A dose of reality?
- Thread starter zappaa
- Start date
Let's also acknowledge that he found 2 ASSISTANT coaches that was willing to make comments that matches his narrative. I don't think his assessment of Dylan's defense is accurate.
He was also sick as hell. I think Harper made some impressive strides on defense, at least in a one-on-one sense, before getting sick. Looks good guarding that Geronimo kid from Columbia.
When healthy, Dylan seems to be the only player that cares about defense and takes it seriously.
its not necessarily him...its the approach...the tempo and speed of the game on offense changes with him and that carries to defense...what you saw in the 2nd half with slow down running the clock on offense and concerted focus on the defensive end will not happen when he is back at full strength
Grant is still learning but he’s got the tools to be a better defender than most on this team. Harper’s defense is pretty good, imo. So, we’ll see how the D looks with both Dylans on the court together.
Cliff is doing exactly what he did here, scoring at the same rate, rebounding at the same level, and is highly efficient offensively now that he only takes what's given, shooting 70%+. He just plays less because they are a much better team.
Dylan is the not problem on defense. The biggest issues on defense have to do with a lack of rim protection and poor rebounding.
This 100%. The biggest problem by far was losing Cliff. We should’ve done whatever it would’ve taken to keep him here. Starting before last season even started. That’s where the mistake was. Every penny we had beyond Dylan and Ace should’ve been spent on that. Inefficient offensive players who play scrappy defense are a dime a dozen and come cheap. We’d have been better off surrounding them with that and having Cliff down low. Much better off.
This is all theoretical....the accounts I hear is Cliff not being the most motivated guy in Year 4. Having him back in Year 5 would not be a guarantee to a good outcome. Cliff the player, YES.
Other than the Columbia game Rutgers has failed to play a game where the offense and defense have both performed at a high level.Its inexcusable that the roster has been on campus since last June and there still is no half court offense with player/ball movement.On defense there has been poor positioning for rebounds and allowing far too many uncontested layups .A 8-7 record accurately reflects team performance.
It’s all situational. I’m presenting it from the premise that we strategized wrong. We made GG the future priority. The courting shouldve been focused on Cliff. Pike bet wrong. He thought he needed a shooter to deflect away from Dylan so he could be great. Dylan never really needed that. We just needed the rim protector. Cliff would’ve been completely different if he had been revered through and through. That’s not how the narrative went down.
If we weren’t so bad at rebounding we would’ve won at least 3-4 more games all else constant. Could other things be better, of course. But the problem as a stand alone rate limiting factor is the 5 spot.
It’d be more than 2. We wouldn’t have lost all the other ones. So many of them came down to just getting one or two critical stops where we actually didn’t give up the initial basket but allowed a put back. So many. Can’t predict how any one game would otherwise flow but we would’ve won at least one more for sure. There’s no way we lose Princeton or Kennesaw. No chance.
I'd like to buy that. I do think it is pretty clear the PRIMARY key to Pike's success over the years was Myles and Cliff.
Yup. This quote is the most accurate and telling . . which begs the quiestion has the game passed Pike by in the NIL transfer era?
“If they did miss the tournament, it wouldn’t be due to Xs and Os,” the coach said. “Steve and his staff know how to coach. It would be more to do with age and returning experience of the roster. Before the portal, there would have been multiple returners that know their system and have competed in the Big Ten.
“(Cliff) Omoruyi is a perfect example. Having some Big Ten-experienced players, with knowledge of how they do things at Rutgers alongside them, would allow their maturation to be a bit more seamless into learning what it takes to win in college basketball at the Power Five level.”
Make a kid feel important, and you’ll see how fast their interest level snaps into focus. It had to be really tough to go from being that recruit who got a standing ovation to the struggling center last year with emphasized hype talk about how the following year the saviors Dylan and Ace were coming. We needed to prioritize Cliff as a critical part to that . At all costs. What will it take? That should’ve been the strategy. My guess is last season would’ve gone a bit differently too. Our focus was on trying to help our 4 star recruit find his stroke and succeed. We bet wrong.
Not so sure about this. They lost to Princeton last year with Cliff, and he would have needed 10 fouls to survive the Kennesaw game, that game had 2 fouls in the first minute for Cliff written all over it. The one constant with Pikiell is underperforming in non-conference and abysmal record along with lack of motivation in road and neutral site games. They might have two more wins with Cliff this year but probably not those games and would still have those resume albatrosses.
