Everyone is complaining about the offense, but ….

[goru7]

I agree, think Pike gets plus credit for the year, and agree the Covid year should count as a plus for him too. I even give him a slight pass on last year with the two late departures, but his couple year pre A and D recruiting were a negative.
He needs to be back near the bubble next year or I think his seat would start to warm up.

He failed miserably in the portal and especially getting another serviceable big even one who didn’t play starter minutes but was a rim protector. His transfers have been for the most part “ Terribly disappointing “ and not helped win games.His upperclassmen leadership , Jeremiah and JMike have been terrible leaders. So failure there. Naming Jeremiah and Martini captains was a worthless jester .

Unlike Williard , who hit a home run getting 3 two way players in Gillespie , Miguel and Rice , all coming from lower mid major programs. Very unusual for 3 lower level guys making the jump and having that much success.

 

[Shelby65]

Sommerville is not a 4. Unfortunately, it's questionable if he is a 5 also.

He’s not a viable Big10 starter no matter what role. He’s utterly useless on D which means getting a legit big lands him on the bench, which won’t sit well. He wouldn’t even start on Kennesaw St unless the bigs there transfer up, which they probably will.

 

[seansherm]

He failed miserably in the portal and especially getting another serviceable big even one who didn’t play starter minutes but was a rim protector. His transfers have been for the most part “ Terribly disappointing “ and not helped win games.His upperclassmen leadership , Jeremiah and JMike have been terrible leaders. So failure there. Naming Jeremiah and Martini captains was a worthless jester .

Unlike Williard , who hit a home run getting 3 two way players in Gillespie , Miguel and Rice , all coming from lower mid major programs. Very unusual for 3 lower level guys making the jump and having that much success.

Agree with you on all, except JMike isn't an upperclassmen.

 

[goru7]

Agree with you on all, except JMike isn't an upperclassmen.

You are correct he is only a sophomore but the trajectory from freshman forward is upward and his defense has gone backward. I at least expect improvement after a summer in the gym as well as some experience gained to realize what works at this level and what doesn’t. He has still not mastered driving to the hoop , jump stop , and make the layup. Okay maybe only a sophomore . But my biggest disappointment is his lack of ability to keep his man in front of him and his failure to fight thru screens. Which leads to the pick and roll layups we give up so easily. Cannot believe Pike or Knight is not demanding he step up his defense.

 

[jakeknight]

It will be interesting to see what adjustments Pike will make post season. Guessing back to a defense first approach, as we will not have the pure offense of Dylan and Ace.
We constantly lose “shape” on defense and that leaves the off ball defense unable to close out on ball reversals. We also have a lot of difficulty defending the pick and rolls,and for that matter fighting through and anticipating screens. We are just not sharp or decisive on our on ball coverage, seems like we are always running at an open three ball shooter, especially in the corners.
I think losing Dylan to his surgery pre season and Acuff broken foot, and Ace with his hip pointer also was a factor in terms of team defense. Lots of other stuff but enough for now.

 

[seansherm]

You are correct he is only a sophomore but the trajectory from freshman forward is upward and his defense has gone backward. I at least expect improvement after a summer in the gym as well as some experience gained to realize what works at this level and what doesn’t. He has still not mastered driving to the hoop , jump stop , and make the layup. Okay maybe only a sophomore . But my biggest disappointment is his lack of ability to keep his man in front of him and his failure to fight thru screens. Which leads to the pick and roll layups we give up so easily. Cannot believe Pike or Knight is not demanding he step up his defense.

I hear you. Pike's defense doesn't really count on fighting through screens, it's more switch on screens 1-5. A guy like Caleb was fighting through because he was that guy. There is no rim protection helping guys get up tight so they give a little more room and that enables them to be beat easier. To me, much our defensive issue is cause by having zero rim protection.

 

[goru7]

I hear you. Pike's defense doesn't really count on fighting through screens, it's more switch on screens 1-5. A guy like Caleb was fighting through because he was that guy. There is no rim protection helping guys get up tight so they give a little more room and that enables them to be beat easier. To me, much our defensive issue is cause by having zero rim protection.

