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A GREAT win but...

RU MAN

RU MAN

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EDIT: Disclaimer--It appears that some of you didn't like that I qualified my headline with a "but." Some of you have completely misunderstood my intentions for writing that. Read the post below. I am as thrilled as anybody. I wrote this immediately after the game when I watched our 13 point lead dwindle to 2 points and PSU with the ball to win or tie it at the end. Just so you know, I AM THRILLED WITH THIS WIN! THRILLED! So lighten up some of you.

First off, I am so proud of this team to hold on and get their first B1G win since joining the conference. Kudos to players and coaches.

With that said, several problems reared their ugly heads once again in trying to close out this game. One being dreadful FT shooting. It's a problem and I don't see it being rectified any time soon until next season. If we just made even 70% of our FT's today we win this game going away. The second issue; we were up by about 10 points with about 4:00 minutes to go, and started throwing the ball away. We have to---HAVE TO limit these TO's. I think that's just part of learning how to win late. It's obvious our kids are trying their best, but they're also pressing too much and the pressure of the moment is getting to them. I think with winning consistently, these end games will be less intense where the kids expect to win versus trying not to lose. We were out shot by PSU 21-12 down the stretch. We owned that game and nearly gave it back to them, because of lousy FT's (we couldn't set up our half court defense) and untimely TO's leading to easy baskets on the other end.

All and all however, I am very excited for the kids and coaches. I thought PSU would be a little flat coming out after their tough triple OT loss to Indiana and they were. Kind of similar to how we played against Iowa after that gut wrenching defeat to Wisconsin. But we had control of today's game nearly from the start and we have to learn that when the other team is down you DON'T let them get back and play like Iowa, who was successful in keeping us down. Unfortunately, we nearly blew this game, when it should have been a laugher. But a win is a win is a win and B1G wins have been hard to come by since we joined in 2014 and to do it on the road for the first time----I'll take it. Congrats to the team and coaches. Go RU!
 
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SirScarlet said:
Sorry, no BUT with this win.
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Did you watch the game? If you did then you would agree with my post. No one is faulting this win and I'm thrilled. But this game should have been a laugher and we almost gave it away.
 
RU MAN said:
Did you watch the game? If you did then you would agree with my post. No one is faulting this win and I'm thrilled. But this game should have been a laugher and we almost gave it away.
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How can anyone sit here and say it should have been a laugher. That implies we did things poorly we normally do well. That's a false narrative. We are not good at FT, we have poor basketball IQ, we falter when trying to close. We are what we are.

If this "should" have been a laugher, we would be a much better team
 
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You've basically said it. Hopefully they develop the attitude that they should win. In the meantime hopefully they've realized that if they play their guts out the rest of the way they'll have a chance.
 
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We are not talented enough to have laughers against Big Ten competition. We have to grind and hopefully we are able survive in these games. We survived today.
 
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djrc89 said:
You've basically said it. Hopefully they develop the attitude that they should win. In the meantime hopefully they've realized that if they play their guts out the rest of the way they'll have a chance.
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Thank you. Someone here finally gets my post. I AM enjoying the win. But as I said, with the way we played this game should not have been close. And the same mistakes keep rearing their ugly heads. But, yes, I'm thrilled we won.
 
sport2231 said:
How can anyone sit here and say it should have been a laugher. That implies we did things poorly we normally do well. That's a false narrative. We are not good at FT, we have poor basketball IQ, we falter when trying to close. We are what we are.

If this "should" have been a laugher, we would be a much better team
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You've miss my entire point. Did you even watch the entire game like I did? This game SHOULD have been a laugher especially down the stretch. It's because we have poor FT shooting and TO's that the game was so close at the end. I'm not faulting our guys. They are who they are. You've missed my point entirely.
 
RU MAN said:
You've miss my entire point. Did you even watch the entire game like I did? This game SHOULD have been a laugher especially down the stretch. It's because we have poor FT shooting and TO's that the game was so close at the end. I'm not faulting our guys. They are who they are. You've missed my point entirely.
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Nobody is missing your point. It is just a dumb point and a stupid post after our first big ten road win.
 
