I missed it, but Wake Forest picked up a 4* 2023 guard that was committed to Notre Dame and yesterday, picked up Hunter Sallis, a 5* transfer from Gonzaga, BUT playing at Wake Forest is not scheduling a game OOC......??
I know Wake Forest didn't have a great year last year, but they weren't Central Connecticut State either.
The issue that everyone wants to keep ignoring is Seton Hall. Seton Hall, hailed by many in this thread after the hire of Shaheen Holloway just a year ago, has been shredded via the transfer portal and has not done anything as of today (late April) to supplement its roster.
That game, is a dangerous game and is also a game that if SHU doesn't make the NCAAs, registers as a game if you win, no one cares about. If you lose it (like last year at home) it goes into the bad loss category, with Temple.
The people complaining about the OOC, still have not presented a solution for why we have to play SHU. If you remove them from the schedule, I would then be in agreement, 100%, that we should upgrade the schedule.
On the other hand, Pike has to experiment early in the season, because he is trying to develop players, who are not, Day 1/ Game 1 talents. And we rode the players who were veterans last year, but were largely unproven as #2 # 3 and #4 offensive players in Spencer, Caleb and Mulcahy.
We have to remember that Spencer early was NOT good, against solid competition. His shooting at Miami, vs SHU and at Mohegan Sun was 1 of 14 from 3.
We have to look "realistically "......last years team was well coached BUT was not athletic and not deep or talented to play these games. We are on the levels of the middle of the B1G, because we have an elite home court and are well coached. It is not an overwhelming amount of talent.
For RU72 and bac and others to keep complaining about the schedule AND at the same time say the B1G is overrated, is talking out of both sides of your mouth....
The roster had Jalen Miller, Oskar Palmquist, Dean Reiber as key reserves....it had 1st time starters in Mawot Mag.....it had a player transferring up from the Patriot League and 3 returning players, who were the 3rd, 4th and 5th options behind Geo Baker and RHJ, asked to step up into scoring roles as the 2nd/3rd options.
When does it set in that the roster was not good enough and that we asked too much of Caleb, Mulcahy and even Cliff/Cam....?? There were 2 somewhat reliable pieces off the bench and as soon as either player made a mistake or didn't play well, it was "recruiting issues of the past catching up to Pike".....you guys are talking in circles.....
If we get Mgbako, Ndongo or Papa Kante, Cliff and Paul return and Mag makes a full recovery, then that roster has the depth to play an upgraded schedule. To mention MSU with Izzo, who has all 4 and 5* kids on his 13 player roster, to RU, and say, "we need to schedule like Izzo", is dumb on every level.