Totally agreed . People understating what the loss of a rim protector for the last 8 years with Cliff and Myles and they were elite especially Myles. They covered up guards getting beat , which was not as often as our present guards.
Some is allowing our guys to switch but with the trouble we have had with pick and roll , the only way to fix it is to fight over screens and not make it so easy to be screened. JMike , Jeremiah , Jordan or Tyson have to fight over pick and roll screens or we have to do a heavy hedge with Lathan or our bigs. You cannot continue to do what we are doing.

 

[LotusAggressor]

Who under Pike has really developed into a better player? Ron and Caleb certainly. Myles too. Geo was interesting. I thought he played his best early in his career and never seemed to find another level. Or even really reach that one consistently. PM never really got much better. Cliff was so raw he had to improve by default. But he never developed any offensive game. There have also been so many recruiting misses that most washed out early in their careers. I am sure there may be a few others that I have missed who Pike did develop, but it feels like a really short list over 9 years. I am not sure the notion of Pike as the great developer is really as true as people want to believe.

He's great at player development compared to the previous RU coaches over the last 40 years. That is a very low bar.

 

[Ridge 22]

He's great at player development compared to the previous RU coaches over the last 40 years. That is a very low bar.

True. But who cares. Is he the best guy to lead us forward? I would say no. Pretty short list of successful companies who make decisions based on the ineptitude over the past 40 years.

 

[goru7]

True. But who cares. Is he the best guy to lead us forward? I would say no. Pretty short list of successful companies who make decisions based on the ineptitude over the past 40 years.

You two thinking Pike is not the answer is your opinion and definitely a sentiment of a few members of this board but not the basketball community.
If the Committee doesn’t screw us in 2022/23 and put us in the tourney like 99% of the bracketologists who had us in after beating Michigan in the first round of the BiG 10 tourney , then Pike would have had us in the tourney 4 straight years. Damn yes I am counting the Covid year as that team has a real chance to make hay.


Last year we had the gang that couldn’t shoot straight and it was a bad year .

This year the failure in the portal , Pike’s blunder of not getting a big rim protector , illness and injury to Dylan , and the lack of upperclassman to help and support Dylan and ACE with any consistency , and the total defensive failure , has us where we are.

The recruiting class appears decent with 2 of the 4 likely to make immediate contributions so 2 major scorers preferrably guards are needed in the portal to give us another good chance for the tourney .

But we have had for years now sold out home games and interest in Rutgers Basketball in the conference and nationally has never been higher , so that goes as a positive.
Why are you so eager to get rid of Pike considering all of the above. ?

 

[Ridge 22]

You two thinking Pike is not the answer is your opinion and definitely a sentiment of a few members of this board but not the basketball community.
If the Committee doesn’t screw us in 2022/23 and put us in the tourney like 99% of the bracketologists who had us in after beating Michigan in the first round of the BiG 10 tourney , then Pike would have had us in the tourney 4 straight years. Damn yes I am counting the Covid year as that team has a real chance to make hay.


Last year we had the gang that couldn’t shoot straight and it was a bad year .

This year the failure in the portal , Pike’s blunder of not getting a big rim protector , illness and injury to Dylan , and the lack of upperclassman to help and support Dylan and ACE with any consistency , and the total defensive failure , has us where we are.

The recruiting class appears decent with 2 of the 4 likely to make immediate contributions so 2 major scorers preferrably guards are needed in the portal to give us another good chance for the tourney .

But we have had for years now sold out home games and interest in Rutgers Basketball in the conference and nationally has never been higher , so that goes as a positive.
Why are you so eager to get rid of Pike considering all of the above. ?

Because I think he is out of his element in this NIL era. I thank him for getting us to mediocre and recognize that someone else needs to take it from here. You can have the covid year. That is legit. But the committee screwing us is loser speak. So call it 3. Same as Ace and Dylan's availability status this year. You are what you are and this stuff is applicable to everyone. Please stop with alternate realities.

