It's really three Hyatt years vs. one Mathis and two unknown player years, but I agree this looks like a good pickup for the program.
BB Recruiting Aundre Hyatt transfers to Rutgers
- Thread starter RUtix4me
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I think he's mentioning Brian Fonseca, who used to write for one of the sites and now writes for nj.com and RU sports.
The original link I posted was from NJ.com, but switched it out after the article here was released.
I mean it's a good pickup and more than I thought we'd land. We need a few pickups like this. 1000% better than paulicap would've been. Not as good as young or johnson but an upgrade over mathis so let's keep it up
There's no world where Rutgers was getting a star from a tournament team as a transfer. Hyatt was playing bigger minutes toward the end of the year.
Rutgers is going to run a rotation like:
Baker
Jones
McConnell
Mulcahy
Harper
Hyatt
Mag
Omoruyi
(Another transfer big or Reiber)
There's your 9-man rotation. Maybe Palmquist can break through, maybe not. Hyatt also provides insurance if Harper gets a good evaluation and decides to go pro. Jalen Miller would pick up minutes if Geo Baker doesn't return either.
Put me in the camp that this seems like a better addition than the other names that have been mentioned on this site. However, many of those names did not seem worthy of a lot of excitement. I think patience is required to see what the final roster looks like when they head to Spain. Only then, we will be able to assess it against what we have had the last couple of years.
I know you're looking at this as a trade or swap but it's really not looked at that way by most college basketball coaches. Whether it can be agreed on or not, most coaches look at it this way.
Year 2 Cliff Omoyuri, replacing Year 4 Myles Johnsons 9PPG and almost 9RPG and 2 blocks. Can Cliff "jump" from Year 1 to Year 2?? I think this is where the staff is placing more emphasis on this than fans may believe.
Back up Center/PF.....this player needs to be a strong rebounder and defender to replace what Cliff gave in Year 1. While the assumption is another big arrives, if that person comes from the portal OR is being asked of Dean Reiber to give RU the jump from 0.8 PPG in an average of 5 minutes a game up to 4 to 6PPG in 15 minutes that Cliff gave on average.
It would make sense to add a layer of talent up front in case Cliff does match or exceed Myles, so the drop-off from starter to backup isn't drastic.
The rest of the roster is looked at this way.
If you play Hyatt some minutes at the "4", as a strong rebounder, can he give you front court production in a similar fashion that Yeboah did?? If the answer is yes, then you have more choices to mix and match lineups. You are not going to get the defense lost with Myles. But I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Cliff to go from 4 PPG to 9 or 10PPG with more shots and playing time.
The guards left all have to go up 2 PPG vs last year.
Baker replaces Young production from 10 to 11PPG to Young around 13 PPG
Jaden Jones is the X-Factor. Can a frosh give you 7 to 9PPG....I think it's a certain possibility, since most RU frosh in the Pike era who have played 20+ minutes a game, have gotten to that range..
If you get Jaden Jones enough playing time and shots, he can give you 8 to 10PPG...obviously it is a grey area to ask that much of a 1st year player but if not him, a combination of Jaden Jones and Jalen Miller in their minutes on the floor should be able to give you 11- 12PPG combined.
Once that happens, you now have to ask for Caleb and Mulcahy (and Mag) to make the jumps up in production from their current levels to the next phase. I think that gives that trio more responsibility to play well.
The variable is Mag.....can he play the 3 and 4 and find the floor to give defense and rebounding/put backs and play solid off the bench.
Yep. Pike wanted this guy right from the beginning. Which means
he can rebound and defend
In general, I think “line up” outside of the 5 is going to be a softer term on next year’s team. Every player with prior experience can play multiple positions and is 6-4 or taller (this is very different from having a 6-2 mpg PG-only guy absorbing 30+ minutes as we had this year). I expect the “floor” allocation breakdown (i.e. I’m not assuming anyone “new” turns out to be a stud) to look something like this:
RHJ - 32 mpg
Geo - 30 mpg
Caleb - 27 mpg
Cliff - 24 mpg
Paul - 25 mpg
Hyatt - 22 mpg
Jaden - 18 mpg
Reiber / new BIG - 12 mpg
Mag / Oscar - 10 mpg
The addition of Hyatt makes it possible to play a few minutes a game (on average depending on the other team’s sub patterns) without a 5 (you can get away with that for stretches when your PG is 6-4 and your other 5 on the floor all run 6-6 to 6-8).
Note that Caleb might not even start but it’s unlikely he plays less minutes than this unless Jalen comes in and contributes right away (I assumed this doesn’t happen in the floor projection). He’s going to be shifted around from guard to wing a lot next season as he’ll always be the second ball handling option whenever either PM or Geo is on the bench.
