Mr_Twister said:

Wasn’t a Tripucka relative the P.A. guy for many years at the RAC? Like the Hurley’s, the Tripucka’s couldn’t find the RAC with a GPS.

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Not true. Danny Hurley was a assistant coach at Rutgers when Bannon was head coach.

Local Shill said:

They’re not putting celebrities, VIP guests or players’ families in section 311. Think, McFly.

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If you went to seat Geek a day or two ago there were tons of tix across the uppers for like $14 each. All listed the same exact price. Those were not individual people selling their games and they weren't tix held back for VIPs. (laughable theory by some). My friend who works at the Flemington food pantry said they were offering free football tix for next sat's. game vs. Illinois.

Rutgers flat out screwed it loyal fans (again) with these shenanigans. Giving away free football tix not in demand I can see but basketball THIS season? A holes. (but again good for you mike as I know you're a great fan..)

bac2therac said:

I think J Will makes a big difference on defense but unfortunately might actually disrupt the offensive flow which I will admit was impressive last night

Need a 4th data point but with him and Ace banged up plus the lesser middling competition level, its tough to get a real evaluation of our teams peak performance on both sides of the ball.

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Jwill is not a plus defender, slides and falls all over the place, basket hangs after bad plays while not getting back. Considering he gives us Zero offensively with this team because he can’t have the ball. Hopefully we can find him a transfer school.

GoodOl'Rutgers said:

Netflix advertised.. or should I say, threatened.. that we'll have to stream xmas day NFL games on their crap machine.

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If those games are plagued by lags……

socaldave said:

Paul stayed away, didn’t get close enough to really hit Tyson or get hit by Tyson
Biggest Con in sports History

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I hate everything about Paul as a boxer. But im glad he didn’t beat up Tyson which he probably could have done. Only redeeming aspect of that craptacular event.

The problem Rutgers faces on defense is the number of new players who aren't used to playing together and at least six will be gone next season.Teaching switching man to man defenses to players that are primarily offensively focused is a big challenge which is why I favor more zone defense with this roster.Its easier to learn and players aren't as tired defending players all over the court.This Rutgers team will win games with a high scoring offense similar to Iowa in previous seasons.The ability to hold opponents to less than 70 points will be a real challenge.Bottom line Rutgers should win at least 20 games and get a NCAA bid.

They hardly shot any free throws yesterday.

Love his effort, would like to see some of his assists be a little more "boring", his no look passes are catching his new teammates off guard. Great motor, always hustles.

I think the reality is somewhere in between "no defense, lets panic" and "freshman growing pains". As others have said, we can't outscore every team in every game. However, the fact that we can use our scoring to overcome deficits and generate excitement to cue a home game comeback is very positive. We're also going to need defensive stands at times and I think we've shown an ability to do it when needed.

The young kids (including Dylan and Ace) are getting a harsh lesson in the upgraded talent level and intensity of college basketball. Dylan has looked winded many times during his first 3 games and Ace cramping up is a sign of a lack of preparation on his part. I also think they will be fine and it's a lesson that needs to be learned. Same goes for the defensive intensity. Allowing backdoor cuts, poor box outs - they can be fixed. The question is, "can they be fixed quickly enough to make this a special season?"

I agree with Bac when he says this team has to grow up fast. I think this team will be a tremendous tournament team when it's all said and done. The question is, can we win enough games to get to the point to make that meaningful? I'm saying....yes.

FinalFourOrBust said:

Giving up 81 to Monmouth and being down to St. Peter’s with 4 minutes left are concerning whether you admit it or not. Yes the team should improve but these first three games shows this team isn’t a big ten title contender right now.

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We have 9 new players and 3 true freshman playing a ton of minutes. What did yo think the games were going to look like in November and December?

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mildone said:

I have no ide what you were watching, but the effort level on D was atrocious for much of the second half. And you haven’t the faintest idea what Pike decided or what he wanted the team to do. Given the total loss of focus and intensity, nobody was clamping down on anybody.

You seem to have hyper-focused on one thing and missed everything else. And you talk like you think coaching is like being a puppet master where the players always exactly execute what the coach wants. That’s wildly unrepresentative of the realities of coaching.

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It’s a simple question, assign one of your B1G Ten level, D1 players to get in his grill and do your best to eliminate him from getting wide open shots.

We don’t know what Pike wanted to do, we do know what he didn’t do.

The puppet master equivalent is pure ridiculousness

The intensity of college basketball for freshman is always quite the shock. Seems our star players aren't immune to it either.

ScarletDave said:

Yea is it hard to believe they keep 2 tickets per game for each player and coach? Maybe 1 or 2 for the university pres and AD guests? Celebrities etc? That’s probably 50 tix each game they will dump for the OOC games.

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They’re not putting celebrities, VIP guests or players’ families in section 311. Think, McFly.

RU23 said:

Defense = effort

I’m annoyed by the laziness too but the effort up 20 against Monmouth will be different than the effort against Ohio State down 2. It just will.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of the 4 vs. 10 seeds you mentioned.

