Not a pretty game by any stretch. Once again another lethargic start with ice cold shooting against an awful team. Once again, Rutgers looked like a slow plodding poorly coached team with poor shot selection and bad defense. Once again Rutgers looked like anything like a Big 10 school. In the end RU pulled away and won comfortably by 15 but pretty much teamwise did the bare minimum to get by against a severely overmatched Black Bear team. However, unlike the Columbia game there are enough positives to take to feel better about this team than one would think coming off a wobbly performance like today
The future of the program is in its youth. Rutgers has some talent. Its just not developed and experienced talent. Baker and Geo are solid enough players but they are not going to be dominant players which means the only way that RU can compete and win games is through a team effort and that relies on if the freshmen step up and deliver. Unfortunately this is the issue. With little upperclass depth and no shows from Doucoure and Thiam as well as less than expected production from Kiss, Rutgers is going to look like a mess without freshmen production. And thats what you see here now. The team's offensive production has ground to a halt. The outside shooting by Baker and Kiss is brutal. There is some selfish play and a lack of working for their shot. The confidence level has tanked. So there is your first half of the game. But here come the freshmen, from about the 4 minute mark in the first half, it was freshmen that scored the last 9 points of the half that pushed RU from 25-21 down to 30-27 ahead. And when Maine had crept back in to make the score 46-42, it was back to back scores by Myles Johnson underneath that put RU back in control, later a 5 points splurge by Caleb McConnell put RU up 57-42 and it was goodnight Irene time. During that time, you also saw Eugene wake up and certainly you can infer why. With less pressure on him and more of the freshmen stepping up, we see things click and RU is off to the races playing solid team ball.
Myles Johnson....10 points, 10 boards, first double double..best game as a Knight. 6 of those boards were offensive. He just dominated the paint when he got the touches. Yes its Maine but yes he is showing confidence and progress after some disappearing acts of late.. He has to get as comfortable there as possible when the big dogs come and he provides so much more of an offensive threat than Doorson. Caleb McConnell..best game at RU and looked legit. Yes its Maine but the kid has come along incredibly since his deer in the headlights moments in the first couple of games. On a team that is ice cold from 3, his 3-7 performance was quite welcome and he has shown he is an excellent free throw shootter 5-6 now 9 of his last 10. 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 assists and only one turnover. Way to go Caleb. More comfortable not only shooting the ball,. but handling the ball and his defense continues to grow. Montez Mathis continues to progress, 7 points, 4 rebs, 3-4 at the line. Seems to be playing within himself right now and not forcing it. I know we all want more but his progression is on the proper path. Harper did struggle yet again and only hit one three out of 5. Hopefully he can be more effective as the schedule toughens.
So there has been alot of practice time of late. You wonder sometimes when you see the Columbia game and the first of the Maine game what is going on. Teamwise the team looks funky for long stretches. I do not like that Pike and staff seem to be having trouble getting this team out of the gate energized. Cannot get those efforts vs Maryland and OSU because instead of 7 point defecits, they will be 21 point defecits. So while teamwise and rotation wise the staff is struggling, I think individuallly you have to think that Myles, Caleb, Ron and Montez are really getting alot of work and attention to detail and perhaps maybe thats why as a team there seems to be a drop off. Individually I think we are in better shape so thats why I am more optimistic than you would think after a two game stretch like this against cupcakes.
Geo did not have a good game again today. He did have 9 assists but he just seems to have hit a rough patch overall of late. I have no doubt that we will see an increase in effort and energy level when Maryland rolls into town. Same for Eugene who was quiet in that first half. I expect a strong start vs Maryland and really think its a game that RU can win if they play smarter, work the ball, keep it moving and dont be lazy taking the outside shot. This team is much much better when they get the ball in the paint and even on misses, let the rebounds and second chance shots happen. I am concerned that Kiss is so wildly inconsistent. That was clearly not expected...we heard many so called insiders talk how great a shooter he was...well that is not the case, we have the data points. So until I see consistency out of him, I think his minutes might actually get reduced. Thaim..omfg no comment, there is no way in hell the staff expected nothing out of him.
