If anyone interested, they're playing Presbyterian right now on ESPN+. They play at extremely high tempo.

Up 14-2 at home early

If you aren’t familiar with Topps Now cards, they are printed after big games or milestones. When you buy a card, you have a chance of getting either the standard base card OR:

/25 Game-used Sneaker redemption card​

/10 Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card​

/5 Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card​

1/1 JUMBO Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card​

Base Card Parallels are randomly inserted into every print run! Look for Numbered Parallels:/49 Blue/25 Purple/10 Red/5 Orange/1 Gold


I am almost positive this is his first official Topps card.

You can buy them individually or in packs for a discount. I know people who purposely buy many of these in hopes of scoring one of the parallels which will be worth nice $$$.

They only print as many cards as people order. So even if you get a base card, it is not a mass produced card.

I am buying a 5 pack in hopes of scoring a nice parallel!

Link to purchase

https://www.topps.com/collections/collections/cards-collectibles/topps-now/bowman-u-now

Look for:​

/25 Game-used Sneaker Relic redemption card​

/10 Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card​

/5 Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card​

1/1 Game-used Sneaker Autograph-Relic redemption card Inscribed "RU Debut"​

*Relic and Autograph-Relic redemption cards will replace base card in order.​

Base Card Parallels are randomly inserted into every print run! Look for Numbered Parallels:/49 Blue/25 Purple/10 Red/5 Orange/1 Gold*Base Card Parallels will replace base card in order.

Anybody else looking forward to watching Sanders crash and burn at Colorado? He just seems to be at an all time level of self-loving cockiness, even for him. I personally think he's way over his head and won't have as easy a time as he had in the SWAC.

I know various town have been discussed in different threads. My wife is looking at us possible making our next move into this area. What would be the good/Bad/Ugly?

I am not worries about School Systems except for resale value down the road if we sell. It would be our primary home and not a rental purchase. Are there areas to avoid and why?

Thanks

Call in

732-932-8800

Unchanged from last week

One of the things that I've noticed about Kaliakmanis is his improvement. In the past, none of our QB's improved in the past few years. Gavin never got better. Gio never got better. Art got marginally better. Vedral was never better. However, I can think of two QB's in the past who got substantially better. Teel was actually pretty bad the majority of his time at Rutgers. The end of his senior year, he was lights out. Nova was really good his senior year and up and down before then. Athan started this season very meh ... but the last 4 games he's been really good. I'm impressed with how much Athan has improved since game 1. Gavin looked the same if not worse in the bowl game against Miami as he did game 1. If we had this Athan, we beat Ohio State last year.

will this group be committed to playing the type of defense that gets big stops in big spots?

As impressive and at times scintillating the offense would look in the first half, a very unimpressive 2nd half defensive effort where arguably Monmouth outplayed RU changed my whole thinking on this recap. Scoring 98 a new Pikiell high I think while you are already taken for granted how awesome your two superstar players are and you are getting contributions from everyone else including a freshmen center would normally produce a lot of positive vibes. Yet I find myself unable to get move off tonights defensive performance...and actually the defensive performance the past two games. Both games RU has allowed its opponents to come in and get into a comfort zone shooting the ball mainly from the perimeter. St Peters put up 42 in the first half last game and finished 10-27 from 3 but started I think 7-15. In that game one guy Randolph particularly was able to stay hot going 7-12 fg, 4-8 3pt fg for 22 points. Tonight, Bashir was unstoppable going for 38 points on 11-23 shooting including a whopping 10-17 from 3 and the Hawks overall were 10-29 but 9-20 at one point. Yes he was incredibly hot and yes the defense was basically giving him everything. It was just too easy and when Bashir was not shooting, there seemed to be too many guys easily getting the ball near the rim or taking uncontested shots. I cannot remember a Pikiell team laying off so much defensively and being so pourous. To give up 51 points to this version of Monmouth in one half, come on guys.

