I’ve seen complaints on here about the game experience (music too loud, etc) honestly - I don’t know WTF they’re talking about

Went to tonight’s game and came away REALLY impressed with the CONSTANT effort to entertain / keep the crowd engaged

Not only was it constant but also well thought out, and well timed (eg would get tue crowd UP before a big defensive 3rd or 4th down)

Went with my nephew (goes to a bunch of NFL games) and his dad (my brother who is a real sourpuss who always badmouths RU…a RU-hating RU grad)…. Both kept talking about what a game atmosphere it was!!!!

He has RU ranked 25 but ole miss at 15. Nationally it’s worse but I don’t understand how anyone can have this ole miss team ranked period. It’s just preseason bias.

Ole Miss’s wins are Furman, middle Tennessee, wake forest, and Georgia southern. Their loss is a home loss to Kentucky and Gavin wimsatt.

On the pod he talks about the strength of schedule but then ranks ole Miss 15. Intellectually dishonest at best. How is this remotely defensible, other than “hey everyone else is doing it.”

Need help here as I have a family wedding that evening.

This is nuts! Right in the middle of the game both teams take cover


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@Adam Gorney grades each Big Ten program's recruiting class + performance on the field thus far.

FULL LIST: RUTGERS' 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

Upon coach Greg Schiano’s return to Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights had three-straight losing seasons including winning just four games total in 2022. To start this season, Rutgers is 4-0 and it’s coming off three-point wins over Virginia Tech and Washington. Things are definitely looking up for Rutgers on the field and recruiting is also going very well.

The Scarlet Knights have 29 pledges, rank No. 22 nationally in the team rankings, have four four-star commitments and then 10 high three-stars who are one notch away from four-star status. No longer is it a cupcake win to play Rutgers.

Grade: A

Lots of game day thoughts, but there were two things that instantly came to mind that RU can easily adjust to.

1. bELieve to start the 4th quarter.

Why are we cutting this song down to basically 25%? Play the entire song and let the fan base lean into it.

I’m typically not a big fan of the song, but:

1. It applies well to RU for obvious reasons
2. Easy song that most people can join in on
3. Aligns with the “keep choppin” mentality of not giving up
4. Has potential to build into something people want to stay for, less people would leave early.

If Wisconsin can figure out how to play an entire song during the same period, so can Rutgers.

2. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (Live in NYC)

The beginning of this song Springsteen screams “you gotta let em hear you in Jersey man! Is there anybody really alivvve?!” Followed by the beat and crowd humming.

This is prime for the taking by Rutgers and ONLY Rutgers. Regardless of your Springsteen opinion, this is something that would send an instant jolt through the fan base. No other school can copy you, it is unique to us.

Use it during breaks or after big plays or whatever you want, but be different. Hell I even think it’d be cool as the warm up song before “for those about to rock.” Play a portion of this before the team comes out and it will pick up steam to get the fan base in earlier.

Blows my mind this hasn’t been used:

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This is a copy and paste from the Basketball Board post I made. FYI: I was told by those at the scrimmage Davis was absolutely 5-6 FT - either I missed 2-2 FT from him (one trip to the FT line), or the supposed 28-minute full clip missed some of the action, or I assigned his FT's to another player (the clip was occasionally a little blurry):

So ... in between watching various NFL games (including my beloved Vikings win again), I watched the YouTube video of the open scrimmage on Saturday that someone posted today. I watched it like I was watching a real game, and kept score for each player.

I kept score for each player by each "half", but then combined each player's total stats for one "box score" for each player.

Here it is:

Presumed Starters:

Harper: 15 points, 3 reb, 6 ass, 1 TO, 1 Stl, 1 BS, 6-12 fg (1-5 from 3), 2-2 FT

Bailey: 15 points, 10 reb (2 offensive), 2 ass, 4 TO, 0 stl, 1 BS, 7-14 FG, 1-5 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Williams: 8 points, 2 reb (1 offensive), 2 ass, 4 TO, 0 stl, 0 BS, 4-8 FG, 0-2 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Ogbole: 8 points, 1 reb (1 offensive), 0 ass, 2 TO, 1 st, 1 BS, 3-8 FG, 2-4 FT

Martini: 2 points, 3 reb (1 offensive), mo other stats, 1-2 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 0-0 FT


Presumed Reserves:

J. Davis: 11 points, 3 reb (2 offensive), 3 ass, 2 TO, 0 st, 0 BS, 4-7 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 3-4 FT (the articles said he had 13 points and 5-6 FT - but I had him 3-4 FT, with Sommerville 2-2 FT - the articles must have assigned those 2 FT's to Davis)

Hayes: 8 points, 1 reb, no other stats, 3-3 FG, 2-2 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Sommerville: 6 points, 2 reb, 0 ass, 2 TO, 0 st, 1 BS, 2-6 FG, 0-0 3 pt, 2-2 FT

Derkack: 4 points, 1 reb, 0 ass, 3 TO, 1 st, 1 BS, 2-7 FG, 0-3 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Grant: 3 points, 2 reb, no other stats, 1-2 FG, 1-2 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Dortch: 4 points, 2 reb (1 off), 0 ass, 1 TO, 0 st, 0 BS, 2-2 FG, 0-0 3 pt, 0-0 FT

Miscellaneous Team Observations:

1) Not surprisingly, likely due to not even the 1st full week of practice plus mixing and matching lineups, the team looked sloppy - too many careless pass turnovers, sloppy with ball handling turnovers. The 3 point shooting was basically non-existent, except for Hayes (well, they took 3 pointers, but mostly missed). One 28-minute helter skelter scrimmage is way to early to judge anything, of course, including shooting.

