With some little help with Iowa losing we have a legit chance of finishing 5th in the big ten this year if we win out

Oregon
Ohio st
Indiana
Penn State

Rutgers !

Another week down, and Andy Katzs is back with his March Madness Weekly Word of power rankings, honors and musings from the past week and the week ahead in men’s college basketball.

It's top 3 for sure. Win out and number one. Here is how I rank them:

1. 24 squad IF we win out or go 8-5, beat Illinois, and lose in a very respectable performance to a SEC bowl team.
3. 14 squad - this squad was good. 8-5. Beat Michigan. Nova, Carew, Turay -- a fun team (and they had injuries too... if Paul James is healthy they could have been better).
3. 24 squad if we go 8-5 but are middling in winning the last three. Very good season, but could have been better.
5. 23 squad - 7-6, beating Miami, very respectable.
6. 24 squad if we go 7-6 or worse.

Schiano has taken Rutgers from the dregs to being a good team. Go 9-4 and it's a very good team.

The guys had two scrimmages yesterday. The first was against Brown where they played the starters and two deep. Brown got completely run over. Final score was 19-4 according to the most official scoresheet that was distributed. A lot of assisted goals which was good to see.

The second scrimmage was against Bryant where the starters/two deep sat and exclusively other players. Bryant won the game by a few but I wouldn't read into that. It should also be noted that we had 9 guys in street clothes who are expected to start or play significant minutes.

Great day for the program.

For some perspective on how injuries or lack thereof help or hurt teams look back to 2006 and name one player outside of Sean Tucker who missed even a game that year. I can't think of one other starter who missed time. I can't think of one bench player who missed time either. 11-2 and ranked as high as #7 finishing at #12.

I think trainers do know more today and hold players out. There are also better and more frequent surgeries. But even still just 1 player missing any time is pretty amazing.

Things to get lost from time to time here, especially some of our latest scoops. So one of our members suggested we make a thread where it's just our posts and scoops, so we've done just that.

If you'd like to talk about something we said in here, just simply start up a new thread talk about it more in depth. Now that won't stop us from commenting in other threads and even starting up new threads with the latest, but this just seems to be the easiest way to keep things in check.

TO GET NOTIFICATIONS TURNED ON FOR THIS THREAD, SIMPLY CLICK THE WATCH BUTTON ABOVE THIS POST.

With that being said, here's the latest scoop.

We know about Chin and Felter is back (assuming he’d be 100% by camp) and we get Asamoah (sp) back and Zalinkus and Needham (also assuming he’s healthy). We’ve seen Taj White and assume he’d slide over into Pierce’s LT spot. My question to you both is what of the younger guys we haven’t seen, who shows real promise and progress? We have some big boys we’ve recruited that needed development so I’m curious about the next generation. Thanks.

Here are the Big Ten bowl tie-ins:

- Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs SEC - Dec 31
- ReliaQuest Bowl vs SEC - Dec 31
- Duke's Mayo Bowl vs ACC - Jan 3 (this one alternates with Las Vegas, and the B1G sent NW to LV last year) - but see note below about the west coast teams
- Music City Bowl vs SEC - Dec 30
- Pinstripe Bowl vs ACC - Dec 28
- Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs Big 12 - Dec 26
- Quick Lane Bowl vs MAC - Dec 26

One other twist: the former Pac-12 teams - Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington - will remain eligible for the former Pac-12 bowl ties and affiliations. That means if any of those four aren't in the College Football Playoff, they'll be eligible for the Alamo, Independence, Holiday, LA, Las Vegas, and Sun bowls.

So root for FOUR Big Ten teams to make the CFP, as that leaves more bowls available for the rest of us.

The clear preferences for Rutgers are the two Florida bowls, Music City, and Mayo. This way we avoid December 26 in the other three bowls, which would reduce attendance being the day after Christmas.

If we win our last two games, we will be 8-4 (5-4), which should increase our chances at the better bowls.

This can't be good. Duke is signing three kids, Michigan has 2, Hopkins and Maryland have one each but Rutgers has none. What's the spin?

I’m kind of surprised that no one started a thread on the 2024 NJ HS Football Season.

Oh well… Hopefully this starts it up or maybe not.

Here’s some big news in that Junior to be Najee Calhoun, one of the best RBs in NJ, is transferring from Donovan Catholic to Bergen Catholic.

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I'm attending the game this Saturday for the first time since I was a student. I'm going with my younger brother and it'll be his first game. I want him to be able to see the pre-game things like scarlet walk and senior day festivities. What time should we get to the stadium?

I'll be parking on Livingston campus. Do they still have a shuttle from the RAC to the stadium?

Thanks in advance!

Derkack was awesome yesterday. His help defensive and ability to push the fast break is going to create a lot of points for teammates. He also didn’t take any bad shots. Derkack has clearly bought in and is make the extra pass. It’s fun to watch.

MSU?
MINNY?

Looks like it from they’re recent broadcast commentary

1. Offense looked great. 98 points is the most we’ve ever scored under Pike. Finally got the 3-point game going, but also a lot of good passing, not much one-on-one hero ball at all. 21 assists on 31 made FGs.

2. But the defense was… bad. We gave up 51 points in the 2nd half (matching our 51 point output). Granted, Bashir was just unconscious beyond belief, but we were also playing lazy defense and leaving him open. Pike has a big job ahead of him getting these guys to play tougher D.

3. Pike should be offering Bashir a scholarship and NIL deal before he gets on the bus back to West Long Branch. Holy crap can that kid ball and shoot.

4. Color me worried about Ace Bailey’s health. Left the game late and walked into the locker room with the trainer. Played a solid game with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block.

5. Jordan Derkack is such a good all-around player, a consummate glue-guy who’s a good defender, good rebounder, and great passer. 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and a whopping 9 assists. And that 50 foot down court bounce pass to JMike on the fast break — Wow.

6. We finally got the 3-point shooting untracked, going 11-20 from deep. ZBo 4-7, Hayes 3-4, Harper 2-3. Biggest one was Harper’s corner three to push the lead back up to 15 after Monmouth cut into the lead and was giving our fans agita.

7. Harper had a “quiet” 20. But every point critical, and he added 6 assists. Scored 20+ in his first three games as a true freshman.

8. Martini finally broke out on offense with 18 points on 7-10 shooting. And Hayes with 11. They combined for 7 made threes. This is why we got them.

9. Sommerville with 10 points, his third straight double-digit game as a true freshman. Also showed some toughness with 7 rebounds, and demonstrated some good weak side rim protection with 2 blocks. Ogbole played 6 awful minutes.

Gotta get Ace healthy so he can play in Kennesaw next week and in Vegas.

Actually a small concern. Since this is the first time in awhile that we have so many players who are draft eligible, i assume we will have some opt outs?

Again, these are all decisions kids need to make with their families and i don’t judge anyone. It just seems like if we do have a bunch of opt outs, we will really struggle.