jI could go on and on and write a long dissertation on the abomination on the court today but I will just directed to you recaps after the Princeton, Illinois, and Wake games. This team is EXACTLY what was feared. A MESSY poorly constructed team lacking LEADERSHIP, lacking TOUGHNESS, lacking purpose, and above all just lacking IT. You know IT when you see IT so it is easy to spot it in absentia. Accepting the current state of the season would be a wise decision right now. The Seton Hall win with the return of Mag gave a glimmer of hope. A strong purposeful performance where RU dominated on both ends of the court. Many of us weroo willing to hit the bargainning stage. and block out the tell tale signs of trouble. If we could get this win over Mississippi State we could be back on track, Right? That was a big IF. In fairness Mississippi State did appear to be better than expected today but Rutgers was absolutely no different from how they performed against in their 3 earlier losses to schools with a pulse.
I was not pleased with the LIU performance despite winning by 22. It was a 7 point game deep into the 2nd half and RU went through a miserable 6 minute stretch without 2 points. Sure they rode Mag, Hyatt, and Cliff to 22 point win and Cliff had a career game but lets be honest. LIU was atrocious and RU found themselves struggling to put the ball in the basket yet again. Today would prove similar. RU went through 3 horrendous offensive stretches that totalled nearly half of the game and confirmed to me that this is not a NCAA level team. Consider RU built a nice little 20-15 lead and actually had a couple of chances to build on it but then were outscored 12-2 in a period of 7:30 minutes where Mississippi State took a 27-22 and never looked back despite RU able to crawl to 29 all at half. That was a fluke. RU had absolutely nothing coming out of the gate with just one bucket in the first four minutes being outdone 8-2. Later RU would suffer another 5 minute stretch where they were outscored 10-2 with zero fgs and Miss St all of a sudden up 49-38. RU would do little to be a threat from there and the final defecit of 10 might not reflect how badly beaten RU was today. One constant this year is scoring droughts. RU can overcome it vs LIU and vs Bryant but I warned you about tougher competition. Just like with Wake what looked like a competitive game was quickly turned into a beatdown. RU just not have the firepower nor experience nor sharpshooting skills to be able to win games like this.
With some earlier Pike teams you could count on a bit over overacheving lunch pail effort to guide them through some rough shooting patches but just not seeing it with this team. For one Missisippi State just clobbered RU on the boards 47-26 including 13-7 offensively. I know RU was a physically undersized vs Mississippi State but you have to have a certain want and hunger to overcheive on the rebounding end and unlike every other Pike squad the absence is glaring. Not saying overall the teams effort is not there but you need a special effort to overacheive and get better. Compared to even Pike's worst years at the beginning, unfortunately this team is falling below that level. The Bulldogs actually made one less basket than RU yet took 9 less shots. Their ball movement and carving up of the RU defense was a thing of beauty. They did miss some chippies too but even then the were getting some pretty clean looks. Impressed by their coach Chris Jans. This was a well coached team of studs. Jans ran circles around Pike as far as game prep for today They knew what they wanted to do and established themselves earlier as tougher while Cliff did a wallflower routine. Men vs boys, shades of the Illinois game. But stepping back, compare the two teams beyond size and experience. Miss State never wavered after RU tied it at half. Came right back at it with their aggressiveness on the offensive end and took advantage of the RU feebleness in wanting to rebound. RU cuts it to 8, no problem Jans calls timeout, they immediately nail a 3 and go on another run to take their biggest lead of 15. Smelled blood in the water and went after it. If RU was nipped by the sharks of Long Island, they had literal chunks ripped out of them by relentless Bulldogs.
But then how did Rutgers get here where its time to reset expectations just 11 games into the season. Its not one thing...its EVERYTHING. Some of it bad luck, some of it not. Make no mistake about it Pikiell was absolutely molested when it came to the portal. Burned by Cam Spencer and then later by Mulcahy and then forced to scramble for leftovers ( Austin) or worse (Palm). One can forgive Pike for getting screwed but can one? Make no mistake Pike is not aggressive as some would like him to be in the portal. Many of the top schools relentless hit the portal hard without respect to deference to returning players. I know Pike brought in Jeremiah Williams but thats a guy sitting out that came with another issue. I know Pike was being too trusting of Cam and Paul but Noah was brought in as our main portal guy. A good player but not a difference maker considering what else is on the roster. J Mike is just a freshmen. Not fair to put him in spot where he needs to produce right away. Derek to me is looking like a miss in recruiting because his spot is one that needs to produce given who else Pike brought in. Mag another case of bad luck for Pike, not ready to start year but coming along. Okay a pass for that but should Pike have gone out aggressively going for another forward..remember Mag almost left RU as well for NIL. Hyatt is hot and cold yet has to be the breadwinner on a team that cannot shoot straight. Wolf is a complimentary player at best but why didnt Pike bring in a better quality guy. I mean yes some of these guys have their moments but the reality is they are simply not good enough to get a team back to the NCAA tourney.
