Can we please temper our expectations now? Tonight was an awful lost. What I'm actually more annoyed with were the threads about being ranked and the threads about making the tournament. We beat a top 15 team in Seton Hall. That's great, but you haven't been paying attention if you thought those were actual possibilities prior to tonight. People were penciling wins verse Michigan and Maryland. Excuse me, did we really have people trying to go through the B1G schedule trying to navigate 10 wins? I get it. It's fun, but let's keep things in perspective. We have a solid foundation. Our coaching staff is great and our players are willing to buy in. However, we can't just show up and beat anyone. We need to work harder than everyone to get every win. We have to bring our A game if we want to get a conference win. Let's face it, it's difficult for any team to bring their A game all 18 conference games. Point being it's unfortunate when we don't play well against an opponent like Stony Brook because we're not good enough to win when we're playing "okay." The show will go on. Tonight was tough. Better nights are ahead. Pike and Co will have to continue to outwork everyone for 2019 recruits. Enjoy your weekend folks. Go RU
Brutal reality check
- Thread starter biazza38
- Start date
Every team has a WTF game. Rider beat Penn State at the buzzer today.
The sky is NOT falling down
No one needs to be told to temper their expectations
We lace em up in a few days and are back at it
The sky is NOT falling down
No one needs to be told to temper their expectations
We lace em up in a few days and are back at it
Very good post. I also think Pike needs to bring his A game as well. Tonight was a D- for him and I love the guy. The whole team and staff stunk it up tonight especially when we were up 5 with 10 seconds to go in regulation. You DON'T lose to a team like SB up 5 with 10 seconds to go. You just don't.
I disagree. We shouldn't be having discussions about the tournament or being ranked. I get that's it's fun, but you'll be sorely dissapointed if you do just because we whooped FDU and beat Seton Hall. I like this team and staff a lot. I'll be very please with a NIT birth. The fans who are talking about making the tournament have not being paying attention to how difficult it's going to be to win conference games. I don't care if it's a "down year" in the B1G
The team was flat and our opponent had way more effort, desire and toughness. We got killed on the offensive glass by an under sized team. That’s all effort. Also, first time all year Pike was out coached. They ran the same low post pick and roll play down the stretch a half dozen times or more to get uncontested layups. We made no adjustments and had no answer to it. Our inbounds plays and press break also looked awful. Hopefully, this is our one WTF game and the team and coaches emerge stronger. Certainly not the way I was hoping to kickoff the Christmas weekend.
I agree with the above and have to add a special criticism of Deshawn. I think he defensive effort was abominable (and not just dow the strtch) and, on top of that, selfish--fearing the added foul might put him on the bench.
I’m afraid that even if we learn from this, losing to a 4-8 low D1 conference team at home is probably a good indication that we are not ready to crack even the upper 2/3 of the Big Ten this year .
The goals for the program are longer term...the steps are actually more rooted in recruiting than breaking down execution of plays or situational basketball.
If anyone can point to how many games were "tight", it is because the program doesn't have the roster in place yet to schedule and learn about. It also comes down to roster depth so if you are "flat", you can go to your bench and get the energy needed to pull through a tough game...and make your FTs........
The goal is to stay on schedule and the ceiling is 6 B1G wins...you need to have a home crowd and more bench contributions to keep up with the rest of the B1G.....while the appearance of the league being down, RUisnt expected to be a solid favorite in any home games...maybe a slight favorite.
The good news is that RU will catch a team or two at the RAC and needs to get a good effort to win any league road games.
2018-2020 will be very much a roller coaster to climb up the ladder...it is not going to be based on one big win or one bad loss....
If anyone can point to how many games were "tight", it is because the program doesn't have the roster in place yet to schedule and learn about. It also comes down to roster depth so if you are "flat", you can go to your bench and get the energy needed to pull through a tough game...and make your FTs........
The goal is to stay on schedule and the ceiling is 6 B1G wins...you need to have a home crowd and more bench contributions to keep up with the rest of the B1G.....while the appearance of the league being down, RUisnt expected to be a solid favorite in any home games...maybe a slight favorite.
The good news is that RU will catch a team or two at the RAC and needs to get a good effort to win any league road games.
2018-2020 will be very much a roller coaster to climb up the ladder...it is not going to be based on one big win or one bad loss....
No seasoned fan in their right mind should be talking about a post season. History is not on our side, and our margin for error is small given the offensive woes. Plus the B10 is too good of a conference to expect a complete 180 in a year. I don’t even bother reading the posts talking about a post season.
fully agree....the talk was way premature, its as if people were not watching the limitations we have. Very very little margin of error and the fact that RU has only won a grand total of 6 regular season conference games in now 4 years should temper talks of 10 league wins. RU has to work hard everynight...harder than most, and guys cannot take off nights, we had a couple tonight that gave little or nothing
Yup....back to the realistic goal of reversing last years record of 14-17 to 17-14...11-2 out of conference ....6-12 in conference
Possible
Possible
thats why got me about tonight...absolute no adjustment by the staff to correct what was going on all game long in the paint
and yet with how brutally bad they played, all they had to do was make one inbound or one foul shot...as I said in my recap, they could have played a dozen OTs and that one play would never have been made
Thanks you. I love this board and it's all fun, but we're only hurting ourselves when we set expectations so high. It's also painfully obvious who is outing themselves as someone who is a band wagon fan (nothing wrong with that) when they do so. Go RU! We'll keep fighting. Let's pack the RAC!!
They only reason we beat SHU is due to the fact they didn't make a FG in last 6 months bites and the zebras gave us 34FT to 11 for SHU. Lots of work to do here.
They were not undersized compared to the team we had on the floor most of the second half. We played a small line-up and paid the price. And we badly need to work on our inbound plays and beating the press. I like Pike but a lot of this was on him tonight.
Loss was disappointing because we were outworked down low. Defense seemed lazy and gambling too much.
Nevertheless, the team is still moving in the right direction. Shit happens.
If we have 5 conference wins and go 16-15 regular season it will be a success.
Nevertheless, the team is still moving in the right direction. Shit happens.
If we have 5 conference wins and go 16-15 regular season it will be a success.
But on the other hand, this loss, which was a bad loss, does not change the trajectory of the program