Young started 10 of 66 games at UT and averaged 3.7 and 6.2 ppg in his two years there. JY averaged about 16mpg in both years at UT. Hyatt averaged 11 and 16 minutes his two years at LSU. I think Coach P sees something he likes in kids like Young and Hyatt. Highly regarded coming out of HS, got (relatively) a decent amount of PT in college and looking for a change of scenery/coaching to unlock full potential. Totally different skill sets between Young and Hyatt, but there are some similarities in the way both came to RU.
Time will tell, but I think Hyatt slides in to the Yeboah role we saw in the '19-'20 season. I don't think Akwasi was much taller than 6'6", but he could get to the glass a bit and did a nice job guarding B1G "4's". Very nice add (imo).
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Aundre can play defense, rebound and score. It‘s hard to get a rhythm when you have two NBA draft picks in front of you at your positions. When your starter takes a breather, you are being told to play defense, rebound and not shoot unless it is a layup. Hyatt’s accuracy and scoring totals will increase proportionately to the amount of floor time he sees. The kid is a player.
Yeah I get the language about the lineups yada yada yada. My thought is that Pike didn’t bring Hyatt here to play just 22 minutes a game. Before you say minutes are earned and starting doesn’t mean anything I’m sure Hyatt was promised every chance to start.
Completely different type of pick up from Pauly. Cliff has 4 years of eligibility remaining. It’s not realistic to expect us to land a “stud” who will now roll into Cliff’s same class (or worse - graduate sooner) to back him up. But we do need a back up as an insurance in case Reiber doesn’t develop or someone gets hurt. We need to bring in a Shaq Carter / Doorson type and Pauly would’ve filled that role well - unfortunately WVU was in the market for the same type of kid and beat us out.
Huh? I doubt anyone is ever told they won’t have an opportunity to compete for a starting spot. That said - this doesn’t seem like a case where Pike had to promise the kid the world to transfer to Rutgers. He has 3 years of eligibility left, only averaged 16 mpg at LSU (it’s not like he’s taking much of a risk of playing less) and like JY and Myles, the COVID year away from his family likely took its toll. Isn’t it more likely that this time that factor just worked out in our favor?
Edit - note that Hyatt may well start and only play 22 minutes. I think either he or Jaden will start. Not sure which one. Either Caleb or PM will come off the bench but will play a lot. PM’s minutes probably go down slightly as he won’t see time at the wing.
Very glad Wade couldn’t Hold that Tiger..Aundre will fill a much needed void left by the departures of Young & Mathis. Still would like to pick up another guard. As for a power forward, I am sure there are a bunch out there that they are recruiting that we don’t know about yet. This was a surprise, so I am sure Pike has more in store..
Hyatt is a shooter. My guess is he finishes in the top 3 in three’s made next year.
In fairness - it was a small sample size (he only attempted 35 threes) and he started the season off really poor from the perimeter (missed his first 5 threes in the first 2 games). After that he shot 33.33% from 3 for the remainder of the season.
I watched the LSU vs Tenn game from February last night because it was one of Hyatts best stat games (8 pt and 8 reb). Not too involved in the offense, he would just glide into the corners and wait, pull defenders out of the box and not get many passes. He hit the 2 three pointers i saw him take from the corner and looked smooth taking that shot. Got blocked going weak to the rim once and fouled another time. Made both FT easily. His defense was good, very straight up, doesnt look like he could get many fouls.
Could also possibly redshirt Jalen Miller if we can land a quality experienced PG transfer.
Possible transfer?
Let’s not create a false narrative
I think most people look at it the way you are looking at it.
I agree that Mag is a variable I think he can become a good player for us this year both ways actually.
And Jones is key, along with any newcomers really, to give us some scoring that we need to improve in.
Yea, looking at this game logs there’s a lot of games where he played a decent amount of minutes but really didn’t take very many shots, it looks like the only game he had double digit FG attempts was the game against St. Bonaventure where he posted 14 and 10.
I think @Lawboy12007 has it right, doesn’t seem like he was given much of a green light on offense at LSU, I expect he’ll have more opportunities to let it fly here.
What we do know is this team has a big defensive and rebounding void to fill after the departures we’ve had this offseason. This guy checks both of those boxes. We’ll see how his offensive game comes together.
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Very fair. This guy isn’t our savior. On a team that I believe is starving for defensive perimeter players I trust he will foot the bill.
Yes - as said, a very small sample size. But then again. Pike made the tournament 2 years in a row with 31% 3-pt shooting. He’s had success winning with defense.
Our teams from 2009-2013 shot a lot better from 3 and we had consistent losing records. The 2012-13 team shot better than 35% from the perimeter.
The hope in my eyes......
1. he is a plus defender
2. He comes out of his LsU shell and provides some offense
3. Improves his defensive rebounding metrics
this will allow us to have him and Ron on the floor and not get beat on the defensive glass like we did last year.
contrary to the board majority position. The problem wasn’t Ron playing out of position at the 4. It was the lack of defensive rebounding out of our 3 (when Caleb wasn’t in game) primarily and 2 secondarily
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