On the whole, Pikes recruiting, portal additions, and game day coaching have all been underwhelming. What else is there? He's nice? Great. He's honestly made a nice living out of striking gold with Ron, Geo and Caleb and the nice mini run they took him on. Outside of that, which looks more and more like a fluke by the season, and the rest doesn't feel very good if we are being honest here. It's been 9 years. What great successes have we achieved? 1 tournament win (unless you want to count the 3 imaginary wins you feel we deserve in an alternative universe).

I get that our fan base suffers from loser mentality and many are happy with a ceiling of mediocre. Pike can probably deliver that. But a lot of us aim a little higher and I can't see Pike delivering that.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Totally agreed . People understating what the loss of a rim protector for the last 8 years with Cliff and Myles and they were elite especially Myles. They covered up guards getting beat , which was not as often as our present guards.
Some is allowing our guys to switch but with the trouble we have had with pick and roll , the only way to fix it is to fight over screens and not make it so easy to be screened. JMike , Jeremiah , Jordan or Tyson have to fight over pick and roll screens or we have to do a heavy hedge with Lathan or our bigs. You cannot continue to do what we are doing.

I agree with all of this and what Sean said.

This said - if we choose an off season strategy designed around retaining Lathan Pike deserves what he gets because this problem will not go away. Lathan is not a rim protector and won’t be one next year. If he wants to return and share minutes with a rim protector, that’s great. We can’t pass on adding one though next year because we will fail to improve.

 

[Shelby65]

Full stop. Who’s Michigan’s rim protector ? Purdue’s ? Michigan St’s ? Iowa’s ? Illinois? Is Maryland’s Queen a rim protector ?

Better, is there a rim protector anywhere in the conference ? Crowl isn’t a rim protector.

It’s not that. What almost every other team has and we don’t are mobile bigs who play to their heights.

Neither of ours have any mobility or athleticism. It hurts us on both ends.

Lathan is too slow to get in the way or chase mobile bigs. So was Ogbole.

 

[goru7]

Because I think he is out of his element in this NIL era. I thank him for getting us to mediocre and recognize that someone else needs to take it from here. You can have the covid year. That is legit. But the committee screwing us is loser speak. So call it 3. Same as Ace and Dylan's availability status this year. You are what you are and this stuff is applicable to everyone. Please stop with alternate realities.

On the whole, Pikes recruiting, portal additions, and game day coaching have all been underwhelming. What else is there? He's nice? Great. He's honestly made a nice living out of striking gold with Ron, Geo and Caleb and the nice mini run they took him on. Outside of that, which looks more and more like a fluke by the season, and the rest doesn't feel very good if we are being honest here. It's been 9 years. What great successes have we achieved? 1 tournament win (unless you want to count the 3 imaginary wins you feel we deserve in an alternative universe).

I get that our fan base suffers from loser mentality and many are happy with a ceiling of mediocre. Pike can probably deliver that. But a lot of us aim a little higher and I can't see Pike delivering that.

You being real and then keep saying 9 years. You have been on these boards a long time as I have , so I know you were around for the Jordan years and the 50 point blowouts at the end and the pathetic effort almost every night. You want to crucify Pike for years 1-3, when he literally was pulling us up from being the worst team in any Power conference in America. That is your thought and that is ridiculous. What he did do was establish a hard working team, playing with great effort , especially defensively and rebounding , to the point he got accolades , ( and I don’t mean bullshit compliments ) from Izzo and Painter and got their respect . I consider them 2 of the more honest and thoughtful no bullshit speakers in the conference. When you played Rutgers , you knew you had to bring in. That was a huge accomplishment by Pike that you seem to ignore or gloss over.

