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Was Paul Mulcahy the most important player in modern RUBB history?

He played 4 seasons here, 2020-2023.

2016–17 Rutgers 15–18 3–15 14th
2017–18 Rutgers 15–19 3–15 14th
2018–19 Rutgers 14–17 7–13 T–10th

2019–20 Rutgers 20–11 11–9 T–5th NCAA Division I Cancelled (projected 9 seed)
2020–21 Rutgers 16–12 10–10 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 32 (10 seed)
2021–22 Rutgers 18–14 12–8 T–4th NCAA Division I First Four (11 seed)
2022–23 Rutgers 19–15 10–10 T–9th NIT First Round

2023–24 Rutgers 15–17 7–13 T–12th
2024–25 Rutgers 12–13 5–9


Pikiell has never had a winning season without him. He never had a losing season with him.

Career without: 71-84
Career with: 73-52

Caleb McConnell overlaps but you have to add the 2018-2019 season.
No, he is the most over rated player in Rutgers bball history.

Here is the reality on "running an offense ".....

I hate to be the facts only person on the message boards, instead of generic catch phrases, but sometimes until you see something on paper, it doesn't register.

First of all.....for fans.....you simply cannot put ANY guards or wings onto the floor against elite, SEC, B1G competition and make blind or dumb statements like "Pike has to bring in new assistant coaches to run an offense"....players recruited actually do matter.

Why does this matter in terms of guards?? Because guards who can play offense AND defense with an ability to make individual plays, allows you to win or compete in games. And I have to assume that every guard recruited in the B1G or SEC, can dribble, pass, shoot and score from 3 point range BUT not always.........what's most alarming is not the 3 point %, percentages ONLY matter if there are enough attempts AND can that player taking the attempts, play defense, rebound, playmake....

Here are the number of 3s made by B1G team guards....not every guard, but the primary 3 to 4 players on each B1G roster who play meaningful games or minutes.....

Here are the total 3 pointers made by the primary guards (3 to 4 guards of all 18 teams)

Maryland 162
Wisconsin 161
OSU 152
Illinois 136*
Purdue 132
Nebraska 122
Michigan 120
Washington 119
Oregon 109
USC 106
Indiana 104
Iowa 104
PSU 102
MSU 97
UCLA 95
NW 95
Minnesota 94
RU 92

These are 3 pointers made by our primary guards ( which excludes PJ Hayes 16-48, since 9 of his 3s were in the 1st 5 games and he has not played a lot of minutes in games).

Harper 34-104
Acuff 27-69
JMike 13-38
Derkack 10-40
JWill 8-34

If you consider playing most of 5 B1G games without Dylan Harper and some games where Acuff barely played at all, the 92 3s or a threat of a 3 is impossible with JWill, JMike (whos percentage is good, but not a ton of attempts), and Derkack.....

Same limitations 2 years ago, Spencer carried the workload and very little from Mag, Mulcahy or Caleb from 3....Hyatt shot and made some but hes technically a forward and Simpson were not good either but better than Caleb and Mag.......both low volume and low percentage shooters, but very good on defense.

The notion that you can "run an offense" with sub 25 to 30% 3 point shooters like Caleb, Mag, Simpson 2 years ago and now JWill, Derkack and JMike is literally impossible.

As a comparison, the 3 primary guards at Maryland....

Gillespie 59-145 (40.6%)
Miguel 52-120 (43.33%)
Rice 51-139 (36.7%)

I can coach Maryland, Wisconsin others from my recliner at home.....but if you think playing PJ Hayes and Acuff solves the problem, if they cannot playmake on offense OR play good 1 on 1 defense, the number of 3s allowed and the shooting percentages of our opponents, goes up.

To recap, if Harper missed 1/2 PSU, MSU, Indiana etc, what offense are you running and how can you play good defense, if the players don't do both offense and defense at a B1G level??

Comes down to guards and complete guard recruiting.....which usually means $$$, NIL etc.....and having Adidas as an anchor instead of Nike, 100% kills you in recruiting the better players.....

Nike is solved and why 2024 and 2025 recruiting is getting cleaned up, but for this season, 13, 10 and 8 made 3 pointers from 3 of your 5 primary guards with 80% of the season complete, is a LOT to coach around.
I think the more you stick with someone and don't substitute every two minutes the better their 3-point percentage is likely to be. MD (your example) plays their starters an average of 35 minutes per game which might contribute to their higher 3 Point percentages. Pike doesn't stick with a hot hand, Acuff being an example vs. Iowa.

OT: Winter Storm Thursday 2/20: Very Likely Somewhere Between A Non-Event and a Minor Event (oof)

I wanted a nice snow event. We have not had one in a while in my area of central Jersey. This will be the third year in a row without using the snow blower.
If you truly wanted a snow storm, you have to follow the number one rule of snow lovers which is buying a snow blower ensures you won't get a snow storm!

Season Tickets

The long term fan should have the option to keep his seats, just tell him what is required
I ageee with you….mostly. The one issue is that because the floor is somewhat too low, there are 1/4 to 1/3 of the 100 level that easily sell their tickets at the first sign of struggle . I deal with plenty of the opposing fans next to me who bought tickets for approx $100….
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Where is BKin118? What are his thoughts?

I hate this view point and will always call it out. The small checks are just as important as the large ones. The large whales aren't coming in if they feel people aren't all in. I certainly wouldn't. Also, some small check writers turn into larger ones. The important thing is to get people to give something, its not that hard.

You can't complain we stink if you don't give, period end of story. Sorry if that upsets people but it's fact.
Mostly agree. The questions I would have is are you allowed to complain we stink if you give ? Is there a minimum to get in on the complaining game . It kinda gets murky here. because say I donate $50 and Skoolie donates 5k, can I complain as much as Skoolie?

Was Paul Mulcahy the most important player in modern RUBB history?

I’ll give credit to Paul. He tried his hardest when he was here.

But he was DEFINITELY not the most important. He was not clutch at all and I would make the argument that he self destructed when the pressure was on. He made a critical turnover in the First Four game vs. ND. And he basically became a shell of his peak towards the end in his last season including playing terribly in the crucial Penn State game to try to make the tournament.
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Auburn-Alabama

Two years ago there was talk about Cliff being a 2nd round pick. No one, no where is having that conversation now. Alabama hurt him in that regard. Hurt his Euro payday as well.

I also watched the SHU-UConn game a the same time. It was a great game to watch. SHU stood tough when another team might break.
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