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This is a team that is at their most effective when they're running off of turnovers, steals, and defensive rebounds. That accounts for the higher fg% in the wins. There was a lot more of this early in the season than there's been recently. Opponents have forced RU to play a half court game, which has exposed the lack of perimeter shooting.
 
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The problem is we are missing the higher percentage shots. If that’s the case might as well shoot threes. Threes also skewered by end of game and shot clock violations.
Just have to make any baskets period!
 
Wrote in another thread on RT:

Seeing a number of folks suggesting the twin tower lineup. I don’t think it is the answer since neither is a threat outside 6 feet.

what I really think we should be doing is pressing when Cliff is in

cliff on ball
Caleb and JY as our trappers
Geo at center court
Tez, PM or Harper at our defensive foul line

could put cliff on the back line in exchange for Tez as well though I’d worry about foul trouble for cliff

PM not athletic enough to be anywhere but back

Harper (surprisingly) the same (right now)

would open up the game in both directions and get these guys playing downhill and loose.

playing to out hustle and out execute in a half court setting is plain dumb with this team, our lack of sophisticated sets, and our current psychology

pike needs to adapt / show some flexibility
 
Bottom line Rutgers isn't getting enough points from Baker and Harper who are expected to be the leading scorers.Against Maryland the starting lineup scored a grand total of 29 points which clearly is pathetic and won't result in any further wins unless there is a dramatic improvement.
 
I think the issue is more that he’s been a no show in terms of rebounding and points in the paint than from outside scoring though. It was nice to have the 3s early in the year but he’s big enough that he should be able to contribute inside over these last 4 games.
Said that multiple times already.
I take the RHJ as a freshman over the current one.
The old RHJ rebounded, played above the rim and got out on the fast break.
Obviously RHJ is no Ayo, but he’s as important to us as Ayo is to Illinois.
We can’t overcome the RJH that played against MD.
 
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Also some of this stuff is clearly suffering from the tiny sample sizes, such as:

no correlation between 3p% and wins.. I think it's fairly clear a higher 3p% helps us win regardless of correlations this season
ditto the lack of correlation between opponent turnovers and wins

that said, yes we need more paint shots and fewer midrange shots (and maybe fewer threes, but maybe not). If the paint shots are there we should prioritize them. But if we do that and the opponent packs the paint, then we will need to shoot the open threes that would result

What we need to stop doing is hanging around the perimeter for 15 secs before awkward drives, stepback midrange shots, desperation threes at the end of the shot clock, etc
 
Relative to the rest of NCAA teams, correct. Relative to Pikiell’s RU teams, this is our second highest year in terms of 3PA/game, and the highest was before they moved the line back.

Fair enough. I think this is a good thing though. This is also Pike's best offensive team, crazy as that may seem.
 
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Can’t win if you don’t score. The fact that we don’t shoot well from anywhere (3s, FTs, layups, etc) doesn’t help.
 
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