Clunkers in a long season

[NewJerseyHawk]

I have posted periodically that over a 2 month marathon of league play, that you have this breakdown of games.

2- 3 games way above your capacity

12 to 14 games at the "sea-level" or where the team is most nights.

2-3 clunkers, where you don't shoot well, play well or do anything well.

Today's game was inevitable and somewhat overdue. When a team doesn't have it that night, 14 point leads evaporate into 6 point holes....or if you have a clunker and another team is on it, you have Purdue over MSU by almost 30 and some of the ugly scores that happen week to week.

What you ultimately want to have happen is have your bad game, flush it and move on. When you get a bad or C+ game and still steal a win, you somehow benefit without having to absorb a loss.

Fortunately we absorbed a game with virtually no production from Harper, with timely scoring in spurts from Yeboah, Young, Mathis and at the end Baker.

Tremendous crowd and energy carried the day today and lifted the program to another level, by not allowing a hiccup.

There's likely another clunker along the way, the good news is this roster absorbed a body blow and picked up a much needed W.....!!!

 

[bac2therac]

You learn more from a team from a game like this than you do if you win by 20. Looking forward to our response to this game vs Purdue. I think we will be happy.

 

[colbert17]

Difference this year is we won.
Last few years most likely we lose.

 

[FastMJ]

Coach needs to get on Harper for his lazy D today. He was asleep out there. Don't mind the offensive slow day but you gotta play D better than that.

 

[Goku]

Thank you for making this post. We needed it amongst all of the other posts

We need to remember something. The players on our team are human. They aren't perfect. If they are on every night then they are a top 5 team. And they aren't that. And the other team is trying too.

And people need get this also....Rutgers is gonna lose a game to a team like Nebraska sometimes. Maybe this year even.

So I'm glad they pulled off the win. We are due for a few clunkers and we had a clunker and won.

I hope this team feels dissatisfied with the last 2 games and refocuses for Tuesday. It’s up to them. We just have to wait and see

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

I was going to start a clunker thread back in December, after some curious national results and just become annoying by updating it every night...just today, there were a handful of upsets that stung some likely bubble teams on the road in the ACC and some teams that really needed a home win.

The margin of winning and losing games in most conferences comes down to making shots at times when needed.

Yeboah buried some huge shots today and was enormous. We got timely baskets from Mathis today as well.

The team has a lot of upside...it's still finding it's way and squeezing results while learning how to win and function in tight games.

 

[bac2therac]

what was crazy about this game was this was a play or two away from being a total blowout. Just a missed assignment or a bad 3 taken. At 60-49 RU took a really bad 3 by Mathis instead of trying to get the ball inside. Another mistake RU may have been up 12 and put on a weak press that turned into a wide open look down the court for 3. Those were some pretty big swings. RU and Pike have to recognize the moment they are in. This was one of those games where RU would have won easily if they only could get out of their own way. Credit Nebby because they took advantage of RU leaving the door open.