Genuinely curious and pose this to all that view others as being too negative, beating up on the hoops program or Pike too much, etc.., what are the positives that you see with the current state of Rutgers basketball? The rest of us must just be glass half empty kind of guys, what makes your glass half full when it comes to the current trajectory of Rutgers basketball? Would love to know others thoughts as I just don’t see it.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I think the current state of Rutgers basketball is good, but here are the ways that I think some people are too negative.
(1) Pike has not done a good job in the portal era. BUT, the portal era has really only been two years. The first year he made a fatal mistake in not figuring out for certain who was in and who was out right away. He seems to have learned from that mistake. This year he made mistakes in his player selection. I think it’s plausible he will learn from those mistakes as well.
(2) People tend to blame Pike for every bad thing that a player does. A perfect example is Dylan’s play at the end of regulation against Washington. That’s a player issue 100%.
(3) People dismiss Pike’s success in years 1-6 as mediocrity. But it matters where you start. If I am 15 pounds overweight that’s mediocre. If I was 80 pounds overweight a year ago, then that’s a success.
This DOES NOT MEAN that I am content being mediocre forever just because we used to be terrible. What it means is that I accept mediocrity as a step on the journey from terrible to good. It also means that I accept that 40 years of wandering in the desert made it tougher to win here. We are in year 10 next year so I won’t view losing in the first four as some great success. But in context 2020-2022 were definitely successes.