The most damning run came at when RU went up 67-45 but then proceeding to allow a 23-12 run over a 7 minute stretch. Further in was a 10-1 run by Monmouth over 3 minutes that cut the lead to just 79-68 and made us all adjust ourselves in our seats. It was a tough watch because the Rutgers offense was stumbling and bumbling for the first time this game. Obviously Ace was hurting after his earlier dunk play and landed on the floor again after being fouled, he missed both free throws. RU passing was sloppy with a stretch of 4 turnovers and perhaps the wrong people touching the ball. I thought a little too much forcing it to Summerville and dare I say Rutgers actually looked gassed and lethargic for a time. Not unlike how they did vs St Johns in the exhibition game. Obviously a better team there and they were not able to withstand the Red Storms run but to me this stretch felt similar.

In this particularly game RU was never really in danger of losing it but you want to see the D show some lock down moments and while its hard to say being up 16-20 isnt good enough, RU missed on opportunties to truly blow it opened. Seemed like they kept leaving Monmouth hanging around rather than put the nail in their coffin. Hopefully a teaching moment for Pike. He called timeout when they lead got cut to 11 and did at least go back to putting the ball back in the hands of guys who Monmouth could not guard and Dylan and Ace were able to draw fouls and hit a bunch of free throws to give RU some breathing space. A key play by Zak Martini on defense I think was the death knell for Monmouth and unsurprisingly it was Zak who also stepped up with a couple of buckets in the closing minutes and to me was the all around player of the game for RU with 18 points in 26 minutes on 7-10 fg and 4-7 from 3

It sucks that Ace may have got banged up again. Hopefully not serious. He came out right way with that 3 and hit a couple of scintilllating shots that only a NBA talent can make with regularity. 5-10 fg but 6-8 ft, 6 boards, 2 steals in 30 minutes. Pick your poison if you are attempting to guard Rutgers. For about 30 minutes of this game RU could pick their shot. Harper maybe a bit quiet in the first half but came out strutting his stuff with a quick 6 points in the opening minutes of the 2nd half. Another 20 point game on 6-9 fg shooting with 6 boards but got others involved with 6 assists and some of them were beauts. Derkack such a tough distributor with 9 assists tonight including a highlight reel one to J Mike. Also tough on the boards with 6. I will say his defense wasnt great on the perimeter though. Lathan continues to impress with his skills. 10 points on 4-8 fg with 7 boards. Some great signs from him however he is asked to do too much. There was a key stretch for me in the 2nd half where I think Pike was asking too much from him and was hurting the offense. Tough situation because its obvious Ogobole cannot play for more than a few minutes each half. Solid minutes from both Hayes and Davis playing their roles. Hayes with 11 points and 3-4 from 3 in 22 minutes and Davis with 9 showing fearlessness to the hoop and perhaps the best defensive player on the team.

Now in fairness no Jeremiah Williams tonight. At first I did not notice. In the first half the offense was clicking without him and the defense was holding its own. However by games end I realize yeah we need J Will because he just provides something on D that we will not get from Ace or Dylan or for anyone else for that matter. Yet I am not confident this is a good defensive team or it is capable of being a good defensive team. Will the strategy be "let the offense run and roll" and hope that is enough. In non conference games it is. It likely will be enough in some of the Big 10 conference games. It will not be enough in the top half of the league and that is your difference between being a top 4 seed in the NCAA or a 10 seed or even a bubble team. Now its just a small 3 game data point that we have and I do not want to rush in judgments. Merrimack will not tell us much but I wouldnt be surprised if we do see a more concerted focus on D before RU heads out on the road. Going to be a challenge for Pikiell. This is a different type of team with different type of players. There is so much to be excited about but there is still so much to work to for them to fulfill all of the promise we are dreaming about.

I wonder what or who is behind this.

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I posted this on the wrong board.

I wonder how this will affect our agreement with Jersey Mikes?

So, some reflections on the very early, way too small sample size, of the college season so far:

1) Early season college basketball often has many oddities ... specifically, teams often struggle. The key for an NCAA bid down the road is to SURVIVE and somehow fund a way to win to avoid a bad loss. For all I know REU will struggle at some point and take a bad loss. So far, RU has struggled just a bit in 2 games, but won - especially vs St. Peter's (the game against Monmouth was never in doubt - so some 2nd half defensive struggles, but pulling away several times). The latest exhibit: Wisconsin, last night (and Wisconsin is having a heckuva a season, so far, no?). Wisconsin beat UT-Rio Grande Valley ... by 3 ... 87-84 ... after trailing by 52-48 at the half. UT-Rio Grande Valley is now 3-3: They beat 3 poor teams (well, 2 really poor teams and a who knows whether they are good team), and have now lost to 3 decent to very good teams (by 20 to Nebraska, by 13 to Creighton - though it was not really that close, and now by 3 to Wisconsin)

