Let us all pray as we prepare for the Church of Chop as our Lord and Savior Greg Schiano and his Knights take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois. Following a hard fought noble victory, Our BOWL ELIGIBLE Knights return to the Ancient and Blessed Waters of the Raritan to Honor our Seniors as we face another Midwest B1G foe. We continue our Crusade for Glory… and we shall have no fear.

Let Monangai the Mighty dodge and duck from their aiming arrows. Let Dynamite Dymere Miller slide and streak past their thrashing tomahawks. Let King Kaliakmanis play Steadfast and True. Let Loyal the Lionheart and Hamilton the Hammer silence their wicked war-cry. And let the Loaded Leg of Pistol Patel fire the pigskin through the Holy Uprights.

And let us not forget the one and only commandment… “THOU. SHALT. CHOP!”

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 !

I know there were some recent threads out there, but I looked and could not find them.

So I'm starting one up fresh.

I see where this has been stated by the talking heads. Have to think a performance like last night would certainly help to lead to that assessment.
We play a team that is 4-1 on Sunday at their place. I think this will be a watershed kind of game for us. We better show up with a lot more fire in our bellies if we want to win this one.

Let us all pray as we prepare for the Church of Chop as our Lord and Savior Greg Schiano and his Knights take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois. Following a hard fought noble victory, Our BOWL ELIGIBLE Knights return to the Ancient and Blessed Waters of the Raritan to Honor our Seniors as we face another Midwest B1G foe. We continue our Crusade for Glory… and we shall have no fear.

Let Monangai the Mighty dodge and duck from their aiming arrows. Let Dynamite Dymere Miller slide and streak past their thrashing tomahawks. Let King Kaliakmanis play Steadfast and True. Let Loyal the Lionheart and Hamilton the Hammer silence their wicked war-cry. And let the Loaded Leg of Pistol Patel fire the pigskin through the Holy Uprights.

And let us not forget the one and only commandment… “THOU. SHALT. CHOP!”

Can’t make it today.

Every so often I think I will post this. Thursday 11/21 had a full slate of college games. I found a number of games of interest. Obviously, RU opponents, Big Ten teams are of the most interest, but there are always other interesting games.

Big Ten Teams:

1) Indiana beat UNC Greensboro - by 11 points.

2) Michigan on easily and big over Tarleton St - by 23 (Tarleton w/i 13 with 7 minutes left)

3) Oregon rallied, on the road, to beat Oregon St., after being down 10 at the half.

4) On Wednesday, FYI: Penn State did beat Purdue-Fort Worth, 102-89 .. trailed by 11 late in the 1st half, trailed at half, and trailed with 13 minutes left, before pulling away.

Major Conference Games:

1) Baylor beat St. Johns with a 3 at the buzzer, in 2 OT - heartbreaker after St. Johns missed 2 FT's. Note: Top 5 projected pick Edgecombe, who is starting for Baylor and having a decent start to the season (10 ppg?), was 4-15 FG, 10 points.

2) On a neutral court, Syracuse lost to Texas - a quality loss.

3) In a neutral court game, U of Miami LOST, to a currently undefeated Drake team, 80-69 ... Drake won while going 4-19 from 3 ... but it was not even that close: After going down 7-3, Syracuse NEVER had the ball with a chance to even tie the game - they trailed by 7-10 points essentially the entire game, though got to within 5 points after just 2 made baskets in the 2nd half, and to within 4 points one time.

4) Nobody but me probably cares, but my best friend is a huge Virginia fan: UVA got crushed 68-42 by Tennessee ... looks like UVA will continue to have trouble scoring this year.

5) Oklahoma St lost to Florida Atlantic.

6) St. Josephs BEAT Texas Tech, 78-77 ... As pointed out elsewhere, Simpson played 36 minutes, 0-6 FG, 0-2 3-point, 0 points ... he did have 5 assists and just 1 turnover. St. Joes, it looks like, basically goes just 6 deep ... with maybe a 7th player getting 8-12 minutes per game.

7) Vandy squeaked by a potentially good Nevada team.


RU Opponents:

1) SHU beat VCU - important win for them ... 69-66. Strange early season for SHU. They have just 1 player averaging mor than 9 ppg: Chaunce Jenkins (16/g), and just 2 players even averaging 8 ppg or better (Wusu averages 8 ppg) ... 2 other players average 7.5 ppg.

2) On Tuesday, Wagner beat BU, 60-58

3) St. Peter's has won 2 games since the RU game (though 1 was entirely meaningless, and the other was against a weak team).

4) Monmouth has struggled since the RU game, losing to Youngstown St and Wichita St.

5) Kennesaw St won Wednesday night, vs Abilene Christian, 84-78. They score a lot, and shoot a fair amount of 3's. Their leading scorer, Cottle, averages almost 19 per game - and have 3 other double digit scorers, shoot 38% from 3 as a team with their top 2 volume 3-point shooters each shooting 48% or better from 3.

6) Notre Dame is 4-0, winning easily Tuesday over North Dakota. Beat Georgetown, Stonehill easily, and won by 9 over Buffalo (after trailing at half time). They have a star scorer, in Burton, averaging 20 ppg, plus 2 other double-digit scorers, including the coach's son.

