We would have beaten Wake Forest and/or Illinois with Mag

[RUSCFORMERLYRULOU]

I was starting to think he wasn't coming back, so I'll eat crow there. But don't understand what the difference was between playing 24 minutes tonight and STARTING and not even getting a few minutes in Illinois and Wake Forest. I think Mag would have been the difference in one of those games. Regardless, anyone who doesn't think the guy IS potentially the savior of the season needs to reconsider. Without him, we lose to Seton Hall and we'd be a .500 team at BEST. Eight rebounds in 24 minutes and good defense - wow.

 

[dpwhite]

I was starting to think he wasn't coming back, so I'll eat crow there. But don't understand what the difference was between playing 24 minutes tonight and STARTING and not even getting a few minutes in Illinois and Wake Forest. I think Mag would have been the difference in one of those games. Regardless, anyone who doesn't think the guy IS potentially the savior of the season needs to reconsider. Without him, we lose to Seton Hall and we'd be a .500 team at BEST. Eight rebounds in 24 minutes and good defense - wow.

It was up to Mag when he was ready to play. Pikiell has said it over and over. It wasn't coach's decision not to play him against Illinois and Wake.

 

[Yeah Baby]

Maybe but not guaranteed. I would say 1-2 including Princeton loss.

 

[bac2therac]

Rutgers was not beating Illinois

 

[Luvscarletknights]

Wake...Yes

Illinois...No

We won the game that mattered most locally.

 

[LeapinLou]

While I disagree with your conclusion, it is clear that this is a completely different team with Mag on the floor.

I'll give you this - I think we would have beaten Princeton with the team that played last night.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Rutgers was not beating Illinois

nor Wake. I know it seems it was Mag’s decision entirely as to when to come back but I have to wonder if redshirting was a not a serious consideration by all involved until the debacles vs. Illinois and at Wake. Seems like too much of a coincidence to come back just at we hit our (hopefully) low point. Regardless, glad to have him back!

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

Closer yes, winning neither game was not happening.

RU hit 12 3s and stopped force feeding Cliff possessions on offense. Those items and adding Davis to the equation with 11 points and 6 assists was the difference last night.

Mag is a piece of the puzzle, but RU still has to prove it can get to 70 PPG in order to win. It's not going to win games in the high 50s to 60PPG range. 60 points would not have won last night's game, even against SHU.

We have to improve our backcourt play and production on offense and that took place last night.......3 guards all in double figures with a total of 43 points is the story of the game. 40 PPG from the backcourt is the number we need to reach to improve our chances. I think the front court of Cliff, Mag, Oskar, Woolfolk and Hyatt, can get us 30PPG.

Gavin 11
Noah 19
Davis 11
Simpson 2

Mag 4
Oskar 3
Hyatt 9
Cliff 11

Are these numbers sustainable?? Maybe Simpson pops with 10, when Davis is off.....maybe Davis scores when Noah doesn't shoot well. Gavin Griffiths needs shot attempts, if that happens, I think he can get to 10PPG.

Mag changes the equation for RU, if he can get to 10PPG, with his 7 to 8 RPG....that may be only a 3PPG difference from last year to this year, but if Mag gets to 10PPG and the guards produce, RU can do damage this season.

Comes down to guards driving and scoring/finding open 3s in transition.

 

[Rhuarc]

I think we would have won Princeton but lost the other 2.

 

[Degaz-RU]

Closer yes, winning neither game was not happening.

RU hit 12 3s and stopped force feeding Cliff possessions on offense. Those items and adding Davis to the equation with 11 points and 6 assists was the difference last night.

Mag is a piece of the puzzle, but RU still has to prove it can get to 70 PPG in order to win. It's not going to win games in the high 50s to 60PPG range. 60 points would not have won last night's game, even against SHU.

We have to improve our backcourt play and production on offense and that took place last night.......3 guards all in double figures with a total of 43 points is the story of the game. 40 PPG from the backcourt is the number we need to reach to improve our chances. I think the front court of Cliff, Mag, Oskar, Woolfolk and Hyatt, can get us 30PPG.

Gavin 11
Noah 19
Davis 11
Simpson 2

Mag 4
Oskar 3
Hyatt 9
Cliff 11

Are these numbers sustainable?? Maybe Simpson pops with 10, when Davis is off.....maybe Davis scores when Noah doesn't shoot well. Gavin Griffiths needs shot attempts, if that happens, I think he can get to 10PPG.

Mag changes the equation for RU, if he can get to 10PPG, with his 7 to 8 RPG....that may be only a 3PPG difference from last year to this year, but if Mag gets to 10PPG and the guards produce, RU can do damage this season.

Comes down to guards driving and scoring/finding open 3s in transition.

I tend to agree with most of this, though we truly don’t know how different the team would’ve played those two games with THIS Mag in the lineup.

 

[RUSJ73]

It;s not like Seton Hall is a juggernaut.

 

[Salvi's Headband]

We'd have beaten Princeton but not Illinois. Wake who knows.

 

[biazza38]

Let’s relax.
We played worse against Wake than we did against Illinois. That was completely dysfunctional

 

[rutgers1998]

I think we beat Princeton with a healthy Mag. Possibly Wake as well. Not Illinois although it likely would not have been a blow out loss

 

[Scangg]

Princeton definitely. Wake probably. Illinois no

 

[njxchange]

I dont know if we would have beaten any of the teams but we would have had fair chance to beat any of them. With Mag, it made everyone much better, hence we became another level team than before. I think we would be competitive through out the season. Mag really completes our smothering defense.

 

[RAC93]

I was starting to think he wasn't coming back, so I'll eat crow there. But don't understand what the difference was between playing 24 minutes tonight and STARTING and not even getting a few minutes in Illinois and Wake Forest. I think Mag would have been the difference in one of those games. Regardless, anyone who doesn't think the guy IS potentially the savior of the season needs to reconsider. Without him, we lose to Seton Hall and we'd be a .500 team at BEST. Eight rebounds in 24 minutes and good defense - wow.

They could have had Mag and bring back Cam Spencer if you want, don’t think they were beating Illinois. Wake, I will buy into that though, his rebounding and increased team intensity we saw against SH if we had that against Wake I do think they win that game.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

there’s no way to know but Mag is very good at defending those runners that Wake burned us with. I also think we would’ve rebounded better.

Agree we were t winning the Illinois game. We sucked.

 

[RUJMM78]

While I disagree with your conclusion, it is clear that this is a completely different team with Mag on the floor.

I'll give you this - I think we would have beaten Princeton with the team that played last night.

No, because Princeton weave offense along with 3 point shots is a difficult challenge for teams playing them in the first game of the season.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

We have no idea what those games would be with mag. I know it is fun to speculate on a message board.

Do we know if Cliff’s game would be different?

We could have lost to SHU by 12 without Mag.

 

[mikeyo]

Rutgers was not beating Illinois

Correct. We were schooled-- at home -- that day

 

[scarletrat]

Doesn’t matter. Have a tune up then Miss St. it’s about moving it forward and building off of it. Hope Simpson gets out his funk soon.

Our best 5 hopefully my mid January is
Noah
Derek
Gavin
Mag
Cliff

Hyatt, Davis and Williams off bench in that order. Then Oskar.

Need to improve to get to middle of Big 10 that doesn’t look that deep this season.