Bad, inexcusable losses are Pikiell’s MO. I still have not gotten past him losing at home to Stonybrook in year 2 right before the Holiday break. Ruined Christmas.
Kennesaw St. had Pikiell loss written all over it the moment it appeared on the schedule.
Makes “some”? Ace is shooting 46% from the field with a crazy amount of attempts, doubling Derek Simpson in attempts. Derek Simpson shot 30% in his final year at Rutgers and 37% the year before that. Poor comparison and they are not in each other’s stratosphere.
I love cliff, think the ridiculous sentiment as he left that he was not a big loss was crazy, but I am also not blaming Pike for losing Cliff.
In fact, I give pike alll the credit in the world for recruiting Cliff in the first place. Best recruiting achievement by far. I don’t think it was realistic to keep Cliff considering how good he is and the options he had to play for top 10 programs as Rutgers entered a rebuilding phase.
The bigger issue with pike as it relates to center is just refusing to go out and get one that you could count on this year, after Cliff left.
In fact, I give pike alll the credit in the world for recruiting Cliff in the first place. Best recruiting achievement by far. I don’t think it was realistic to keep Cliff considering how good he is and the options he had to play for top 10 programs as Rutgers entered a rebuilding phase.
The bigger issue with pike as it relates to center is just refusing to go out and get one that you could count on this year, after Cliff left.
We are far worse off having landed these five stars than if we didn't land them thanks to inept pike. At least if we didn't land them and we sucked we wouldn't be a national embarrassment
Considering we were a national embarrassment before Pike it could always be worse. Rutgers wasn’t even an attractive job at that point . It is now
I’ll take 2 of the top rated players every time. It’s not like Rutgers is going to lower prices to make up for bringing in lesser talent. Top players bring with them National exposure but on a National level the interest is with the play of the stars and not with the team performance. The Nation does not care enough about Rutgers winning or losing to have losing be a National embarrassment. I imagine most of the Nation expects the losing. So far I think this season has only been a disappointment for true Rutgers basketball fans. For everyone else it’s just an event to watch two potential lottery picks, and up to now they really have not disappointed from an individual standpoint.
It was realistic. We had 2 top 5 national recruits coming in. He wasn’t prioritized in NIL. If we had approached it as - what do we need to come up with. We want to keep you. Could’ve been different.
You may be right. I forgot we actually rebounded pretty well vs. A&M. I think the Alabama game could’ve been a win with a legit center. Even without Harper, the real issue vs. Indiana was the points we gave up on the offensive glass. That was the difference in the game. So yeah, not a slam dunk but our odds of winning one of those games would’ve been way higher with any sort of a post presence.
It’s not the points Cliff would’ve scored. It’s the points Princeton wouldn’t have scored easily in the post. Last year we lost because we only managed 61 points.
Let me add - you stated the obvious. Bringing in another legit center would’ve worked too but expecting one to choose Rutgers and us to come up with the NIL for that was far less realistic that simply prioritizing the kid who had a 4 year history in the program. I’m sure Cliff now wishes it worked out that way. Would’ve been better for everyone. Our fans would’ve dipped into their pockets for a “keep Cliff” initiative. We didn’t really try. I’m not talking about last off season, I’m talking about before last season even started.
Personally think you’re misreading the situation.
And this notion that Cliff is not living his best life at Bama compared to RU is not accurate. Cliff is getting exactly what he wanted.
I am not saying he won’t affect the way Princeton runs their offense, I am just saying I can still see Princeton winning the game. Rutgers probably should have won this year, they just find ways to lose regardless of who is out there.
Not only that... there were people saying we would be better without Cliff somehow. Crazy stuff
And yet he looks miserable out there on the court. So did Myles. It’s not easy to go from needed to an afterthought.
I’m not suggesting he would’ve instead come here for free, I’m saying a proactive and deliberate effort could’ve been made to get Cliff whatever amount it would take to keep him here. I don’t know for sure, but it certainly didn’t seem like that was prioritized as there was no outward effort. It was smaller scale, but with Caleb Pike worked with him and found a way to get him paid. I think our fans would’ve put up the money to keep Cliff around for Dylan and Ace - if that was the clear objective. Contributing blindly in the hope of landing some unknown center is not the same thing. Much harder to get buy in.
