Bryant, 5 Takeaways

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

1) Pikiell is going to have to figure out personnel rotations. It’s pretty obvious he is not sure who works with who. I think the frequent subbing never got guys comfortable playing with one another. It also hurt any flow we couldve established.

2) Defensive rotations and communication was very poor. Too slow on rotations, got out hustled at times, bryant beat our asses on the board far too many times and its disappointing to see that Geo still is clueless on how to get around a screen. Geo is continuing to be an enormous liability on defense.

3) Mulcahy a bright spot. It’s weird that our youngest player is the one who looked the most comfortable on the offensive end. Knew where to go with the ball, hit foul shots, got to the rim, even hit a 3. That is promising and I feel by seasons end our best 5 man lineup will be mulcahy geo caleb ron myles.

4) Bryant was unconscious from 3. Thats a big reason why the game was so close but still, we are the ones who gave them the open looks.

5) overall awful first game. We looked horrendous, we cant play like that if we want to even be above .500 let alone make post season play. Team has a lot of work to do and the coaching staff has their work cut out for them. Gotta do a 180 and fast and make these guys take 1,000 free throws

 

[BillyC80]

Some good observations. Also have to make foul shots. Hoping this scare helps our development, for both players and coaches. Let’s see how the team responds.

 

[geoman]

1) Pikiell is going to have to figure out personnel rotations. It’s pretty obvious he is not sure who works with who. I think the frequent subbing never got guys comfortable playing with one another. It also hurt any flow we couldve established.

2) Defensive rotations and communication was very poor. Too slow on rotations, got out hustled at times, bryant beat our asses on the board far too many times and its disappointing to see that Geo still is clueless on how to get around a screen. Geo is continuing to be an enormous liability on defense.

3) Mulcahy a bright spot. It’s weird that our youngest player is the one who looked the most comfortable on the offensive end. Knew where to go with the ball, hit foul shots, got to the rim, even hit a 3. That is promising and I feel by seasons end our best 5 man lineup will be mulcahy geo caleb ron myles.

4) Bryant was unconscious from 3. Thats a big reason why the game was so close but still, we are the ones who gave them the open looks.

5) overall awful first game. We looked horrendous, we cant play like that if we want to even be above .500 let alone make post season play. Team has a lot of work to do and the coaching staff has their work cut out for them. Gotta do a 180 and fast and make these guys take 1,000 free throws

I love Pike but year after year, the FTs is horrible during his tenure. It drives me crazy. I can accept having some bad nights with the 3s but FTs have got to be better.

 

[kcg88]

Bryant shot 33% on threes. Hardly unconscious.

 

[bac2therac]

Bryant shot 33% on threes. Hardly unconscious.

They were streaky..they went along time without hitting them but RU did nothing on offense ..to me thats on coaching...absolutely nothing run on offense

 

[kcg88]

They were streaky..they went along time without hitting them but RU did nothing on offense ..to me thats on coaching...absolutely nothing run on offense

I'm just saying there's gonna be a night when a team actually gets hot and shoots 15/25 against us.

 

[shields]

Harper wants to be great player needs to make stinking foul shots, no excuses.

 

[sct1111]

Kyk, do you still think Harper is the Second Coming of Basketball Jesus?

 

[RUJMM78]

Take the win and be happy because against B1G opponents this game would have been a loss.Woeful foul shooting,3 point shooting and failure to even make layups is the reason Rutgers didn't have a double digit win.My biggest concern going into this season was identifying go to scorers to enhance the likelihood of averaging over 70 points a game against league opponents.This game against Bryant was supposed to be at least a 20 point win but the team performance was deeply disappointing on offense and defense.Future opponents will play zone against Rutgers and dare them to take 3 point shots.The freshmen Mulcahy was one of the few players that actually had a good performance .

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Kyk, do you still think Harper is the Second Coming of Basketball Jesus?

I still think hes gonna have a huge year, yes.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

the key to foul shots is making them..........

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Take the win and be happy because against B1G opponents this game would have been a loss.Woeful foul shooting,3 point shooting and failure to even make layups is the reason Rutgers didn't have a double digit win.My biggest concern going into this season was identifying go to scorers to enhance the likelihood of averaging over 70 points a game against league opponents.This game against Bryant was supposed to be at least a 20 point win but the team performance was deeply disappointing on offense and defense.Future opponents will play zone against Rutgers and dare them to take 3 point shots.The freshmen Mulcahy was one of the few players that actually had a good performance .

