His defense hasn't been a liability.
With his shooting ability, he should never be 0-3 at the foul line in a game.
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With his shooting ability, he should never be 0-3 at the foul line in a game.
I agree with most but he should have a few assists, he has put some good balls into the post just to have Cliff fumble the pass or miss the shot.
Pike is rotating on match ups as well. I don’t remember the exact substitution but it could be related to a Georgetown sub.
I think about 10 of those TOs were on bad passes. They weren't TOs where he was forcing something trying to score
I’m not following the complaint here. Gavin played almost the entire first half from the moment he first checked in. He played great at first but then our shots stopped falling and Georgetown starting to find a rhythm on offense. Gavin was still playing at that point and Georgetown had closed the lead to 6 at the half.
Pike went back to his starting five to open the second half which was a reasonable thing to do. Within 4 minutes (16 min mark) the lead went from 6 to 18. The starters were playing very well - why Is it unreasonable not to leave them in? Gavin checks back into the game and misses a pair of free throws badly and gives up an easy basket. Why should he stay in there? He had a great first half but other guys stepped up in the second half so he didn’t play as much. There’s nothing more to it.
Pike went back to his starting five to open the second half which was a reasonable thing to do. Within 4 minutes (16 min mark) the lead went from 6 to 18. The starters were playing very well - why Is it unreasonable not to leave them in? Gavin checks back into the game and misses a pair of free throws badly and gives up an easy basket. Why should he stay in there? He had a great first half but other guys stepped up in the second half so he didn’t play as much. There’s nothing more to it.
I dont see it as an effort problem. He just doesnt know how to play help defense (which is totally unimaginable). There is lack of lateral quickness and obvious strength issues though which is making things worse.
Why is Gavin being dissected like ooh he forced a shot..oh he turned it over...what about all the other shit mistakes made by a ton of other players
Its ridiculous our best offensive player who is a freshman is being held to some ridiculous standard
Its ridiculous our best offensive player who is a freshman is being held to some ridiculous standard
Rutgers made 3 fg in an 11 minute stretch in the 2nd half scoring just 8 points..for most of that time Gavin wasnt in
The real issue is how Rutgers offense will perform against better competition.Where are the points coming from when the small guards can't pass the ball to Cliff?Griffiths and Hyatt are the best 3 point shooters and at least one has to be on the court most of the time.The team can't miss at least 10 foul shots and expect to win.Come December hopefully some of the areas of concern will show improvement along with the addition of Mags.
I’m not sure which stretch you are talking about. After RU went up 54-36 (16 min mark) we only scored 5 more FGs the rest of the way. Two of them were basically in garbage time (Gavin dunk when up 14 with 1:34 to go, and the Simpson jumper with 40 seconds remaining).
You missing that while we didn’t score much during that stretch, neither did Georgetown. During the time Gavin was out the lead never dipped below 14. There was no reason to play a weak defensive group and potentially allow Georgetown to find their stroke. Pike wanted the win.
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the language is totally unacceptable. 🤬 Your moth needs a mask over it! Did you break a 10+ year run of providing game reviews?
Gavin's defense is off the charts bad. I can't get too excited about 2023-24 season because he may be unplayable in most B1G games.
I hope the learning curve is steep and that I am overreacting
all great questions..if there isn't change in Gavin's defense and improved guard play get ready for a 12-14 win season.
I was very pleased to see Fernandes play with confidence against georgetown.
I don’t get the frustration. GG is only four games into his college career. He is the best shooter on the team and has great potential on offense. He does have work to do in terms of defense and conditioning at this level. This shouldn‘t be surprising considering that he is a freshman.
RU built up the lead in the second half and it was clear Pike was going with a more defense oriented lineup to finish the game. I don’t see the issue.
You could make an argument that some of OP and AC minutes could have gone to GG to give him more PT. But, this is kind of nitpicking IMO
RU built up the lead in the second half and it was clear Pike was going with a more defense oriented lineup to finish the game. I don’t see the issue.
You could make an argument that some of OP and AC minutes could have gone to GG to give him more PT. But, this is kind of nitpicking IMO
Maybe he was tired and was being subbed for anyway.
Oh wait....that has never happened in basketball before.
Agreed.
We still seem to be doing little to get Gavin, Hyatt, Oskar in positions to get open shots in the half court set.
Oskar's two 3s against Princeton were heavily contested but they went in.
In another thread someone mentioned Gavin not putting in the effort on offense to move his feet unless it's part of the play.
I would hope he's not moving around outside the play!
Have to imagine him standing around in the corner is by design of the play.
meh, ive missed a few over time, I posted my thoughts in Degaz thread which most of the board game thoughts were in
lmfao..if Gavin is unplayable RU going to lose mamy games 70-49 to serve what purpose...to play 3 guys who are going to graduate
Agreed. Gavin’s D would be unplayable in most BIg games with most of the current roster combos available. Specifically, it’d be very hard to play him with either Hyatt or Oskar against a decent offensive team. I’m hoping when Mag returns he’ll cover up some of the shortcomings. But as I’ve said before, Mag isn’t a plug and play replacement for Caleb who was an elite college help defender. Can Mag slide into that role and perform at a high level? Maybe - but that’s very much TBD and nobody else on the roster is even a viable candidate to fill this role, I think gavin’s D will improve but it’s unlikely he will make quantum leaps forward until the offseason. The question is whether Pike can figure out combos to mask his issues on d the way he did with guys like Paul. It didn’t happen with Jaden Jones but Gavin looks more skilled on offense off the bat. So we’ll have to see.
