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GAME 13 Penn State: All but over

I hate writing off freshman when there is such a small sample size. This is a veteran team, no freshman besides Cliff were gonna get big minutes.

Mag looks like a really good athlete who can play D. Not sure of his offense yet.

Reiber has shown some flashes of ability.

Palmquist has played so little and is not really needed so it's hard to tell.
 
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I hate writing off freshman when there is such a small sample size. This is a veteran team, no freshman besides Cliff were gonna get big minutes.

Mag looks like a really good athlete who can play D. Not sure of his offense yet.

Reiber has shown some flashes of ability.

Palmquist has played so little and is not really needed so it's hard to tell.
This freshman class was done a great disservice with so few OOC cupcakes under their belt.
 
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I'm not a basketball expert the way many of you (most prominently @bac2therac ), but there are a few things I don't understand. First, how can a college basketball team be as bad at free-throwing as we are? To me, anyone athletic enough to be on a basketball team ought to be able to hit 60% and 70% with practice; my impression is that we're falling short of that. Second, how can we be giving up so many offensive rebounds? It seems to me that rebounding is a matter of blocking out, and since the defense is closer to the basketball, this ought to be doable. Yes, sometimes a rebound will go far out from the basket and the offense will get it, but the ball usually doesn't bounce that way. Third, how can a team be so poor in running a half-court offense? It seemed to me tonight that there is a lot of standing around, with not much movement away from the ball. Or am I being too critical?
 
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The season once promising is teetering on the brink of oblivion. 5 straight losses, 6 of the last 7 and uninspired disasterous loss to a bad Penn State team. And please save your comments that Penn State is top 50 in the NET...they are likely the 2nd worst team in the league so I want to shut down any shill talk about ooh they beat Virginia tech. If our expectations have dropped this low, then we truly have reached a new reality. This was a brutal loss and a damning indictment of this coaching staff and its decision making with its rotations and lineups and in their job in trying to push the right buttons. Quite telling some no name coach from nowhere had his team running circles around Rutgers for most of the night. Its not all on Pike. Obviously these players do not care. They did not seem to grasp the importance of this game until the last 10 minutes. You cannot just decide to play at a certain point. I have seen this trend before this season. Team would play uninspired for a stretch and then turn it on. We gave them credit for that. Ultimately we should have been worried. People wanted to give this team credit for Wisconsin..um sorry the signs were there. Its not a case of the shots will fall, I kept hearing like every blog and writer talk about oh we fixed the D and now we just have to make shots. PLEASE STOP STICKING YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND. There are SO MANY things wrong with this team its like whack a mole..one thing will look better one game and then another will be a disaster. Tonight the defense was absolutely piss poor in the first half and so was the effort.

In the first 4 years of Pikiell, we were climbing up the hill. It was a pleasure to watch. We hit the peak earlier this season at 6-0 and ranked 11 but it looks like we are on our way down. I am being objective here. The effort and strategy the past 7 games has been downright dreadful. In the aftermath of tonights loss RU is now 3-6 in league, 7-6 overall and their back is against the wall. Almost no margin of error and there are tough games ahead. RU would need a complete reversal and I am not sure they are capable of it. I give this team NO credit for a late ill fated rally tonight which seemed pretty feeble in the end. Do not forget Pikiell's brainfart of having Myles Johnson out during that key stretch where Harper and Geo got us back in striking range. On the defensive side, RU could not make one stop..not one. Cliff was abused and Myles was on the bench. Its one example of many of Pike just struggling to find the right answers. Another of which is an outright constant subbing and bizarre combinations. Less is more with this team. The Jacob Young benching is interesting and worthy of its own thread. I may actually agree with Pike here and it might be a way to get RU back to where they once were.

So right now I see a team with no hunger. They reached their pinnacle, got caught up in their plaudits and have now watched success pass them by. Just because you get there means nothing. They could not handle success and forget about all the things that got them there. Its truly a shame because its very difficult for me to do these recaps. Its always been about "getting there" and I do not think this program is working upwards anymore. I am not sure they can push the hill back up right now. Unfortunately I have lost my faith. It pains me to say this but we are in precarious position right now. RU is facing almost must win situations in their next 2 or that is it. This program will have to prove EVERYTHING to me at this point. Let's see them to do it. They certainly didnt show it tonight against the 2nd worst team in the league. Now I am being asked to show faith against much better teams. Rutgers, I am begging you to prove me wrong. Regain my faith or just become another mediocre bunch that passed through the RAC. Your move
Bac or anyone I didn’t watch this game. I expected a loss so wasn’t surprised by this. The rebound disparity is alarming. Was this the result of penn states guards blowing by our perimeter players and psu getting offensive rebounds mainly due to penetration or did we just not box out or both. Thanks
 
Just a few random points:

I amazed when watching these games lately that some of the worst decisions are being made by some of most experienced players. The bad pass turnovers particularly in the first half was just unacceptable.

