Carino: Steve Pikiell on Rutgers' roster construction, schedule, leadership and summer workout plan
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Coach speak. The glowing reports of Ogbole can’t be taken seriously based on Pikes pre season predictions of past years. He may start the game, but he won’t be on the court in late second halfs. Martini is going to play a lot
I said it was telling that he didn’t go out of his way to talk about how impressed fans are going to be with Sommerville. The year we lost MJ he went gaga preseason over both Cliff and Dean.
Re the second part, yeah, I’m not buying it straight up. I’m saying there is no way Pike is making decisions for the future. Other comments he made in this article and elsewhere reflect as much - decisions are based on one year only now. So the only logical way he’d pull the plug on center recruitment to retain Sommerville (because he gave an ultimatum) is if he’s convinced Sommerville will easily outperform anyone else we could’ve brought in THIS YEAR - so much so to also overlook the team fit red flag that such request would’ve also raised. Something doesnt add up.
I just watched the pod interview Pike did with Aaron Breitman, holy smokes, was he hitting the Pikespeak hard when it comes to Ogbole? Talked him up like he was already at Cliff level or something, hope he’s improved and I hope Pike’s optimism comes to fruition with Ogbole but he was putting on the hard sell with the Pikespeak. I am hoping, fingers and toes crossed, that Ogbole can do all the things Pike said on the pod, we’ll find out.
Yes but as others say, Pike’s done this with other guys like Dean and Wolf. Take what he said about Ogbole with a grain of salt. The real take away is that his main focus was Ogbole not Sommerville or at least equal emphasis of both. Those who expect Sommerville to be an instant starter and impact player might want to level set those expectations.
Agreed, it seems as if Ogbole will start, at least early in the season. Now we’ll just have to actually see if when Pike said “he jumps the highest of any player I’ve had” is true or well, just Pikespeak. I don’t expect or need Ogbole to be Cliff version 2.0, just hope he is competent and uses his size and wingspan to rebound and rim protect.
Coach has no idea who's starting at this point. Sommerville literally just stepped foot on campus.
We can watch Ogbole limited highlights, he doesn’t have half the athleticism, jumping ability or foot speed of Cliff so ya can’t take pikes sell job serious. Ogbole does seem bigger and tougher than most, more like Miles Johnson than Cliff, and we’d take another Miles.
And those who expect Ogbole to be much more than what he was last year I expect will be disappointed as well. Miracles don’t happen in 3 months of the off-season. Big miss not getting another big.
100% big miss in not getting higher level big. However, I personally expect Ogbole to be much better than last year because the guy tore his ACL in March. 2nd year from ACL, player can get back to their true self. Plus, he will have had a full year of getting acclimated to this level with this staff.
1) different beast in the big east back then... Many fewer big posts than in the big ten.
2) way different game now, also.
3) kent was terrific... For what he was and did, which was limited. He WAS a terrific defensive player, true. But his game never improved from frosh to senior season... Literally. I think, without looking it up (so apologies if I got it wrong), he averaged like 9 ppg as a frosh and never averaged more than 10.5 ppg in any season. He was great around the basket, true... Shot like 65% on layups and dunks... But literally never learned to hit any shots other than a layup or dunk.
4) not related to the post quoted, in re ogbole... He will not be a "savior", sommerville ought to play more minutes tho I think ogbole will start, but in my opinion if he is improved enough to play 12-15 mpg, that could help the team quite a bit, and he could average 3-4 ppg and 5 rpg, with decent post defense banging and rim protection. Omoruyi was more athletic, but ogbole DID run baseline to baseline much more and more effectively than omoruyi (who almost never did so). And ogbole is definitely bigger and stronger, and NOT unsyhletic at all. Look at ogbole's per minute rebounding stats... Best offensive rebounder on the team per minute by a huge margin, a ridiculously good offensive rebounder, and as good a per minute rebounder overall as rutgers had last year.
My point is that ogbole has the potential to be useful, not a waste of space. And with a little luck and performance from the star frosh, and the transfers, and sommerville, all rutgers may need from ogbole is 12-15 solid rebounding and defense minutes.
Your Kent figures are correct. Points: 8.8, 8.9, 9.8, 10.5.
Career 60% shooter from field and 40% from line.
Positionless basketball…I noticed it the other day but forgot to post it. ESPN's latest way too early top 25 had Martini at center, Rutgers 25.
Men's WTE Top 25: Alabama vaults to No. 2; Texas, Ohio State drop out
Kansas remains the preseason No. 1 but the rest of the top 10 is just as loaded, and coming for that spot.www.espn.com
Just to clarify - my point here had nothing to do with Ogbole - it was about takeaways regarding Sommerville and the “rumors” being positioned by some as premium fact.
I agree with you that not getting a BIG had to be a “miss”. I don’t see how it could’ve been a deliberate move to make sure Sommerville is happy. If that had any legs, Pike’s quotes on the center position would be way different.
Yes - also very true and I know you were simply responding to someone who stated otherwise. Just to clarify though, I wasn’t suggesting that Sommerville has no chance to go in and beat out Ogbole or even Martini either. I’m saying that obviously at present point in time, Pike isn’t convinced that Sommerville has the 5 spot locked and loaded. He would’ve been raving about Sommerville if he was even leaning in that direction a little bit.
Best team ever…
Last preseason he raved about how good Hyatt would be - didn’t he? He’s gone on about how good many bench players would be too. What he’s never done though is downplay someone new who he’s excited about and then that guy comes in and plays a huge role.