So onto Maryland...winnable game IMO but will it come together for this team or are we looking at another nice try Rutgers performance ala Wisconsin or SHU
The future of the program is in its youth. Rutgers has some talent. Its just not developed and experienced talent. Baker and Geo are solid enough players but they are not going to be dominant players which means the only way that RU can compete and win games is through a team effort and that relies on if the freshmen step up and deliver. Unfortunately this is the issue. With little upperclass depth and no shows from Doucoure and Thiam as well as less than expected production from Kiss, Rutgers is going to look like a mess without freshmen production. And thats what you see here now. The team's offensive production has ground to a halt. The outside shooting by Baker and Kiss is brutal. There is some selfish play and a lack of working for their shot. The confidence level has tanked. So there is your first half of the game. But here come the freshmen, from about the 4 minute mark in the first half, it was freshmen that scored the last 9 points of the half that pushed RU from 25-21 down to 30-27 ahead. And when Maine had crept back in to make the score 46-42, it was back to back scores by Myles Johnson underneath that put RU back in control, later a 5 points splurge by Caleb McConnell put RU up 57-42 and it was goodnight Irene time. During that time, you also saw Eugene wake up and certainly you can infer why. With less pressure on him and more of the freshmen stepping up, we see things click and RU is off to the races playing solid team ball.
Myles Johnson....10 points, 10 boards, first double double..best game as a Knight. 6 of those boards were offensive. He just dominated the paint when he got the touches. Yes its Maine but yes he is showing confidence and progress after some disappearing acts of late.. He has to get as comfortable there as possible when the big dogs come and he provides so much more of an offensive threat than Doorson. Caleb McConnell..best game at RU and looked legit. Yes its Maine but the kid has come along incredibly since his deer in the headlights moments in the first couple of games. On a team that is ice cold from 3, his 3-7 performance was quite welcome and he has shown he is an excellent free throw shootter 5-6 now 9 of his last 10. 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 assists and only one turnover. Way to go Caleb. More comfortable not only shooting the ball,. but handling the ball and his defense continues to grow. Montez Mathis continues to progress, 7 points, 4 rebs, 3-4 at the line. Seems to be playing within himself right now and not forcing it. I know we all want more but his progression is on the proper path. Harper did struggle yet again and only hit one three out of 5. Hopefully he can be more effective as the schedule toughens.
So there has been alot of practice time of late. You wonder sometimes when you see the Columbia game and the first of the Maine game what is going on. Teamwise the team looks funky for long stretches. I do not like that Pike and staff seem to be having trouble getting this team out of the gate energized. Cannot get those efforts vs Maryland and OSU because instead of 7 point defecits, they will be 21 point defecits. So while teamwise and rotation wise the staff is struggling, I think individuallly you have to think that Myles, Caleb, Ron and Montez are really getting alot of work and attention to detail and perhaps maybe thats why as a team there seems to be a drop off. Individually I think we are in better shape so thats why I am more optimistic than you would think after a two game stretch like this against cupcakes.
Geo did not have a good game again today. He did have 9 assists but he just seems to have hit a rough patch overall of late. I have no doubt that we will see an increase in effort and energy level when Maryland rolls into town. Same for Eugene who was quiet in that first half. I expect a strong start vs Maryland and really think its a game that RU can win if they play smarter, work the ball, keep it moving and dont be lazy taking the outside shot. This team is much much better when they get the ball in the paint and even on misses, let the rebounds and second chance shots happen. I am concerned that Kiss is so wildly inconsistent. That was clearly not expected...we heard many so called insiders talk how great a shooter he was...well that is not the case, we have the data points. So until I see consistency out of him, I think his minutes might actually get reduced. Thaim..omfg no comment, there is no way in hell the staff expected nothing out of him.
So onto Maryland...winnable game IMO but will it come together for this team or are we looking at another nice try Rutgers performance ala Wisconsin or SHU
