After the brutal loss on Sat, I figured I’d wait a couple of days to reflect on this team. We did expect an up and down season with the youth and allow the coaches time to figure out this team. I wasn’t expecting an NCAA bid, not even close. Last year after losses to Hartford and SB, we ended on a high note after the BIG tourney. My hope is the adversity of this loss will be a learning experience that we need to be tough for 40 minutes, otherwise, we have no chance and D wins games. Assessment on this team and program and it’s progress can only be measured at the conclusion of this season. I strongly feel that we will feel a lot better with the final report. For now, it’s time to keep the faith!!
Evaluation should be after season
- Thread starter 4theknights
- Start date
Agree completely
Team is allowed 24 hours to enjoy a win or stew over a loss but then it's time to get back to work.
There's nothing wrong with venting after a bad loss. There's something wrong with thinking it defines or makes a program, because it happens everywhere.
My guess would be to read the Miami boards after the last 2 weeks time. Lose to SHU, RU, Yale and at Penn and suddenly things aren't what they seem to be.
I think fans get fooled into defining wins or upsets as the only sign of progress. And Stony Brook, Hartford and lesser extent Fordham would be bad, if there wasn't anything to counter it. If there wasn't upsets over Seton Hall or winning some game like Indiana at MSG or at Miami.
I take Miami as a sign of progress that outweighs Fordham. I think if we replaced Stony Brook, Hartford and Fordham as wins and gave RU losses to Seton Hall, Indiana last year and Miami this year, the narrative would be Pike schedules soft and when they play better competition, he hasn't won.
In actuality the process started harmlessly enough in year 1, when RU got it's 1st road B1G win under at Penn State. And while PSU isn't a juggernaut, it opened the door to winning vs Ohio State at the B1G tournament in DC..a game that i heard Mathis and his family attended.
Now the next night vs Northwestern was horrific by any measure, but you have to start somewhere. Year 2 had blowout losses on the road in the B1G and a game at Michigan State that gave fans confidence things were improving.
I'll be at the Rock Saturday with a whole bunch of us here...winning at Miami and playing well at Wisconsin gives me confidence RU can win moreso than losing by 8 to 10 at Miami and beating Fordham would have.
My guess would be to read the Miami boards after the last 2 weeks time. Lose to SHU, RU, Yale and at Penn and suddenly things aren't what they seem to be.
I think fans get fooled into defining wins or upsets as the only sign of progress. And Stony Brook, Hartford and lesser extent Fordham would be bad, if there wasn't anything to counter it. If there wasn't upsets over Seton Hall or winning some game like Indiana at MSG or at Miami.
I take Miami as a sign of progress that outweighs Fordham. I think if we replaced Stony Brook, Hartford and Fordham as wins and gave RU losses to Seton Hall, Indiana last year and Miami this year, the narrative would be Pike schedules soft and when they play better competition, he hasn't won.
In actuality the process started harmlessly enough in year 1, when RU got it's 1st road B1G win under at Penn State. And while PSU isn't a juggernaut, it opened the door to winning vs Ohio State at the B1G tournament in DC..a game that i heard Mathis and his family attended.
Now the next night vs Northwestern was horrific by any measure, but you have to start somewhere. Year 2 had blowout losses on the road in the B1G and a game at Michigan State that gave fans confidence things were improving.
I'll be at the Rock Saturday with a whole bunch of us here...winning at Miami and playing well at Wisconsin gives me confidence RU can win moreso than losing by 8 to 10 at Miami and beating Fordham would have.
I've been finding myself not agreeing with much of what you write lately, Hawk, but this post is spot-on.
college basketball teams are not robots. The 8th best team in the country would not lose to teams 1-7 and beat teams 9-whatever every time they played.
I prefer to looks at teams performances as part of a bell curve. Sometimes they play great, sometimes they play poor, usually somewhat close to a median. You can't tell where on that bell curve a single game is for a team, but after more and more games you get an idea of how they usually play.
So while Rutgers this season appears capable of a bad performance (losing to Fordham) they are clearly improved overall.
I prefer to looks at teams performances as part of a bell curve. Sometimes they play great, sometimes they play poor, usually somewhat close to a median. You can't tell where on that bell curve a single game is for a team, but after more and more games you get an idea of how they usually play.
So while Rutgers this season appears capable of a bad performance (losing to Fordham) they are clearly improved overall.
Fans are fans. They want to win NOW. Remember when Pike got the job in the spring? Even given that the program was in shambles after FHJ, Mike Rice and EJ in succession, there were fans getting churlish because Pike was not immediately bringing in 4 and 5 *s. If he is that good a coach, he should be able to get those Jersey guys in here. These are the guys that jumped ship after the Fordham loss, though they reserve the right to slip back on at any time as though nothing had happened.
TL
TL
As much as everyone wants to win now; I said in the beginning of the season that this was really the first year of the Pikiell era because it's all his guys and there's a lot of new players; very young. No, I didn't think we'd lose the Fordham game after watching our team so far this season. But they do have a really good record at home and we had a very tough time guarding Honor. But, NJIT beat them? Well, NJIT is also a pretty decent team and on any given day; losses can happen. It's a bad loss and we came out flat and the energy of the home crowd and some key baskets put the game out of reach.
We hung with MSU, we were right there with Wisconsin and won a tough game at Miami. The cure for the sadness is to come out and knock off Seton Hall Saturday.
We hung with MSU, we were right there with Wisconsin and won a tough game at Miami. The cure for the sadness is to come out and knock off Seton Hall Saturday.
Not much of a gap between majors and mid-majors: Yale, Penn, Buffalo, Fordham, NJIT.
It's just called being a fan. One unexpected loss or a couple of struggle wins and some fans start hand wringing. It happens in every fan base.
There's another board I'm on frequently and the team is 8-2. It is their best start since the 2011-12 season. A program with exactly one NCAA Tournament appearance, yet some of the subscribers are "disappointed" with the team thus far.
Some folks should switch to decaf, not drink any sodas for 24 hours, go for a walk outside (oh wait it's cold up there isn't it #Winter lol), watch the NASA Channel for an hour and they'll feel good.
I’ll tell you what it is Russ and I understand where some of it comes from?
We play a really hard Big 10 schedule.
We don’t normally lose a non conference game to a school like Fordham, but usually those games are at the RAC.
Since we are 0-2 in the conference, it seems like we are climbing an insurmountable wall.
The loss came just before the SHU war. SHU beats Kentucky and we lose to Fordham.
You add all of that to the 0-11 football season and you’re on the ledge. I take my share of meds to help but part of me is still very depressed since the football season started.
Nobody. It just seems extra hard this year. You cannot circle a W for any of them as far as I’m concerned!