Point being - if he really decided to halt the efforts to bring in a proven veteran center because he was forced to choose between that or rolling the dice with Sommerville, his plan going into the season would have to include Sommerville in a huge role. Because there’s no such thing as decisions for the future! This in turn would mean conversation around the 5 spot from Pike wouldve revolved around what a force Sommerville would be. Thats not happening.
Astute analysis and unfortunately, all true for those who’ve been paying attention to these the last few years
What did he say about cam the year we got him? He was definitely better than expected but I can’t remember if pike hyped him up.
Yes he definitely did. He was more careful generally in terms of team level comments that year about not saying things like “Best Ever” again - but he talked about what a treat fans were in for with Cam. He also talked about Cam’s steals and how his D would surprise. Overall - most of his preliminary feedback on Cam was spot on.
My take aways:
-Pike wasn’t a fan of last year’s team
-Dinged Cliff and Mag saying that JMike, JWill and Big O were the toughest guys on the team last season
-5 out shows growth
-Pike isn’t worrying about 2025-26 with this roster. He understands it’s now year to year.
-Pike wasn’t a fan of last year’s team
-Dinged Cliff and Mag saying that JMike, JWill and Big O were the toughest guys on the team last season
-5 out shows growth
-Pike isn’t worrying about 2025-26 with this roster. He understands it’s now year to year.
Yes - it’s too bad he was the worst in D1 at shooting from everywhere else. The bottomline is he could never have gone from what he was at RU to role player. It’s different for high usage kid from a midmajor to transition to that when moving up a level. He wasn’t going to be a fit.
Still thought he had a nice handle.
Wondering who will bring ball up coming year.
Might miss him.
Lol, get out of here with that garbage that Simpson might be missed.
Every thing will run through Dylan or JWill. You also have Ace, Acuff, Dercack & Davis who can handle the ball.
Literally no one is going to miss Simpson. That said, hope the guy does well at his new school.
We have a roster full of comfortable ball handlers. That’s the least of our issues.
His D is what we would miss most, if anything. It all depends how the newcomers are with that though. We weren’t keeping Simpson around for defense. As I said - you can’t go from the go to guy to the last option on the same team. It just doesn’t work. You always tried to make it about who was a better player - Simpson or Davis, but it was never about keeping the better of the 2. Davis was just a way better fit to remain as a potentially deep roster role player.
You must have missed the news. We got Dylan!! And JWill stayed. Lol
And we brought in two mid major upper class guards who handle the ball and led their conferences in scoring. Dribbling won’t be a problem.
Last season ended ended in March, next season starts in November. Seems like more than three months.
The point is everyone who knows basketball knows what Ogbole is and he’s not a starting B1G center in any universe. To soften the blow of failing at getting a big man in the portal, Martini’s name is being bandied about as a back-up big. He’s 6’7” 235 and played in the Ivy League. Reiber is three inches bigger and he was tossed around like a rag doll in many B1G games.
From your mouth to God’s ears. Scoring and dribbling two different skill sets. We weren’t pressed last two years. For all of Simpson’s faults that wasn’t one of them. Hope you’re correct.
Okay - but to be fair, Reiber also failed to crack the starting line up on a 19-12 Charlotte team. He was a utility player there too. Martini was the starting center on a 5 loss Princeton team that made the NIT.
Look - I’m not saying this is great. I wish we brought in a proven BIG too. However, defensive minded coaches generally find a way to manage around gaps like we’re going to have. Going back to Huggins (my favorite team comparison - similar defense first thinking with polar opposite values to Pike) - Wellington Smith (6-7) played center on two of his best teams ever - 2008-09 and 2009-10. They were undersized and found a way in the BE meat grinder. My money is on Pike to figure this out if it’s our only major hole. Let’s hope everything else falls into place.
Ironically, my favorite NBA player when I was young was a 6’7” 245 pound center who tossed around the 7’ centers he guarded like they were rag dolls. He was the second pick overall in 1968 and both the NBA rookie of the year and NBA MVP in his first season. In 1978 he led the Washington Bullets to an NBA championship and was the finals MVP. For those of you who are to young to see him play, NBA Hall of Famer, Wes Unseld was amazing to watch and other centers hated to be defended by him.
Although I wouldn’t compare Wes Unseld to Martini, it wouldn’t hurt Martini to watch how Unseld used to defend, box out, rebound and throw outlet passes as Pikiel commented about how Martini liked to bang inside and I have never seen anyone do it better at 6’7” than Wes Unseld.
He’s before my time, but same idea as where I was going. I think it’s probably easier for folks who are skeptical to visualize a comparison to a college level 6-7 player like Wellington Smith who started at center on a final 4 team (putting up modest stats). While Smith wasn’t a transfer like Martini, he did transition from Beilein’s more finesse style when Huggs took over which qualifies as somewhat similar to the move from Princeton’s style to our system.
That team got most of its output from senior Da’Sean Butler and rising sophomores Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones. The question is - can Dylan, Ace and J Williams match the productivity of that group - especially on the defensive end? If the answer is yes, I believe we’d be in great shape even if we have to play Martini for large stretches at the 5. It’s far from a given though. Experience matters a lot.
We don’t project to be a weak ball handling team. Dylan is a good ball handler. We have a 5th year senior PG in Jeremiah Williams on the roster. We brought in two midmajor guards who were either main ball handlers on their teams or second option to bring up the ball. We still have Davis as a deep roster option. We are stocked when it comes to ball handling.
PSAL - Jeremiah Williams actually is a Junior this coming season, or has 2 more years of eligibility left (this season and next). Now, whether he stays for 2025-2026 is another question. Not a big deal, but for those who are reading, thought I'd offer that small edit.