2) There are also stat and individual performance oddities ... too many to keep track of, of course. Here are a couple I found fascinating:

a) In Creighton's win over UT-Rio Grande, their star Kalkbrenner scored 49 points (pretty incredible) - but how he did it, and how Creighton won, was interesting. Kalkbrenner was a ridiculous 20-22 FG!!! and 7-8 FT. But though Creighton scored 99 points, they just had 3 players in double digits in points - 1 of whom had just 11 points ... Kalkbrenner had 49, and 1 other player had 25 points - and THAT oddity came with only 3 made FG's - and 17-17 FT!

b) Wisconsin's John Tonje - fascinating season so far ... really odd. First, this is his 6th season ... odd enough on its own. His best season ever was 2 seasons ago, for Colorado State, averaging 14.6 points per game ... previously he had averaged 6.6 ppg as a sophomore and 9.1 ppg as a Junior ... then played just 8 games for Missouri last year - averaging just 10 minutes per game. due to a foot injury pre-season and during the season. So, for one thing his scoring is ridiculously high (to his credit) so far this season, averaging 23 ppg ... and yes, he had a crazy 41 points against Arizona - but he also had 23 in the 1st game, and 13, 17 and 19 in his other games. What is also an oddity is HOW he is scoring: 41% of his total points are from the FT line (on 47-49 FT on the year - career 83.5% FT shooter). He got a crazy 22 FT attempts (made 21) versus Arizona ... but he also was 10-10 vs UT-Rio Grande, AND was 8-9 and 8-8 in 2 other games (0 FT attempts in 1 game). That is just really odd, I find.

If anyone has any other oddities, I love to see them - because this is definitely the silly season, with loads of strange, skewed, small sample-size stats.

Giant Meteor?

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going to be a special season next year. Call your shot.

They cut the rate from $15 to $9 in a bid to make it more palatable to people. Plus they're offering a discount to lower income families.

Congestion pricing plan opposed by Trump returns with new reduced tolls

The decision, Hochul explained, was crafted to ease the financial burden on New York's working families while maintaining critical funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Additional discounts are being introduced for low-income drivers making less than $50,000 annually, who will receive a 50% discount after their 10th toll each month.

"No New Yorker should have to pay a penny more than necessary," Hochul said.

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NYC’s new $9 congestion pricing toll — everything you need need to know

Hochul had abruptly paused the program just before it was set to go into effect in June with a base rate of $15 — and then relaunched with with the lower fee just before President-elect Donald Trump’s administration had an opportunity to block it.

Critics argue the first-in-the-nation toll — which was first approved by state lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019 — is just a cash grab for the MTA that’ll saddle New York City drivers with yet another fee.

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A good interview with an automotive expert comparing battery vs efficiency in a wide range of EVs currently available + those coming soon.

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If interested. Text me at 9086708073

Ticket for Merrimack in Section 316 Row C for Box of Popcorn

Text 732-336-0836 if interested.

RUTGERS 81 Merrimack 54

The R Fund is having their annual food drive this Saturday. Looking to fill the Equipment truck, located at the circle.


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For those of you - some calling him "GARBAGE" (I'll leave names out....) - thinking Jai should be replaced, et al:

Following a frosh season in which he finished 18th nationally, IIRC, connecting on 83% of his kicks (15/18) including 2 from 50+, Jai had some struggles earlier this year starting the season just 2-for-6:

- missed 39 yard FG vs VT (BAD
- missed 56 yard FG vs VT (NEVER should've been sent out there after TO's and with that cross-wind)
(then kicked GAME WINNING FG)
- missed 52-yard FG bounced off midway up the left upright)
- blocked 37-yard FG vs Wscy (NOT his fault)

....but the R-Soph has bounced back to connect on his last 6 in a row (2/2 vs UCLA and SC; 1/1 vs Minny and Twerps) and is now 8-12 on the season. Let's hope for 3 more solid games from Jai and a GREAT finish to '24 for 2 really BIG seasons from him yet to come!!