Towards the end up 3 when we needes a bucket we gave it to harper at the foul line, he power dribbled then went up strong for a layup to make it a 5 point game. That said alot to me

 

[RU_DIO]

We can't go small at the end like we did tonight. Last year Eugene would play the 5 tough in that lineup. Yeboah looked lost trying to play the 5 in the small lineup.

 

[mikebal9]

My takeaways from section 102:

1. Mulcahy was, by far, Rutgers' best player in the first half. He was calling out defensive alignments, telling Young to slow down and play calm, and being a true floor general. It was curious how he disappeared in the 2nd half.
2. Harper's shot looks awful. Flat, poor form, and tentative.
3. Mathis will continue to see good minutes as long as he hustles and plays defense like he did tonight. I loved his effort, even if the offense was a struggle.
4. The students showed up.

 

[BillyC80]

Bryant lost both of their games by a score of 73-71.

Don’t know what it means.

I hope Brown goes on to have a great season, so this close call will make more sense.

 

[RU677381]

how come noone mentions how selfishly Young played.

 

[wheezer]

I had predicted a not so good first half, and then playing better and winning comfortably.... well, we
had the entire game not so good

this does not shock me.....yet,we could flash forward to a big 10 game in late January where we go toe to
toe with a top 10 team at home....

it always seems we get off to a rough start, just be thankful that last 3 did not go in....from my angle, it looked like it should have.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Bryant shot 33% on threes. Hardly unconscious.

50% according to the postgame presser. 17/34

 

[kcg88]

Am I the only one not seeing it with Mathis on defense? He overpursues WAY too much leaving others scrambling to rotate.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

how come noone mentions how selfishly Young played.

Well, we all knew that coming in. I posted that earlier today, hes a streaky ME player

 

[Shell21]

Ron short arms his foul shots . Also does this on some , but not all of his threes . Tough to be a consistent shooter until this is corrected . You would think hours in the gym would correct this but just goes to show you bad habits don’t die . He needs to extend up and out and not extend just out . And yes I am a coach at the high school level so I think I can critique this

 

[BillyC80]

50% according to the postgame presser. 17/34

Box score says 13-39.

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Am I the only one not seeing it with Mathis on defense? He overpursues WAY too much leaving others scrambling to rotate.

His steal and layup with a minute to go was a huge play. Young pressuring the ball at midcourt was big, too.

 

[RU848789]

50% according to the postgame presser. 17/34

no, 13-39, 33% - decent, but not unconscious. Biggest problem was us going freaking 3-26 or 11%. If we make 25%, we win by 10 and if we make 70% of our FTs on top of that we win by 14. It was our shooting, not theirs, that was the issue.

I'd add #6 - we missed Eugene badly - his leadership, intensity, and ability to score inside. Can't sugarcoat that.

https://theathletic.com/college-basketball/boxscore/?id=23977

 

[AreYouNUTS]

You only need ONE takeaway:

Despite how disturbed I was about us giving up threes all night long, and trust me I was just read my posts, it was game #1. That’s it. If this continues then start to worry about the rest of the stuff.

 

[bowlgoal]

There were first game jitters and we weren’t very smooth. Defense started out strong but I think they tired out a bit. I love the press but this is a game of runs. We were pressing but not scoring enough. Mulcahy was the most impressive guy on the court. Yeboah got stuffed too many times and has to finish: McConnell and Geo were just off.

It’s all okay because we won. These guys will regroup and I’m still very enthusiastic about this season. I expect to see a big improvement on Sunday!

 

[bac2therac]

Towards the end up 3 when we needes a bucket we gave it to harper at the foul line, he power dribbled then went up strong for a layup to make it a 5 point game. That said alot to me

that was Mathis

 

[Rutgers25]

Not impressed by Young. Lots of bad decisions. Didn’t shoot well. Definitely not a point guard.

Harper was horrific shooting. Hopefully he straightens that out, because by the end of last season he was a decent free throw shooter.

Mulcahy had a good court presence.

Johnson seemed out of whack. Part of that may have been the zone, but he just seemed out of sorts.

Geo was okay, but shot poorly like everybody else.

Yeboah adds some value, but he is not Eugene. Definitely can’t guard a 4 or 5.