7) Princeton lost Thursday night to a 4-2 Wright St team - and now sits at 4-2 themselves (they had previously lost to what may be a good Loyola-Chicago team, beating Iona, Duquesne, Northeastern and Merrimack (Clark scored 24 against Princeton, FYI).

8) COLUMBIA, FYI, is currently 6-0, if you can believe it. They beat Long Island U on Wednesday on the road. Columbia has beaten Villanova (on the road, Loyola-MD (on the road), Mercy, Delaware St and Lehigh ... the jewel being Villanova (even with Villanove being obviously weak this year, that is a very good win for Columbia)

Any good new songs or albums released this year?

Biggest surprise and solid release on June 23, 2020 by the band Hum (famous for the 1995 song Stars), which had not released an album since 1998.

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Car Seat Headrest has also released a new album, which is not as strong as the last album:

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Badly Drawn Boy- Banana Skin Shoes
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Elvis Costello- No Flag - very solid song

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BPMD- American Made

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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.

I saw they were 1-9 but then saw there schedule

Notre Dame
Penn State
Ohio State
Indiana
Oregon

Wisconsin
Illinois

What do you guys think I record would be lol

As Shania Twain sang...

That don't impress me much (oh, oh, ooh)
So you got the brains, but have you got the touch?
Now, don't get me wrong, yeah, I think you're alright
But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night
That don't impress me much
Uh-huh, yeah, yeah

How to judge these first four games is tough. Competition has been against beyond weak sauce. Many schools around the country including just about everyone in Vegas has already squared off against tougher. Tonight Rutgers did the bare minimum to win against a vastly overmatched but spirited Merrimack. That on the heels of a sketchy defensive performance against Monmouth and a death struggle vs St Peter's. 4-0...all wins and certainly Ace and Dylan are as adverstised that is for sure. The question is whether this team is just playing down to its competition and will show up and buckle down for some real impressive play when the big lights come on in Vegas. That is a BIG IF....IF IF IF....we just do not know. The ranking says 24 but I do not see it yet. Might be better off going into Vegas with a bit of disrespect and falling out of the top 25

What I do know is this team is not playing defense a lick and its disheartening to see. Merrimack is not a good offensive team. They were futile from 3 going 4-24 but its not because RU disrupted their offense. Merrimack had a plethora of open 3s all night that were just brick after brick. Meanwhile on 2s they were very good especially early. In fact at one point they were shooting 8-10 on 2s and 2-10 on 3s for 10-20 overall. Give tons of credit to Clark. RU made another player an unstoppable superstar until he cooled off badly late. He went off for 22 points in all 40 minutes on 10-19 shooting. RU was outscored in the paint 40-32 and it seemed like there waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many easy looks either backdoor or just on a pass where RU was just clueless on where the ball was going. Yes RU did get a couple stops late in the game when it was a 3 possession game but I never truly got the feeling that RU was again all that interested overall in getting stops. That for a Pikiell team is alarming. There is no more pounding nails that is out the window. My concern is what is going to happen next week when RU simply cannot outscore the competition. Do you think Notre Dame or Alabama is not lickin their chops at Rutgers post defense. Ogbole had his best game tonight with 7 boards and 6 points but shouldnt he given the competition. He is better than Lathan on defense. I am coming around to what GRF has been saying. Lathan is brutal on D and has not progressed there as of yet

Now let me slip in some positives. Ace Bailey was smooth tonight and pretty much why Rutgers won the game. 23 points and 10 boards, 9-15 shooting. He is hitting shots that normally Rutgers players would take and never make. Ace makes them look easy. No one can take the Rutgers Ace in the hole this year. He is an absolute difference maker. Combined with Harper who didnt have his best game on either end but did come on late to end with 14 points and 8 boards, very very solid in the end. These two obviously are as adverstised and no one can question just how good they are and how they will win games for Rutgers either single handedly or as a duo. The problem is the supporting cast and thats what does not impress me much. Sure they looked solid against Wagner and put up some nice numbers vs St Peters and Monmouth but I felt tonight collectively was a step backwards for everyone except for Ogbole.

For starters J Will, okay I know he is banged up a bit but how is he fitting in right now. It seems our offense is slowed with him in and while he can bring some defensive intensity at times, J Will level of play seems a few steps down from last season Sorry 2 points and 2 turnovers on 1-4 shooting is not what you want from a guy you were counting on to bring some experience and leadership. J Mike supposedly our best defensively player was flat out abused tonight in just 11 minutes. Derkack who I had lauded as a solid tough player seemingly tried to do too much to show up his former team. Some bad choices and just atrocious defense in spots. Summerville just way too many touches in this game...why are we forcing the ball so much to him especially with the zone and he loves to hold on to it, doesnt he rather than kick it out. Too many sloppy possessions against the zone not working for the right shot. I am not all that interested in Lathan having to score all that much considering Ace and Harper so why is Pike trying to force it to him. Hayes and Martini were just okay at best tonight. I thought they could have been utlilized more attacking the zone but RU just seem unprepared to play it tonight.