Then Years 4-7 , like I said should have been 4 straight NCAA teams. You seem to consider yourself a reasonable Rutgers fan and when 99% of the bracketologists had us in the tourney in 2022/23 , you claim I shouldn’t claim it. Why? Because the ****ing committee got it wrong !!!The committee makes up their own rules and changes them to fit their narrative. If you cannot see how we were screwed then you are much less reasonable of a fan than you proclaim.
Yes, I thought we should have gone to the Sweet 16 and Myles missing the dunk that would have put us up 10 with 4:23 left started the collapse. Did Pike blow it or did the players blow it but not getting 1 more damn rebound ? I don’t know but I knew I was heartbroken and bitterly disappointed . Should we have beaten Notre Dame the other year? Yeah we should have. Weird game of almost no defense , contrary to every other Pike game , and Caleb being the offensive star with 24 points , horrendous post defense like we had not seen all year ! I guess you must blame Pike. Sometimes bad things happen. Notre Dame went on to win their next game and almost made the Sweet 16 so weren’t exactly a shitty team.

Lots of criticism of last year and this year. Roster and portal misses fair criticism of Pike last 2 years. Some bad luck this year.

We all want better results and there are things Pike does that bother the hell out of me , like his rotations , his loyalty to his older guys, having better out of bounds plays but using the more difficult ones , removing a player after he makes a shot thereby not allowing him to get in a groove and hit a few in a row ( Acuff, the other night was one of the few times he didn’t take him out ) but to throw Pike under the bus and ask that he be fired immediately is a bridge too far for me and most neutral observers of this program.

 

[Ridge 22]

You have a lot of 'should haves' and 'could haves' that never materialized baked into your happiness equation. I go by and judge based on what actually happened. Discount the entire beginning third of Pike for the lift required. Call it a win even if you want. And the middle third with Ron, Geo and Caleb was certainly a win. But the rules have changed and the arrow is pointing downward big time over the last third and there is no realistic signs of that changing. Should we hope and pray on Pikes talents in recruiting out of high school or the portal? Both have been underwhelming. Maybe his game day coaching process where we try and run an actual offense? Or perhaps leverage his talents in fundraising for NIL.

Listen, give Pike credit for the lift, but as a great man once said, the ship be sinkin. If money were not an issue, he should be gone now. But it is, so we will need to Rutgers along for another year or two before we start to move forward again.

 

[Shelby65]

You being real and then keep saying 9 years. You have been on these boards a long time as I have , so I know you were around for the Jordan years and the 50 point blowouts at the end and the pathetic effort almost every night. You want to crucify Pike for years 1-3, when he literally was pulling us up from being the worst team in any Power conference in America. That is your thought and that is ridiculous. What he did do was establish a hard working team, playing with great effort , especially defensively and rebounding , to the point he got accolades , ( and I don’t mean bullshit compliments ) from Izzo and Painter and got their respect . I consider them 2 of the more honest and thoughtful no bullshit speakers in the conference. When you played Rutgers , you knew you had to bring in. That was a huge accomplishment by Pike that you seem to ignore or gloss over.

Then Years 4-7 , like I said should have been 4 straight NCAA teams. You seem to consider yourself a reasonable Rutgers fan and when 99% of the bracketologists had us in the tourney in 2022/23 , you claim I shouldn’t claim it. Why? Because the ****ing committee got it wrong !!!The committee makes up their own rules and changes them to fit their narrative. If you cannot see how we were screwed then you are much less reasonable of a fan than you proclaim.
Yes, I thought we should have gone to the Sweet 16 and Myles missing the dunk that would have put us up 10 with 4:23 left started the collapse. Did Pike blow it or did the players blow it but not getting 1 more damn rebound ? I don’t know but I knew I was heartbroken and bitterly disappointed . Should we have beaten Notre Dame the other year? Yeah we should have. Weird game of almost no defense , contrary to every other Pike game , and Caleb being the offensive star with 24 points , horrendous post defense like we had not seen all year ! I guess you must blame Pike. Sometimes bad things happen. Notre Dame went on to win their next game and almost made the Sweet 16 so weren’t exactly a shitty team.

Lots of criticism of last year and this year. Roster and portal misses fair criticism of Pike last 2 years. Some bad luck this year.

We all want better results and there are things Pike does that bother the hell out of me , like his rotations , his loyalty to his older guys, having better out of bounds plays but using the more difficult ones , removing a player after he makes a shot thereby not allowing him to get in a groove and hit a few in a row ( Acuff, the other night was one of the few times he didn’t take him out ) but to throw Pike under the bus and ask that he be fired immediately is a bridge too far for me and most neutral observers of this program.

