4 games in 7 days...
L 79-77
W 85-84 OT
L 95-90
L 81-77
All games going down to the last minute, with 2 of them down to the last possession. Make no mistakes the program took huge strides on the Vegas trip and we learned a ton of stuff about how good Dylan and Ace are. Yet we also realized how glaring the warts are on this team. Rebounding killed us all tourney and for the first half today and RU actually did a great job boarding in the 2nd half. Instead we fouled incessantly and turned it over. Maturity issues cropped up with Harper forcing shots and then a critical turnover late. Martini an absolute abomination on the cour.t The kid was literally brought here to provide leadership and experience of being in big time situations and he failed astoundingly today in two big spots. Still a small data set but the fear I have is flashing brightly. Flashes of brilliance done in by a roster that has some deep holes. Relying on a freshman in Lathan Summerville who had a strong game when he wasnt fouling is a recipe for disaster.
To beat good teams you need guys stepping up. Today was a critical missed opportunity. RU struggled with the Aggies physicality in the first half and rightly or wrongly got into a whole heap of foul trouble. Lot of situationaly immaturity by Lathan, EO and JD. Yet RU came out like a tornado in the 2nd half led by J Will. Rutgers scored 21 points in 5 minutes en route to an eventually 29-12 run that put them up 63-54. Such a shame because Rutgers withstood the physicality of A&M and turned the game around and made the Aggies play their pace which is a track meet. A&M not a good shooting team and even worse from 3. Missed alot of chippies at the rim which in the first half they got putbacks and foul shots. 2nd half RU did a fine job on the boards. Yet once again RU liked I mentioned in the game thread found themselves at a familiar spot. In charge, this time by 9 with a chance to step on their throats and extend the lead and instead the momentum changed in a snap of the fingers. An ill advised Davis 3 miss would start a 4:30 minute Rutgers scoring drought. This was compounded by some questionable shot selection from Dylan and insanity of having Dylan Grant take back to back shots on offensive possession while A&M is on the run. That is on Pike...come on you have to do a better job there. Throw in bad fouls by Martini and Derkack and it was a team effort of brutal play in what could have been a decisive stretch. I saw this against the bottom feeders. I saw it against Notre Dame and I saw it today. The inability to sustain success for long periods of time. I get it..winning takes time to learn. This team took a leap forward vs Notre Dame but struggled to close it out a couple of times. Today it regressed.
I thought we were getting somewhere when J Will and Lathan hit back to back shots as RU went up 74-72 but again a bad choice in shot by Dylan there and then compounded by a bad foul by Lathan 90 feet away., In crunch time the team simply fell apart. J Will hit a 3 to go up 77-76 but on thei next possession. Dylan made a critical error getting too deep and had no teammates near him to bail him out and he just tossed the ball up at the rim, The Aggies would promptly score in transition to get the lead. RU never recovered from that. They were all out of sorts on every single possession late. Guys afraid to shoot and guys fumbling the ball. Martini was abysmal on back to back possession. I dont want him ever getting the ball in those situations. I think A&M defended Dylan all day. As the analysts said, they are crowding him even at the top of the key. Big time defensive plan by Buzz. Dylan's confidence was shook just enough that there was more passing than him trying to make something happen. Ultimately you have to credit Buzz. Making it extremely difficult for Dylan to pull out a game like he did vs Bama
Dylan just 6-20 fg today. Yes he isnt going to score 35 a game. He will have these nights. Its acceptable. Ace and J Will were awesome out there. J Will with 20 points on 7-8 fg and 4 boards. The catalyst on the second half tornado of points and the big time 3 to give RU the lead at 77-76f. Ace 10-20 fg made some incredible shots. Perhaps since he had that height advantage and was a bit hotter, Pike could have got him the ball late. Instead the ball went around and around and Maritini just f'd everything up. 24 points for Bailey and a whopping 10 rebounds which is awesome to see. Just 2-8 on 3s..maybe a bit too many there I would like to see some more contact because they will foul him. I know he got hobbled a bit so dont know how much that effected his play late. Now Lathan couldnt stay on the court and had a bad foul at the end of the first half and that was a bad job by Pike to leave him in there. Lathan did some really good things in the 2nd half and finished with 8 but not being able to stay on the court is going to be an issue all year long because I dont think EO will be able to stay on the court
Beyond those guys, black holes and zeroes everywhere. Derkack Martini, Grant, J Mike, EO. Hayes, Acuff went a miserable 2-16 fg for just 7 points. Are you freakin kidding me?????!!! Infuriating to me. 7 games logging 90 minutes and you are just getting 2-16 fg and 7 points of them. Oh and 7 turnovers...they had the same number of turnovers than points. The reality is whether the team is young or not, its poorly constructed. There are several players not stepping up and filling in their roles. I get it...Texas A&M is a tourney team. There is no shame in losing to them just as their is no shame in losing to Bama. Yet if you want to be a tourney team and you have two NBA top 5 picks you better start winning these games sooner than later. But here Rutgers sits at 5-3 with ZERO quality OOC wins and no chance in the future for one as SHU, Princeton and even Columbia move no needles. To make matters worse, RU annexed a bad loss at Kennessaw State. So my caveat about hold your horses. As good as these games have been and as awesome as Dylan has been, RU hasnt beaten a damn team of worth yet. That is my worry. A ton of close games and while you can say yes we are young, its going to get better, do not worry...the thing is we do not know. The Big 10 is brutal. Ohio State on the road right away next week is going to be tough. Can Pike hide the reality that I think 5-6 players are simply not good enough and looking like portal disasters. Lathan is going to be fine. Big growth this week but its unfair Pike is against him of this role and well that was the portal error wasnt it.
Some other stuff to touch on....Rutgers defense is getting better. Yes too many fouls and most of the time the refs wont let the opponent play bullyball like that. Apparently its Buzz style and he has been living on it on Vegas. I saw improvement in defense for sure helped by a bunch of missed bunnies by the Aggies. RU still cannot hit the 3 to save their lives....6-26 not good. Too many and so many blanks. Wrong guys taking them and the guys brought into make them just failing miserably. RU hitting free throws at a great rate...15-17 today but again why fall in love with the 3 so much..work harder to get to the line. I see RU shying away from physicality fading away from the bucket rather than drawing that foul. One glaring problem today was handling the ball......16 turnovers for a team averaging just 9. It seemed like RU was unprepared early for the Aggie pressure and that is on Pike. I mean turning it over first posssession is just bad.
Also I am going to give the game ball to Buzz. He outcoached Pike today. I thought Pike had opportunities to put his players in better position, not only with the foul situation but with who was taking shots. Not one of Pikes best days. Buzz didnt have the best of shooters but he had physical players and leaned on that to draw fouls and ultimate his defense shut RU down late. Helps when the refs go along with your gameplan....29 fouls called on RU giving the Aggies a whopping 42 foul shots but his team made the stops defensively on Dylan and pressuring the lesser players to cough the ball up.
I do not know if I am being too hard on this team. I know that there is a lot of hype swirling about the team right now and for Dylan/Ace rightfully so. Yet its a fine line between winning and losing. I just do not want to go through this season where every game is a groundhog day where we have the massive talent advantage with the top 2 players but the overall weakness of the supporting cast just torpedoes victories within our grasp day after day after day after day after day.
