Caleb, Ron and Geo (and Myles) played together for 4 years which is a big point in the article.
Carino Lights Us Up
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Caleb, Ron and Geo (and Myles) played together for 4 years which is a big point in the article.
Your second and third paragraph sum up my stance and we are seeing similar things. But you are wishing from for different results versus reality:
"However, I don't see him as a selfish player at all. Sorry. Contrary to what most think i think the ball needs to be in his hands more creating for others. The play I want to see more of is him driving in to the lane and whipping an opposite diagonal pass to Ace who drains the 3....(from last night)
JWill should have never returned. He is a point guard. He is a leader (defintely was last year). He has a lot of flaws. This is a terrible fit for him with Dylan"
If the "ball needs to be in his hands more creating for others", he needs to show a willingness to pass. If he is creating for others, pass first, he would be generating more than 2.1 assists. The play you speak of is there multiple times a game but JWill takes it to the rim and fumbles and flops. He is not a point guard. He wants to be a point guard. Point guards pass. JWill does not.
His actions show a lack of maturity, awareness and lack of leadership qualities. There are way to many young guns and newbies in the program for him to be carrying on for the cameras like he has.
Or just stick to what works best for him. You don't need transfer portal kids. He did best when he was scouting HS kids for majority of his team. "Get kids that want to be here, that want to enjoy Rutgers."
I just don't think that's especially viable going forward.
We recruited Omoruyi, Mulcahy, Mag, Simpson, Woolfolk, Reiber, Miller, and Chol out of HS. All left via the portal.
The only HS recruit that Pikiell has picked up in the last 5 years that didn't exit via the portal is Jamichael Davis (with an asterisk for Palmquist, who left and came back)
The last guys to finish his eligibility at Rutgers without transferring at any point were Caleb McConnell and RHJ Jr... who were 2018 pickups.
The environment has changed - even getting the "kids that want to be here" only lasts through spring. Then you need to find NIL money to keep them around.
Yes that is relevant.
BUT expectations re D, rebounding and shot selection were made on them that are NOT being made on this group. That is why even initially they defended and rebounded better and the crazy shots/wasted possessions we see now were fewer and far between, while now Ace for ex shoots whenever he hasn't touched the ball in a while, and more airballs and shots with no one in rebounding position are thrown up than has ever been seen in the Pike era.
yup more ridiculousness and know they are paying a just okay OC coordinator more money as well...Rutgers deserves everything they get with their reckless decision making when it comes to athletics
If Carino is correct.. I think maybe we see Pike surrender on this season and start training up the team for future seasons. That would mean more losses but closer losses.. unless the stars do not cooperate because they are one and done anyway. If he doesn't train em up for future seasons... instead of a single rebuild year we could be looking at a slippery-slope kinda thing.
I was hoping that the other guys playing with Ace and Dylan would improve beyond what they could have because of going against them in practice.
The team has to get it together but I don't see a team leader to rally around.
I was hoping that the other guys playing with Ace and Dylan would improve beyond what they could have because of going against them in practice.
The team has to get it together but I don't see a team leader to rally around.
How sad is it that 18 months ago was the peak of optimism of Rutgers basketball and the narrative has totally flipped? But isn't that always the case? Optimism for the future is number one and never actual results.
Hey Choppin. What you mention is also a Pikiell issue. Majority of kids mentioned were not right fits for this level skill wise, so of course they left. His recruiting is a real struggle of his.
You can either a) get guys who can contribute immediately as freshmen, or b) get guys who need to be coached up to contribute as sophomore/juniors.
It's very hard/expensive to fill out a whole team doing the former, and the latter has gotten much harder with the new transfer rules and NIL. If you have a wealthy collective, you're in better shape to either get immediate impact prospects or to keep the guys you want to develop - otherwise, you lose them to other teams.
Pike's success at Rutgers came from getting guys who were not expected to be "day one" contributors, but were more "culture fits" that would grow over time with development. Geo Baker, Caleb McConnell, Eugene Omoruyi, Myles Johnson, Cliff Omoruyi, etc. Baker was a surprise hit as a freshman, and Pike couldn't stop talking about how he was rated 350th or whatever coming out HS... the others needed time to bake.
This past year, we got a mix in our freshman class. Harper/Bailey were sure fire "day one" contributors. Sommerville had plenty of rough edges, was expected to give good minutes as a freshman. Grant and Dortch were solid but expected to need time.
The challenge is - we may lose Sommerville, Grant, and Dortch to the portal if we can't pay to keep them. All three could be key B1G contributors at Rutgers as juniors/seniors... but we may never find out.
We lost guys we spent a lot of time building into stronger players: Young, E. Omoruyi, Johnson, Mulcahy, C. Omoruyi, Mathis, even Mag. Instead of getting the payoff for that time in their final season... they were somewhere else. We also lost guys who were still in earlier stages of development: Simpson, Woolfolk, Griffiths, even Chol. Could they have grown into contributors here with another 1-2 years? We'll never know.
Gone are the days of upperclassmen-led teams with freshmen/sophomores earning their stripes and biding their time... if they don't get the spotlight early, the path to the spotlight somewhere else is easier (and more lucrative) than it's ever been.
The pressure to "get it right" with guys who are ready to go out of the box is much higher - you can't take waivers on projects anymore, because it's highly likely someone else will get the benefit of the work you put into them. That means coaching skillsets that focus on building culture, fundamentals, connectedness, S&C, etc are not nearly as valuable as they once were.
You need to go immediately and don't have time to "waste" on improving the guys on the roster - you need to let some other coach spend 1-2 years on development, then pull in ready-made products from the portal. Which requires $$$ we don't have, cuz the guys we can afford have a lot of flaws.