One aspect not discussed was Ace clearly helps our rebounding even though he’s a twig, but he needs to work on his ball handling a bit if he wants to go 2nd overall. Right now if I had the 2nd pick, I’d take Harper for sure.

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Yeah my only thought is these kids know they are up and can win the game. Less effort to play D and make buckets. So they do that. We will see with a better opponent if they can adjust that mindset accordingly.

With the amount of people blowing red lights since the pandemic ended, I'm starting to come around a bit to red light cameras. I know there's situations where it's dangerous and not a good idea (Bakers Basin, I'm talking about you). However on roads like 206, the amount of people driving through red lights that are 1-3 seconds old is pretty alarming. Something needs to be done to those drivers who are creating dangerous situations.

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RRRRUUUU said:

They probably keep some very limited seats for guests for the athletic department or players families etc. I’m guessing those seats were not fully used for this particular game so they gave them away to local schools.

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They do but many of those seats are behind the RU bench.

bac2therac said:

Rutgers gave up 51 points to a bad Monmouth team in ONE half. It was painfully bad last night. It was subpar against St Peters. It was obvious the reason for the St Johns loss. Wisconsin and Purdue are playing high scoring games against top 5 schools not Monmouth

The 3 Vegas games are coming up followed by a trip to Ohio State fast. Team is going to have to grow up fast.

Thats the question I take from last night. Our center position is a glaring weakness on D. Our perimeter defense is alwats susceptible to being burned. Can those things be fixed before that 4 game gauntlet...or even is this high octane offense even capable of lock down defense and will we rely solely on just overpowering our opponents

Dont think my thread is bizarre or an overreaction and if you think I am writing the season off you are wrong too but I need to feel a smidgeon of defense. These players are only here for a year with off the chart expectations. The usual 4 years of growth and experience is condensed into a very short period of time

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The center defense wasn't great the last 2 years either....we equate blocked shots as good post defense.

Right now, the difference between the last 2 years is we are getting mid post offense without committing to forcing the ball inside. There would be literally no chance to compete with Notre Dame, Alabama or potentially Creighton or Texas A&M in the last 2 years with the much better defense we played at times. It would be a lock for 0-3 record against that type of schedule.

We are not Iowa because we have a coaching staff that actually scouts and cares about defense.....but if fans walk out of the RAC expecting Jordan Derkack level defense and Ace Bailey/Dylan Harper offense and 105-62 final scores, it's just not reality based basketball.

This "bad Monmouth or St Peters talk" is fine if you want to buy into that.....The kid Randolph is from Willingboro and shot 40+% from 3, 2 years ago at Richmond and again last year at St Peters...seeing someone shoot 3s in this day and age is a surprise??

Bashir looks like he can play anywhere in the B1G and score....each and every year since 2012 in this Steph Curry/ Klay Thompson era, kids are growing up walk into the gym shooting 3s from age 8 in youth basketball. To discredit Bashir because he plays at Monmouth is crazy.

PJ Hayes played at a D2 school 2 years ago....if you gave Hayes a green light and put him in a Monmouth uniform last night, do you really think he's not scoring 20+ PTS....he absolutely would score points, because these kids are now hard-wired to know spacing and finding shots.

My point stands and it is that RU fans are conditioned to watching so-so shooting from players that are not always fluid offensively for years and hoping opponents miss shots, because it takes great effort to play great defense.

Your more concerned about the defense?? I'm not at all.

My concerns are Derkack, figuring out how to play at 90 MPH and not 110 MPH on defense....he has played some defensive possessions, so perfectly and then somehow bails out an opponent, at least once per half with a reach in foul.....

Will we rebound against Notre Dame, Alabama or Ohio State?? I hope so, but I'm also not looking at my roster and trying to figure out if we have a 3rd player capable of giving us double figures scoring Iike the last 2 years.

Right now 7 players can reach double figures any night. I'm fairly certain that will override my defense and rebounding concerns....hoping Iowa misses shots against RUs defense, is not a formula for winning enough games in the B1G. We need balance and we have the ability to score points. I'm fine with how we look, vs the other way around of 65-62....

mildone said:

There is nothing complicated in all this and no need to simplify anything. We are not failing to understand what you are speculating about. It’s you that is failing to understand why some of us disagree with your opinion about the problem with how the team defended in the second half.

And I’m curious what D1 coaching credentials you have that would persuade us to value your opinion about how to coach over Pike’s? And, once again, you are confusing what you saw from the players with what Pike did or did not ask of the players.

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An opposing player scores almost half of the 81 points his team scores!…. why do you have an issue with a fan questioning our defensive plan to stop him?
This question has ZERO to do with Pike’s coaching philosophy or his ability to coach defense.
It’s a simple in game, in the moment question.
The fans level of coaching prowess is also of ZERO relevance

The arena can be soldout in terms of ticket sales but that doesnt mean everyone is showing up