And there is Cliff. Its beyond disappointing at this point. He cannot have just one good game vs a team with a pulse and then pull bad showing after bad showing vs top competition. I do not care what he did vs LIU nor what he does vs Stonehill because its put up or shut up time for Cliff. To give nothing offensively and to bring down no rebounds while being tossed around like a rag doll in a big game is beyond abysmal. From the time he was a senior in high school to year 4 of Cliff its always been Cliff is going to do that and Cliff is this but what exactly is Cliff. He is an undersized big with ABSOLUTELY no backup to even push him for minutes with really bad hands and appears unwilling to sacrifice his body for teams success. Perhaps being a bit too hard on him but perhaps this is Cliff's ceiling. I am beginning to think it is. If so I can accept that and move forward rather than hold onto this nothing some great awakening is going to happen with him.
Pikiell circumstances or not is struggling this year. He still has not figured out his team. Roles have not been defined. He cannot figure out if he want this team to run or play defense. He has a potential offensive talent in Griffiths that seemingly has had his growth stunted by rotation circumstances. He still has a loyalty to Derek that I cannot understand. Its painful he is reaching to Oskar for minutes to save the team. I do know that with a road trip to Ohio State and Iowa to start the 2024 season, the potential for a ugliness is high. The Stonehill game will show us absolutely nothing. If J Mike and Mag are banged up sit them. Pike should use this game as a way to do things DIFFERENTLY. The outcome will never be in doubt. I dont want to see 25 and 15 from Cliff. I want to see Gavin and J Mike and Noah doing things different. I want Wolf to play as much as possible. I want Austin to either be used or not. But the hard truth is that if walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Lipstick does not hide things. This roster has a limited ceiling and even moreso with a just returning Mag and an ineffective Cliff. Just looking at the schedule again, its hard to argue for more than 4-5 Big 10 wins. Sure this team cannot jump up and have a good night shooting and knock off an Indiana or maybe a Wisconsin at home but its hard to argue that they have the talent or the hunger to string wins together with their limited ability. Sometimes acceptance can be peaceful especially before the holidays. This year we may just have to settle for a lump of coal in our stocking. Its something unfamiliar here in the past 4 years. But that can be okay because Santa has already reserved a room for the Rutgers XMas bounty for 24-25. Visions of Sugar Plum fairies are not far off.
I was not pleased with the LIU performance despite winning by 22. It was a 7 point game deep into the 2nd half and RU went through a miserable 6 minute stretch without 2 points. Sure they rode Mag, Hyatt, and Cliff to 22 point win and Cliff had a career game but lets be honest. LIU was atrocious and RU found themselves struggling to put the ball in the basket yet again. Today would prove similar. RU went through 3 horrendous offensive stretches that totalled nearly half of the game and confirmed to me that this is not a NCAA level team. Consider RU built a nice little 20-15 lead and actually had a couple of chances to build on it but then were outscored 12-2 in a period of 7:30 minutes where Mississippi State took a 27-22 and never looked back despite RU able to crawl to 29 all at half. That was a fluke. RU had absolutely nothing coming out of the gate with just one bucket in the first four minutes being outdone 8-2. Later RU would suffer another 5 minute stretch where they were outscored 10-2 with zero fgs and Miss St all of a sudden up 49-38. RU would do little to be a threat from there and the final defecit of 10 might not reflect how badly beaten RU was today. One constant this year is scoring droughts. RU can overcome it vs LIU and vs Bryant but I warned you about tougher competition. Just like with Wake what looked like a competitive game was quickly turned into a beatdown. RU just not have the firepower nor experience nor sharpshooting skills to be able to win games like this.