There is no room in the rotation for another player at the 2-3 wing position. If Jaden Jones is better than what we have he should play but someone has to take his place on the bench and get a DNP not just reduced minutes. I bet if you ask ten posters who that should be you will not get a consensus.

Harper cannot give us what we need at of the 4 position.

Until we learn to run a more effective motion offense that makes it easier for us to get better looks we are going to be stuck watching dribble drives by guys who just are not talented enough to make things happen on a consistent basis.

We need to acknowledge that this year team does not have the grit and defensive capability/desire as the last two years. There is no getting around the fact this is softer version that can be punched in the nose.

I saw some real bad body language during the first 30 minutes last night and I thought the bench including the assistant coaches looked like they did not have a clue.

When Pike subbed the starting five out and went with Mag, Oskar, Caleb, Paul and Cliff I was initially pleased because I think he was sending a much needed message to his starters. Then I saw those guys fumble around the court for about 2 possessions and I realized this freshman class is just not ready and that include limits on what Cliff can give us.

I actually forgot Duke was on the team last night.
 
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I'm not a basketball expert the way many of you (most prominently @bac2therac ), but there are a few things I don't understand. First, how can a college basketball team be as bad at free-throwing as we are? To me, anyone athletic enough to be on a basketball team ought to be able to hit 60% and 70% with practice; my impression is that we're falling short of that. Second, how can we be giving up so many offensive rebounds? It seems to me that rebounding is a matter of blocking out, and since the defense is closer to the basketball, this ought to be doable. Yes, sometimes a rebound will go far out from the basket and the offense will get it, but the ball usually doesn't bounce that way. Third, how can a team be so poor in running a half-court offense? It seemed to me tonight that there is a lot of standing around, with not much movement away from the ball. Or am I being too critical?
You are 100% on all your points and that guy is getting 3 million a year to coach and not doing a very good job of it now
 
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You are 100% on all your points and that guy is getting 3 million a year to coach and not doing a very good job of it now

Unfortunately, every Power 5 conference has a program and fan base saying the exact same thing...paying someone market value doesn't command immediate results. Otherwise wouldn't there be different teams winning every year?

I hate to break the news to fans but RU doesn't have top end nationally ranked Top 15-20.

What's ironic about the fans believing things are all about coaching and not about the players itself, is that the same fans claiming the coaching is subpar or the recruiting is subpar, have a blind eye when it comes to football recruiting or lack thereof.
It's not overly complicated, if you don't recruit high enough talent at every position, you will get exposed and likely lose more league games than you win, or at best be 1 or 2 games above or below .500 in league play, depending on that specific season.

There's no hiding what's needed to compete at the highest level in the B1G. Coaching can only get a program to respectability. At some point, it requires high end recruiting and better coaching and can RU take that next step in both sports??
 
Unfortunately, every Power 5 conference has a program and fan base saying the exact same thing...paying someone market value doesn't command immediate results. Otherwise wouldn't there be different teams winning every year?

I hate to break the news to fans but RU doesn't have top end nationally ranked Top 15-20.

What's ironic about the fans believing things are all about coaching and not about the players itself, is that the same fans claiming the coaching is subpar or the recruiting is subpar, have a blind eye when it comes to football recruiting or lack thereof.
It's not overly complicated, if you don't recruit high enough talent at every position, you will get exposed and likely lose more league games than you win, or at best be 1 or 2 games above or below .500 in league play, depending on that specific season.

There's no hiding what's needed to compete at the highest level in the B1G. Coaching can only get a program to respectability. At some point, it requires high end recruiting and better coaching and can RU take that next step in both sports??
Agreed much of this is on Pikell and his staff for their lack of recruiting; I understand some of their player development has been very good but you can't rely on that you need to bring in top talent every year to compete in this league
 
These guys just didn't wake up a few weeks ago and forget how to play basketball

It's a team chemistry issue or issues that we are just not aware of. It has to be.

Injuries are a factor too with Geo, RHJ and Young for sure.
 
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the issue will be recruiting. Excited for Jaden but its pretty feeble right now besides. So we have Cliff and Jaden but what else.....scary actually
The problem is the team consists mostly of upper class men who are now regressing instead of getting better.This was supposed to be the season to finally break the cycle of not playing in the NCAA Tournament.Pikiell has based his tenure on player development more so than highly rated recruits.In the B1G such a strategy has to be a building block toward attracting higher level recruits.The problem right now is that the positive attention the team received early in the season is quickly disappearing.Recruiting has to be impacted in a unfavorable manner.The transfer portal has to be explored at the end of the season because the team has a dire need for consistent double digit scorers.Defense and rebounding are critical to team success because they keep you in striking distance of winning assuming the offense has a pulse.
 
the issue will be recruiting. Excited for Jaden but its pretty feeble right now besides. So we have Cliff and Jaden but what else.....scary actually
That is the problem IMO. Yes recruiting has improved every year but not enough to catch up with the rest of the BigTen. It's not like other teams are just sitting around happy to recruit a 4star recruit mixed in with a bunch of 3 stars.
 
