 0.8 blk, 4.9 pf
Yauhen Massalski, Sr, San Diego, 6-10/245... 17.5 pts, 15.1 rb, 4.0 blks, 4.2 pf
Jack Hemphill, Jr, Boston University, 6-9/230... 16.5 pts, 8.9 rb, 0.9 blk, 5.0 pf
Heritier Ngalamulume, Jr, Tarleton State, 15.8 pts, 9.6 rb, 2.0 blk, 6.0 pf
Perry Francois, RS Sr, Texas A&M Corpus Cristi, 6-8/240... 15.5 pts, 8.2 rb, 2.2 blk, 6.0 pf
Franklin Agunanne, Jr, Loyola Chicago, 6-9/245... 13.5 pts, 10.6 rb, 0.5 blk, 5.2 pf
Ahren Freeman, So, New Orleans, 6-9/235... 13.3 pts, 7.4 rb, 1.0 blk, 5.9 pf
- Were listed as PF
- 6-8 to 6-10
- 230-260 lbs
- Had not committed to a new school
- Started 50% or fewer of their games in their last season played
- Played more than 100 minutes in their last season played
- Had fewer than 6.0 PF/40
- Had more than 7.0 RB/40
- Had more than 10 pts/40.
That took the list down to 8 guys, sorted by Pts/40 (all stats shown are per 40 min)
Jalen Dupree, RS Sr, Samford, 6-8/235.... 20.4 pts, 12.0 rb, 1.5 blks, 5.7 pf
Efe Odigie, Jr, UTEP, 6-9/255... 18.7 pts, 10.1 rb, 0.8 blk, 4.9 pf
Yauhen Massalski, Sr, San Diego, 6-10/245... 17.5 pts, 15.1 rb, 4.0 blks, 4.2 pf
Jack Hemphill, Jr, Boston University, 6-9/230... 16.5 pts, 8.9 rb, 0.9 blk, 5.0 pf
Heritier Ngalamulume, Jr, Tarleton State, 15.8 pts, 9.6 rb, 2.0 blk, 6.0 pf
Perry Francois, RS Sr, Texas A&M Corpus Cristi, 6-8/240... 15.5 pts, 8.2 rb, 2.2 blk, 6.0 pf
Franklin Agunanne, Jr, Loyola Chicago, 6-9/245... 13.5 pts, 10.6 rb, 0.5 blk, 5.2 pf
Ahren Freeman, So, New Orleans, 6-9/235... 13.3 pts, 7.4 rb, 1.0 blk, 5.9 pf
Remember that last play where he threw up a three or something in the last 10 seconds or so of the northwestern game at home last year?
I still laugh at that sometimes wondering what the hell he was thinking....
My recollection was that a number of posters were quite happy, having seen him play so well against us.
Let's use this scenario or more than 1.....you tell me what you think is going to happen.
Scenario #1.....RU is up 3 points playing Clemson in the 1st round of NCAAs.....Cliff has fouled out with 3:20 left in the game....Clemson has Aamir Simms, not a traditional big, but someone who can handle the ball from the 3 point line, through the low post.... You have these options or choices to defend him for the final 5 possessions to end the game
A) Paulicap
B) Harrar
C) Reiber
D) Doucoure (if he stayed)
In the scenario above, while a fan may want Harrar as a player because he's a better offensive player, if you are RU, Harrar (nor Paulicap) would be your 1st, 2nd or 3rd offensive options in the final 3+ minutes of a game...
In the same scenario, Baker takes a 2 pointer, but he misses, based on the offensive rebounding stats (Paulicap is thr Big East leader in offensive rebounds) you have 4 choices for someone most likely to secure an offensive rebound. Cliff has fouled out so your choices are the Big East leader and 5th year senior, mobile Big, or the other options.
In the final possession of the road game this past season at Indiana, it was one of the key and important games of the year.....and we missed a FT in the final 7 seconds of the game....BUT, Myles Johnson, was able to secure the offensive rebound, which sealed the game.....that's one possession, one rebound....probably the difference in a 6 game losing streak or it stopping at 5.
In the other scenario of 3+ minutes left and 30 seconds per possession, if I can steal an extra possession with an offensive rebound, you grab an extra 20 seconds of possession time.
I also should not need to remind anyone of the Houston game....people keep saying Myles misses the lob dunk or layup....but if you have a lead, you can substitute offense for defense....Paulicap, with RU leading a game, is not designed to take shots or score.....He is there to clean the glass and prevent the opponent from getting 2nd shots.
Everyone looks at stats and FG%, FT% and it's kinda cute....But Myles Johnson at sub 50% FT shooting and no shot attempts that I can recall other than a hook, layup or dunk, won as many games by shot blocking/altering and securing rebounds.....and averaged all of 8PPG....
If we make the NCAAs and see another player like Aamir Simms, EJ Liddell etc AND you don't have Cliff fouled out, rest assured Paulicap or that style of player is in the game late.
You let Cliff defend the big, one on one and if he missed the shot, you need the best rebounding option on the floor...you can't ask Cliff to defend the big driving to the hoop AND expect the same player to grab the rebound.....someone else has to be there to grab the boards.....
Situational basketball is not "what can you score, as much as can I get an extra possession on the offensive glass AND make sure your opponents only get 1 shot per possession.
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