2) Either line-up looked the smoothest with Harper triggering the offense (duh!) - smooth and lots of open shots available for him and others.

3) The offense looked worst when Williams or Derkack were triggering the offense.

4) Davis triggering the offense was ... okay ... better than with Derkack or Williams.

Player Thoughts (obviously, things can and likely will change a lot after another 5 weeks of practice):

1) Harper: He is the real deal, and it is obvious regardless of the sloppiness ... 6 assists and 1 turnover, getting the the paint and rim at will no matter who was covering him ... creating for himself and others ... unstoppable in transition ... at least decent defense (whoever he covered did nothing while Harper was defending him). Ran the high screen and roll all the time, which was never stopped.

2) Bailey: He IS going to be great ... really ... yes, there will be some games where he does not hit shots - but when he does he could score 25+ ... a a very good rebounder, it appears: Almost always in good position for the rebound (that is natural). Still needs to work on shot selection, and at least 3 times took the shot for himself when he had a wide open teammate in the corner (twice it was Martini) - he did make one of those shots, a drive and pull up. Still, he WAS a willing passer, and made several outstanding passes - only got 2 assists because the teammates missed the shots. And is a good, athletic defender (maybe not a star defender, but willing and athletic enough to do so). One note: When he triggered or had the ball on the top or wing RU NEVER (and I mean never) ran the high screen for him. He played much more 1 on 1 than did Harper.

3) Ogbole is better than Sommerville, at this moment. Not saying that won't change over the course of practice and the season. He moves better on offense, sets better high screens, blocked one of Sommerville's shots as they were one on one, was more assertive at the rim (yes, he missed a few, especially early, but hit both at the rim in the 2nd "half". Ogbole is still a work in progress, but is clearly improved vs last season: Moves better, stronger, better fundamental footwork, high screens and even better hands. Still not good offensive moves (like, none besides dunks off passes and rebounds). Sommerville looks like he has a lot of upside, a nice soft shot, a couple of good passes.

4) I actually cannot tell how improved Davis is. Though clearly stronger, and also obviously a good rebounder, and does a decent job running the offense, I still cannot tell if his shooting is better (FT's were fine in 4 attempts). Had several assists. On the other hand, got schooled by Harper every time (maybe that is not a negative reflection - maybe Harper will do that to everyone). Williams does NOT look like a back-up PG at this stage of practice, in this scrimmage. Derkack did not look like a creator - but did play very good defense, especially help defense. But he displayed some of the weaknesses he showed last season at Merrimack: Did not make 3 pointers, and turned the ball over trying to force passes.

4) Hayes can shoot. Need I say more?

5) Martini did not show much, positive or negative ... will probably benefit as the offense becomes more structured, and as Harper and Bailey settle into how they best create openings for others. And will probably end up doing a lot of the little things that do not always show up in the box score.

Also being shown tomorrow (Tues) at 7AM

Apparently UNLV stating QB Matt Sluka quit on the team because his NIL deal went through. They were 3-0. He’s going to preserve his redshirt and transfer again for money. That shit is awful.

What a an amazing job!!!

RU show

Sport is awesome to watch I highly encourage you to check it out. However watching our girls...fvck man we just cannot put a team away. Iowa match we were close in every set and couldn't close the door and tonight we just blew a 2-0 lead and melted down and lost 3 straight sets to lose to Michigan and their coach who looks like a walrus.

Edit: They play #7 Wisconsin at the RAC Wednesday at 730pm, the Badgers have a girl 6'9 and 6'7...nuts.

a
It sounds like the FOX Sports team had a great time in Piscataway. Devon Gardner said that their Thursday prep with Schiano was “the best he’s ever had” with a coach. Brando ranks us now in his top-15, too bad he doesnt have an AP vote!

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Pre-game - "Light Up Piscataway!"

1st 10,000 students receive a limited edition black out T-shirt

Black Out Friday

It's a charity intrasquad on September 28th so I'm calling it an overreaction, but my biggest takeaway from the day is that Pike has to acknowledge our center play isn't what it needs to be and go small sooner rather than later. At least until Acuff comes back, I think the clear best 5 are Dylan, Jwill, Hayes, Ace, and Martini. I also want to say that this isn't exclusively a negative towards Ogbole because I definitely think he got better, but more that Hayes impressed the hell out of me. He made a couple nice 3's(the shot looks as advertised), but what stood out to me was how much better he looked physically and athletically than he did 6 months ago from his SD tape. He's by no means a + defender but it looks like he will be able to hang and also got to the rim nicely when needed.

The concerns with having 2 non shooters on the court with Ace and Dylan are legitimate and I don't think Ogbole does enough defensively to warrant him being on the floor a ton. He will still have an important role this year having to bang down low with some bigger 5's for stretches but his usage should be more game to game situational dependent. The defense would obviously be a concern with Martini playing an undersized 5 but he's shown he can do it at a solid level and having 3 big athletic switchable players on the court will help elevate him. The ability to open up driving lanes for Ace and Dylan and surround them with more shooting far outweigh the defensive concerns IMO. I'd love to hear other's opinions of those who attended. We're in for an exciting year.

Cool little piece…
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Washington -2. Pretty interesting, it's last year's rematch. Michigan vs Washington Odds

New Jersey’s Team ranked number 19 in the country !!!

via @Alec Crouthamel