I'm not a basketball expert the way many of you (most prominently @bac2therac ), but there are a few things I don't understand. First, how can a college basketball team be as bad at free-throwing as we are? To me, anyone athletic enough to be on a basketball team ought to be able to hit 60% and 70% with practice; my impression is that we're falling short of that. Second, how can we be giving up so many offensive rebounds? It seems to me that rebounding is a matter of blocking out, and since the defense is closer to the basketball, this ought to be doable. Yes, sometimes a rebound will go far out from the basket and the offense will get it, but the ball usually doesn't bounce that way. Third, how can a team be so poor in running a half-court offense? It seemed to me tonight that there is a lot of standing around, with not much movement away from the ball. Or am I being too critical?
All reasonable questions...
 
so the morning after, still has angry and disillusioned with the program but next man up is Indiana.....this basically their last shot at salvaging the season. Funny thing happen when you start winning its contagious and you only need one to start the ball rolling. I have seen other schools in this league left for dead and revive themselves but time is running out. Beat Indiana
 
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I have been killed for saying it but JY is a selfish, out of control player MOST of the time. The bad far out ways the good. Him and Caleb on the bench and this team jelled again. Just my two cents
Please add Harper, Geo and Mathis.
 
Next game, less Geo. He is not 100%. Total liability on D and lost his confidence on his shot. Starting five should be JY, PM, Harper, Mathis, and Johnson. Use Harper on high screens instead of Johnson. Teams are just sagging off Johnson because he is not a threat to shoot.
 
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so the morning after, still has angry and disillusioned with the program but next man up is Indiana.....this basically their last shot at salvaging the season. Funny thing happen when you start winning its contagious and you only need one to start the ball rolling. I have seen other schools in this league left for dead and revive themselves but time is running out. Beat Indiana

That's all well and good, but Indiana is riding high after beating Iowa soundly on the road last night. Of course, Iowa was just ice cold (where have we heard that before, LOL), and Indy was on fire in the 2nd half, so that game is probably an outlier.

And there's also the possibility of IU coming out flat against us after just beating the #1 team in the conference.

Finally, maybe RU can build on the last 10 minutes of the PSU game. We finally showed some life. Every game is different and has its own rhythm, but if we can just bottle the defense from the Wisky game and the energy from the last 10 minutes of the PSU game, maybe we have a shot. Indiana generally is not a good shooting team, so maybe we can beat them in a rock fight.

The season is teetering. We fell off the cliff and basically are hanging onto a branch with one hand. If we lose to IU, we will have lost our grasp and fallen into the ravine, permanently in the bottom 4 of the conference.
 
People actually thought we were coming back late in the game we actually lost the last 8 minutes.

@bac2therac pointed out we couldn’t get a stop on D - the reality of the situation is he was SPOT ON - and the reason is probably the Mulchay/Geo extended usage and Cliff.

Under 16, At 47-30 Paul hit a three it was Paul Caleb Palmquost Mag Cliff (!!!!!!). Penn St went ice cold and by under 12 it was 52-36 because the lineup had no chance to score. Then it went Paul Tez Young Ron Cliff, one minute later then Paul myles Geo Tez Ron for 9-0 run. Then that half court got shredded the last 8 minutes.
 
so the morning after, still has angry and disillusioned with the program but next man up is Indiana.....this basically their last shot at salvaging the season. Funny thing happen when you start winning its contagious and you only need one to start the ball rolling. I have seen other schools in this league left for dead and revive themselves but time is running out. Beat Indiana
I am really looking for us to compete hard and get back to Rutgers hoops....if we lose than so be it.

This by NO means is Rutgers last shot.

Finishing 9-11 probably puts us in a spot where we need to win a tournament game...wild educated guess which you probably would agree with but not with a ton of confidence, but reasonable.


Give me 2-2 next 4 games
Give me 1-2 Iowa thru Michigan
Give me 3-1 to finish

That gets us to 9-11 and a potential date with a tough opponent (because everyone is tough) in round 1 .



All this analysis is trash if we don't fix the effort. That is Job 1!!!!
 
BTW that last column is WAB (wins above bubble) . I believe we are right above 0 right now. Beat Indiana and we are .7 games above the bubble
 
Hopefully we can be like Michigan or Ohio State last year, both of which had pretty brutal stretches (OSU losing 4 straight and 6 of 7 before finishing 9-3 and Michigan losing 4 straight and 5 of 6 before finishing 8-4)

The thing that gives me the most pause is the Michigan State game.. neither of them played a game nearly as bad as that.
 
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