That's because you and a handful of others complained in the other thread (and this one) that he only played 5+ minutes in the 2nd. The reason appears obvious to most of us, his defense. Defense won the game in the 2nd half so you don't play a subpar defender a lot of minutes during that stretch. Some posters even suggested that you can't pull Gavin Griffith because he is too good of a scorer. Lol
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hahaha oh are you looking for a return to the Mike Rice Days....guess what our defense is nowhere near as good as last season so 70-49 is more likely
I agree but everyone gets dissected here and I don’t like it for any of the players. What we have here are the Washington Generals trying to tell the Harlem Glibetrotters how to play Basketball. I am being kind calling some of our posters the generals. The guys I see yelling at players at the RAC would look like fools against the Generals and possibly against the little kids who played at halftime of the BU game. Lmao at all of the experts here. You amuse me.
It's ridiculous for any player to be held to a play-by-play standard.
This board has gotten more psychotic since the season started.
People are just trying to give reasons why Pikiell has decided in 2 games to sit Gavin in the 2nd half.
Rutgers message board posters arent telling Gavin to sit the bench, Coach Pike is.
Rutgers message board posters arent telling Gavin to sit the bench, Coach Pike is.
Either you are late to the party or just not paying attention.
This entire thing started with A handful of crazy posters complaining that Gavin only played 5+ minutes in the 2nd half. It had nothing to do with criticism of individual plays. The suggestion that he is too good to be put on the bench for subpar defense and one guy even saying he could transfer, lol.
He played five minutes in the second half
We only outscored them by 5 in the second half so I don't believe you can call it a great half for Rutgers
Even without shooting it so well from 3 in the first three games, he scores more per minute then anyone else we have
Last I looked, the final score is a a factor of both offense and defense
Let me ask a hypothetical
If Cliff comes back, he plays the 5
Mag is a great defender so he plays the 4
Lets say that Grant is a great defender and plays the 3
jeremiah Williams is supposed to be a great defender too so he plays the 2
JMike is obviously a great defender at the point
Does this mean that Ace, Dylan and Gavin all come off the bench?
all you need to do is watch him on defense. Pike doesn't and shouldn't trust him on D.
Pike sat him against Princeton and Georgetown because he badly wants to win these games. He knows right now we are a better team against most opponents with Gavin on the bench
we are talking about Gavin 1.0. Any rational fan wants us to win games and win games with Gavin playing and not on the bench
I think over the course of the season he’s going to get more minutes. His defense will improve - he is a very good athlete. And he’s not tired…a kid like Gavin can run all night. He needs to get better on D and also pike is still trying to figure out his best lineups against different types of teams and personnel. He will be more than fine…will get us lots of points and will play an increasing role as things progress.
Honestly, I haven't been paying attention because I find it too ridiculous to waste time on. I do think he should play more than 18 minutes, but I expect Pike to get a handle on rotations as the season progresses.
The issue isn't that Pike sat Gavin initially. Take him out. Explain what you wanted to see from him. Then when Rutgers is having trouble scoring for an extended period... a simple solution is to put Gavin back in and see if he can spark the offense. It's not that difficult of a concept and not exactly a hot take
it isnt an explaining thing. Gavin knows and Pike knows what he needs to do. You and I can play defense off the ball and see the player with the ball and our man at all times . For some reason this is new to him.
Mag's injury
Noah (or Derek) play as PG
Gavin's D being passable enough to keep him on the floor
Those are the 3 things that are everything to 2023-24 in my eyes.
With the way we play defense their is a level of defense that if you can't play you aren't getting PT
If Alloco and the other Princeton perimeter player put Gavin on the bench you know there will be plenty of capable B1G players
A just as likely scenario is Georgetown gives the ball to Styles or whoever Gavin is guarding and they score 6 straight. Two buckets and two foul shots when someone has to come help and fouls.
I think that Red Wig is on too tight when you start thinking you know what the team needs better than Pikiell.
This is the "39 yards passing" of the basketball board.
Merely raising the concern that while a strategy is working against bad teams - it may not be sustainable as we play better teams.
We've sacrificed offense for defense for years. And it's been slowly catching up with us - culminating in not making the tournament last year.
At some point HC Pike is going to be put to the decision in a key game.
We'll just have to wait and see how it works out.
Merely raising the concern that while a strategy is working against bad teams - it may not be sustainable as we play better teams.
We've sacrificed offense for defense for years. And it's been slowly catching up with us - culminating in not making the tournament last year.
At some point HC Pike is going to be put to the decision in a key game.
We'll just have to wait and see how it works out.
We didn't make the tournament for 2 reasons
1. We needed 2 extra perimeter players (only 1 before....)
2. Mag got hurt
Our strategy of playing killer D was plowing thru the rough B1G schedule until players broke down and Mag got hurt
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