Nobody should care about Fast Eddie's record. Nobody should care about Chris Ash. The question should be, are goals being met? Rutgers goals are lower than our (pretend) peer goals. Winning big in basketball matters at Indiana and Iowa. It doesn't at Rutgers. This is why Pike got an undeserved extension and his seat is a cold as the weather this week. He's got 3 more years at least, and then more following another extension for meeting RU's never-ending minimal goals.

RU's more interested in a high team GPA than a basketball winner.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Full stop. Who’s Michigan’s rim protector ? Purdue’s ? Michigan St’s ? Iowa’s ? Illinois? Is Maryland’s Queen a rim protector ?

Better, is there a rim protector anywhere in the conference ? Crowl isn’t a rim protector.

It’s not that. What almost every other team has and we don’t are mobile bigs who play to their heights.

Neither of ours have any mobility or athleticism. It hurts us on both ends.

Lathan is too slow to get in the way or chase mobile bigs. So was Ogbole.

What on earth are you talking about?

Michigan has a massive 250 pound 7-1 center whose an excellent help defender. He not only blocks shots but contests easy baskets in the paint. Thats what is meant by rim protection. Guys who don’t allow easy penetration when the offense drives past a guard. Reese and Queen do the same for Maryland. They have excellent rim protection with that pair. Lathan cannot do this for us. I don’t care if he can score double digits - if he’s our main center we’re going to lose because our defense will not improve. As I said before, we’d have more wins with a Shaq Doorson on the roster even though he doesn’t score. Giving up those easy baskets over and over again has a psychological effect. The offense would be better under Dylan and Ace if we were getting more stops. I truly believe that. We don’t have the interior players to do it though without Ace expanding all his energy being that post presence for us.

 

[goru7]

You have a lot of 'should haves' and 'could haves' that never materialized baked into your happiness equation. I go by and judge based on what actually happened. Discount the entire beginning third of Pike for the lift required. Call it a win even if you want. And the middle third with Ron, Geo and Caleb was certainly a win. But the rules have changed and the arrow is pointing downward big time over the last third and there is no realistic signs of that changing. Should we hope and pray on Pikes talents in recruiting out of high school or the portal? Both have been underwhelming. Maybe his game day coaching process where we try and run an actual offense? Or perhaps leverage his talents in fundraising for NIL.

Listen, give Pike credit for the lift, but as a great man once said, the ship be sinkin. If money were not an issue, he should be gone now. But it is, so we will need to Rutgers along for another year or two before we start to move forward again.

Talents in recruiting. Wow just listen to your gibberish. He just recruited either the # 1 or # 2 or # 3 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Not 1 but 2. He also recruited 3 other freshman in the same class and 2 appear to be BIG 10 players that need some work , happen to be starting now , but show potential of getting better over time.

His 4 person class next year has a big , 2 guards and a wing forward. Lino Mark and Chris Nwuil appear to be rated highly and I have seen some highlights and will contribute in an impactful way next year.

What the hell is your problem with recruiting ?

 

[Ridge 22]

Talents in recruiting. Wow just listen to your gibberish. He just recruited either the # 1 or # 2 or # 3 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Not 1 but 2. He also recruited 3 other freshman in the same class and 2 appear to be BIG 10 players that need some work , happen to be starting now , but show potential of getting better over time.

His 4 person class next year has a big , 2 guards and a wing forward. Lino Mark and Chris Nwuil appear to be rated highly and I have seen some highlights and will contribute in an impactful way next year.

What the hell is your problem with recruiting ?

You know the answers. You just won't acknowledge them. Ace and Dylan were both unique circumstances. Otherwise they are not here. Outside of them, recruiting has not been very good. See Richies breakdown. It's scary bad. I have no interest in talking about next year's class until we see them. Too many Jaden Jones and GG's in the scrap heap of past failed recruits to count on any of them until proven otherwise.

 

[bac2therac]

The fact is Pikes near miss ncaa was a failure by him...lost Mag and the season collapsed badly...losses at home and couldn't score