McConnel was quiet.

Mathis is same as last year. Athletic spark, but can’t shoot.

Agree with kyk that we will need to shorten the rotation. Offense was unstructured and out of sorts.

 

[BillyC80]

Bryant fouled us 25 times. I’ve said this here in the past, that fouling can be used as a strategy. It can keep an opponent from getting into a rhythm and flow offensively.

Not only that but we proceeded to miss 14 foul shots, including a couple front ends of a 1 and 1.

Between that and shooting 3-26 from three, was a recipe for disaster. We still got the win, thankfully.

 

[ruman]

Geo needs to be more selfIsh. The rotation
Will need to be shortened

 

[Shell21]

that was Mathis

No , that was Ron

 

[bethlehemfan]

Young will make some big plays for us but he needs to tighten things up for sure. Some careless turnovers. Has the athletic ability to be great. (By great I mean great contributor).

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

that was Mathis

It was harper. I believe it was the bucket that made it 71-65

 

[bowlgoal]

Young will make some big plays for us but he needs to tighten things up for sure. Some careless turnovers. Has the athletic ability to be great.

He was very choppy. Also needs to finish. He got swatted a few times.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Not impressed by Young. Lots of bad decisions. Didn’t shoot well. Definitely not a point guard.

Harper was horrific shooting. Hopefully he straightens that out, because by the end of last season he was a decent free throw shooter.

Mulcahy had a good court presence.

Johnson seemed out of whack. Part of that may have been the zone, but he just seemed out of sorts.

Geo was okay, but shot poorly like everybody else.

Yeboah adds some value, but he is not Eugene. Definitely can’t guard a 4 or 5.

McConnel was quiet.

Mathis is same as last year. Athletic spark, but can’t shoot.

Agree with kyk that we will need to shorten the rotation. Offense was unstructured and out of sorts.

young is an out of control player, hes an enigma. I think hes best served as a role player aka what he was at texas.

myles played like a 17 year old tonight, soft and weak. Was very tentative

i think yeboah is fine guarding the 4.

i was most shocked with how quiet caleb was, he was a ghost outside of some rebs tonight. Niagra is another awful team but its an important game for us to come out swinging and show that tonight was just an anomaly and not the norm

 

[G- RUnit]

Harper and Mathias have to shoot better. If they are gonna drive and get fouled, no reason for Harper to be so awful. Those foul shots weren’t even close.

 

[bowlgoal]

Not impressed by Young. Lots of bad decisions. Didn’t shoot well. Definitely not a point guard.

Harper was horrific shooting. Hopefully he straightens that out, because by the end of last season he was a decent free throw shooter.

Mulcahy had a good court presence.

Johnson seemed out of whack. Part of that may have been the zone, but he just seemed out of sorts.

Geo was okay, but shot poorly like everybody else.

Yeboah adds some value, but he is not Eugene. Definitely can’t guard a 4 or 5.

McConnel was quiet.

Mathis is same as last year. Athletic spark, but can’t shoot.

Agree with kyk that we will need to shorten the rotation. Offense was unstructured and out of sorts.

young is an out of control player, hes an enigma. I think hes best served as a role player aka what he was at texas.

myles played like a 17 year old tonight, soft and weak. Was very tentative

i think yeboah is fine guarding the 4.

i was most shocked with how quiet caleb was, he was a ghost outside of some rebs tonight. Niagra is another awful team but its an important game for us to come out swinging and show that tonight was just an anomaly and not the norm

Myles did look soft. Complete opposite of last year.

 

[bethlehemfan]

He was very choppy. Also needs to finish. He got swatted a few times.

He seemed a little rusty. Some flat low b-ball IQ finishes. Has a ton of upside imo.

 

[greenknight]

how come noone mentions how selfishly Young played.

Plays out of control, cant just make the easy layup needs to try to make it look like top 10 ESPN play of the day, a couple easy layups for other players if he passed the ball. 1st real game in a 11/2 yrs I'll give him a pass but he needs to get better and less circus play and more fundamental and he will score a lot of points

 

[Rutgrsman]

They were streaky..they went along time without hitting them but RU did nothing on offense ..to me thats on coaching...absolutely nothing run on offense

I totally agree. Coaching was horrible! The whole team with exception to PM looked horrible. SMH. BRYANT COLLEGE!! C'mon! All coaching.