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RU MAN said:
You've miss my entire point. Did you even watch the entire game like I did? This game SHOULD have been a laugher especially down the stretch. It's because we have poor FT shooting and TO's that the game was so close at the end. I'm not faulting our guys. They are who they are. You've missed my point entirely.
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Yes. I watched the entire game, and I was as frustrated as you were. But again saying SHOULD means we are good at things like FTs and not producing TOs. We're not. We played down the stretch exactly the way we should have based on our team and previous results.

I would agree that a good team shouldn't do that, but we're not a very good team
 
sport2231 said:
Yes. I watched the entire game, and I was as frustrated as you were. But again saying SHOULD means we are good at things like FTs and not producing TOs. We're not. We played down the stretch exactly the way we should have based on our team and previous results.

I would agree that a good team shouldn't do that, but we're not a very good team
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I AGREE WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
RU MAN said:
I AGREE WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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So then how should it have been a laugher? Holding the lead and winning by 13 would have actually been a statistical anamolly based on previous performance. What "should" have happened, actually happened
 
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sport2231 said:
So then how should it have been a laugher? Holding the lead and winning by 13 would have actually been a statistical anamolly based on previous performance. What "should" have happened, actually happened
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Look, I have to meet my sister, whom I haven't seen in months. You said you watched the game. Figure it out.
 
RUonBrain said:
I'm sure she is a great sister, but...
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LOL...

But....more important than the win, this hopefully gives the team some much needed confidence and knowing that they have closed out 2 of their last 3 close games ..almost winning all three.

and...IF they can learn how each possession and foul shot matters they MIGHT even win a few more :smiley:

THAT is better than 1 single win but today is another building block. And it (2nd win and on the road FINALLY) serves to validate that this coach is changing RUBB and this team is very much improved and heading in the right direction.
 
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ColonelRutgers said:
We are not talented enough to have laughers against Big Ten competition. We have to grind and hopefully we are able survive in these games. We survived today.
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Disagree on this game. We were up double digits on a decent team. If we had continued to play the way we were to get to double digits we would have had a laughers. Also this was first game I can remember where we came out of HT with a lead and increased it (conference games)
 
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Please pour another half a glass into your already half full glass of what ever it is you enjoy drinking on a Saturday night after a Rutgers victory..
 
How about this - milestone wins like this - take 12 hours - bask in the victory
- then in the morning issue your missive on what could have gone better

but remember - a bunch of things could have gone better - but a few random uncontrollable items could have gone south - and instead of a victory , you have a close loss -
enjoy the victory even if it has warts.
 
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and this is the problem with some--if they can't say something bad about RU they can't post--typical
 
RUMBA-JK said:
How about this - milestone wins like this - take 12 hours - bask in the victory
- then in the morning issue your missive on what could have gone better

but remember - a bunch of things could have gone better - but a few random uncontrollable items could have gone south - and instead of a victory , you have a close loss -
enjoy the victory even if it has warts.
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Good point. I tried to change the headline, but it appears we can't like we used to. That's why I put the disclaimer in my post.
 
ru66 said:
and this is the problem with some--if they can't say something bad about RU they can't post--typical
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Shut it '66! Obviously you have reading comprehension issues. Did you not read my disclaimer at the top?
 
I wasn't home to watch the game but heard the final score on the radio 70-68.I didn't know Rutgers had a double digit league and nearly lost the game by missed foul shots similar to Wisconsin.My comments now are for fans to be very happy for win 13 and once again realize there is no margin for error with this team especially when it comes to winning league games on the road.Nobody really knows game to game how this this team will perform and that includes the coaching staff and the opponent.Its part of the charm of this team as well as driving fans crazy as the lead evaporates.
 