Pike did not coach one of his best games or do the best game prep and if any game screamed for less Lathan/Emmanuel and more Zak it would have been this game. I shudder that Pike still had to be coaching this team up just 7 points late in the game. How this happened I have no idea but this team has yet to find any killer instinct to shut the door on a team when they have them on the ropes. This time up 65-51 yet RU would throw out a bunch of mistakes. Turnover by Ogbole and Lathan and then Ace. Some ill advised quick 3s by Jordan were unforgivable. This is another red flag. Where is the leader late? When opportunity arises, who is going to say lets finish this off. Yes RU did hold sway after the timeout. It was Dylan who came out took a shot, got his own rebound and putback for a dunk, then he got the offensive rebound. on the other end, rebounded Jordan awful choice for 3 for the lay in. There will be times yes its Dylan or Ace doing it but expecting them to have to carry the leadership role as freshmen phenoms perhaps isnt the ideal situation. I just question the team ball concept right now. You have guys who individual can make incredible plays, some who are role playing for outside shots but is this supporting cast good enough to do the little things that win you games. There have been opportunities to see these things that past 3 games but RU has fallen short of the mark every time.

Yes they won and they have won 4 but folks, these are not good teams RU is facing. To be up only 7 with 150 seconds left at home to Merrimack when you have two top 5 NBA draft picks on your team makes you wonder. Normally I do not consider exhibition games but I cannot get that St Johns game out of my head because of how it went down and 4 real games later I have yet to see any improvement on the approach. Talent alone won the game tonight, not effort, not defense, not coaching. Next week you cannot rely on just talent. They all have talent. Will the effort show, will the defense show, will the coaching show. This group is probably needing a reset loss. It may come Sunday or it may come vs Notre Dame but I bet you the team and staff will be better off for it. Or I could be completely wrong and a light switch goes off next week when the Vegas lights shine. The next two weeks of 5 games finishing off with a Big 10 opening road tilt at Ohio State are certainly going to provide more clarity than these first 4 games. Pike will know what he has and he can work from there

"We are super excited to bring The Rutgers Winter Village back to Jersey Mike's Arena," head men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell said. "We have the best fans in the country, and this gives them a chance to bring some of that passion just outside our front door prior to our games to kickoff the holiday season."

Rewatched the whole game today and here's who Adam Clark scored each bucket on yesterday versus Rutgers.

Adam Clark (22pts total)

Versus JaMichael Davis (10pts)
FG: 4-of-5
3P: 0-of-0
1 Foul (2-2 FTs)
1 Block

Versus Derkack (6pts)
FG: 3-of-6
3P: 0-of-1
2 Turnovers Forced

Versus Jeremiah Williams (2pts)
FG: 1-of-1
3P: 0-of-0
1 Foul
4 Turnovers Forced

Versus Lathan Sommerville (2pts)
FG: 1-of-1

Versus PJ Hayes (2pts)
FG: 1-of-1

Versus Dylan Harper
FG: 0-of-2

Versus Ace Bailey
FG: 0-of-1

Versus Zach Martini
FG: 0-of-1

Versus Emmanuel Ogbole
FG: 0-of-1

Email jtung230 at yahoo dot com if interested. Best offer.

"765874 Unification"

Lots of rave reviews - even Critical Drinker liked it a lot - really well done.
Shatner was never happy how his character died and wanted a new angle
If you were or are a Star Trek fan then this is a good watch - came out 4 days ago.
Eight minutes long and no spoken words between characters

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Looking for two yellow lot passes for tomorrow's game. Have tix.

• Rutgers Skill Players have caught just 168 of 297 passes this season, as their 56.6% catch rate amounting to the third-worst mark among Power Conference Teams. Florida State ranks last with a 51.4% catch rate (148 recs on 288 targets).

Since Marvel is taking a break on Disney +, there’s other shows that’s going on right now that is open to debate on WHAT TO WATCH ON TV. Just finished two of them and looking for something else until the final season of THE LAST KINGDOM drops on Netflix in March.

-PEACEMAKER on HBO Maxis surprising the hell out of me on many levels. (Can’t believe I’m saying this but) John Cena is doing a hell of a job in this role, probably better than The Rock but needs some more roles to confirm this. But he’s playing the hell out of PM/ Chris Smith. The rest of the cast is pretty good as well, esp the guy who plays Murn.

No Spoilers since it’s still going but it makes you wonder GREAT the DC Universe would be right now if they had the right people directing the movies and running the program from the beginning? It’s amazing how Joss Weedon and the DC executives have F***ed up the whole thing and it’s now starting to come back together and be a decent universe. Time will tell.

ALL OF US ARE DEAD on Netflix. Pretty good show. Think TRAIN TO BUSAN inside a high school. No spoilers but this show goes on both ends of the spectrum as it deals with some HEAVY topics to the other side with the Zombie and other stuff. I’d recommend this.

ANYTHING ELSE OUT THERE????

Taking my kids to the Boardwalk tomorrow (doubt we will make it to the game). Looking for 1 parking pass.

I can be reached at onerutgersfan@yahoo.com

Thanks

HC Bret Bielema-------------------------------------------------------------The State of Illinois