With some earlier Pike teams you could count on a bit over overacheving lunch pail effort to guide them through some rough shooting patches but just not seeing it with this team. For one Missisippi State just clobbered RU on the boards 47-26 including 13-7 offensively. I know RU was a physically undersized vs Mississippi State but you have to have a certain want and hunger to overcheive on the rebounding end and unlike every other Pike squad the absence is glaring. Not saying overall the teams effort is not there but you need a special effort to overacheive and get better. Compared to even Pike's worst years at the beginning, unfortunately this team is falling below that level. The Bulldogs actually made one less basket than RU yet took 9 less shots. Their ball movement and carving up of the RU defense was a thing of beauty. They did miss some chippies too but even then the were getting some pretty clean looks. Impressed by their coach Chris Jans. This was a well coached team of studs. Jans ran circles around Pike as far as game prep for today They knew what they wanted to do and established themselves earlier as tougher while Cliff did a wallflower routine. Men vs boys, shades of the Illinois game. But stepping back, compare the two teams beyond size and experience. Miss State never wavered after RU tied it at half. Came right back at it with their aggressiveness on the offensive end and took advantage of the RU feebleness in wanting to rebound. RU cuts it to 8, no problem Jans calls timeout, they immediately nail a 3 and go on another run to take their biggest lead of 15. Smelled blood in the water and went after it. If RU was nipped by the sharks of Long Island, they had literal chunks ripped out of them by relentless Bulldogs.
But then how did Rutgers get here where its time to reset expectations just 11 games into the season. Its not one thing...its EVERYTHING. Some of it bad luck, some of it not. Make no mistake about it Pikiell was absolutely molested when it came to the portal. Burned by Cam Spencer and then later by Mulcahy and then forced to scramble for leftovers ( Austin) or worse (Palm). One can forgive Pike for getting screwed but can one? Make no mistake Pike is not aggressive as some would like him to be in the portal. Many of the top schools relentless hit the portal hard without respect to deference to returning players. I know Pike brought in Jeremiah Williams but thats a guy sitting out that came with another issue. I know Pike was being too trusting of Cam and Paul but Noah was brought in as our main portal guy. A good player but not a difference maker considering what else is on the roster. J Mike is just a freshmen. Not fair to put him in spot where he needs to produce right away. Derek to me is looking like a miss in recruiting because his spot is one that needs to produce given who else Pike brought in. Mag another case of bad luck for Pike, not ready to start year but coming along. Okay a pass for that but should Pike have gone out aggressively going for another forward..remember Mag almost left RU as well for NIL. Hyatt is hot and cold yet has to be the breadwinner on a team that cannot shoot straight. Wolf is a complimentary player at best but why didnt Pike bring in a better quality guy. I mean yes some of these guys have their moments but the reality is they are simply not good enough to get a team back to the NCAA tourney.
And there is Cliff. Its beyond disappointing at this point. He cannot have just one good game vs a team with a pulse and then pull bad showing after bad showing vs top competition. I do not care what he did vs LIU nor what he does vs Stonehill because its put up or shut up time for Cliff. To give nothing offensively and to bring down no rebounds while being tossed around like a rag doll in a big game is beyond abysmal. From the time he was a senior in high school to year 4 of Cliff its always been Cliff is going to do that and Cliff is this but what exactly is Cliff. He is an undersized big with ABSOLUTELY no backup to even push him for minutes with really bad hands and appears unwilling to sacrifice his body for teams success. Perhaps being a bit too hard on him but perhaps this is Cliff's ceiling. I am beginning to think it is. If so I can accept that and move forward rather than hold onto this nothing some great awakening is going to happen with him.
Pikiell circumstances or not is struggling this year. He still has not figured out his team. Roles have not been defined. He cannot figure out if he want this team to run or play defense. He has a potential offensive talent in Griffiths that seemingly has had his growth stunted by rotation circumstances. He still has a loyalty to Derek that I cannot understand. Its painful he is reaching to Oskar for minutes to save the team. I do know that with a road trip to Ohio State and Iowa to start the 2024 season, the potential for a ugliness is high. The Stonehill game will show us absolutely nothing. If J Mike and Mag are banged up sit them. Pike should use this game as a way to do things DIFFERENTLY. The outcome will never be in doubt. I dont want to see 25 and 15 from Cliff. I want to see Gavin and J Mike and Noah doing things different. I want Wolf to play as much as possible. I want Austin to either be used or not. But the hard truth is that if walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Lipstick does not hide things. This roster has a limited ceiling and even moreso with a just returning Mag and an ineffective Cliff. Just looking at the schedule again, its hard to argue for more than 4-5 Big 10 wins. Sure this team cannot jump up and have a good night shooting and knock off an Indiana or maybe a Wisconsin at home but its hard to argue that they have the talent or the hunger to string wins together with their limited ability. Sometimes acceptance can be peaceful especially before the holidays. This year we may just have to settle for a lump of coal in our stocking. Its something unfamiliar here in the past 4 years. But that can be okay because Santa has already reserved a room for the Rutgers XMas bounty for 24-25. Visions of Sugar Plum fairies are not far off.