RUJMM78 said:
I wasn't home to watch the game but heard the final score on the radio 70-68.I didn't know Rutgers had a double digit league and nearly lost the game by missed foul shots similar to Wisconsin.My comments now are for fans to be very happy for win 13 and once again realize there is no margin for error with this team especially when it comes to winning league games on the road.Nobody really knows game to game how this this team will perform and that includes the coaching staff and the opponent.Its part of the charm of this team as well as driving fans crazy as the lead evaporates.
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RUJMM, great post!
 
RUMan said nothing people have not complained about after several tough losses like Wisconsin--poor FT shooting, especially missing the first on a one and one; poor offensive execution; being at the mercy of more talented players and thus turning it over on offense and getting beaten on defense. Why dredge it up all over again repeating what has been repeated all too often on this board? You are not going to teach Gettys how to be nimble and how to jump better, so as to score when challenged. You are not going to teach some of our guards to beat their man and make open shots. This team can only do what it can do, given their physical limitations and the superior talent of the opponent.
Everyone "knew" when the season started that it would be a process, and we should not expect that much out of our current players. Yet the predictable posts from people looking to carp and say "I told you so". You can talk up Freeman all you want, but he is never going to be Myles Bridges. The deficiencies will be remedied by bringing in better players, but why would any serious recruit have come here in the wake of our dismal 2015-16? Players go where they can play with good players, not where they can be a pioneer on a team that was dreadful last year, and be in the cross hairs of the good coaches in the B1G. Be happy with the improvement shown by our holdover players, and it is due more to better coaching than simply experience and familiarity with the B1G. Everyone, from most of this board's posters, to the writers and broadcasters talk about our effort, our rebounding and our D. That will all translate, but we probably won't make the NCAA's for a few years--look at Northwestern.
Just cannot understand the motivation behind the OP bringing up what dozens of posters have already stated. After a road win against a 9-point favorite on the road. And State Pen, to boot. That is the trouble with social media. In the old days, one would pen a letter to the editor, look for an envelope and a stamp, reread the letter and decide it was written in the mood of the moment and toss it. Now, you hit Post Reply and it is gone before you have a chance to think better of it. So we have ill-considered posts and tweets on social media platforms, provoking responses from equally vexed dissenters. Just great. Just what we need--real reasoned and considered discourse.
TL
 
the last couple of minutes it seemed that we were more intent on running down the clock as opposed to running our normal offense,which is passing around the perimeter

Sanders had the ball center court, outside the 3 pt line and dribbled the ball, appearing just
to look for a driving opportunity

now, doing that might be a good strategy ..... you do take time off the clock, possibly draw a foul on a drive.... but I would like to know if changing what we do with a lead is actually causing us
to lose the lead.
 
I think one reason why OP's post came across as negative is that his facts were somewhat off.
  1. He states that we were up by about 13 points with about 2:30 to go. Actually RU took a 13 point lead, its largest of the game, at the 7:18 mark. By the 2:30 mark, the lead was down to four - a lead which RU successfully protected. Big difference. Losing (or ALMOST losing) a 13 point lead with 2:30 to play can fairly be considered a collapse. Losing a 13 point lead with 7:18 to go happens all the time in basketball at all levels.
  2. He also states that had RU made 70% of its FTs we would have won going away. Shooting 70% from the line would have meant an extra three points. Other things equal (which they never are) the two point win would have become five. More comfortable to be sure, but hardly what one would define as winning going away.
The sad truth is that our 57% FT shooting today was not that far from our norm of 63%. Going into today, RU was ranked 335 out of 351 in FT shooting. Among the Power Six schools (I am including the Big East) that's next to last. The good news? The team we're ahead of is Seton Hall!

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/free-throw-pct?date=2017-02-04
 
I do think too many people evaluate play too much based on W and Ls.

So much praise for players when we win and too much grief when we lose.

If only 2 or 3 plays don't go our way. People would be killing players.

Good analysis is NOT impacted by final score.

My 2 takeaways on both sides....
Corey's D was outstanding. Add the fact he played 39 minutes

Negatively, Pikiell had to shorten his bench because he doesn't have enough guys he trusts right now.
 
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