There I said it because until Rutgers show as a program that they are doing something different or headed somewhere different, they are Same Old Rutgers. Now Bac calm down you don't mean that you are just emotional after a horrific loss. Yes in some aspects Pike has moved the program forward beyond the stench of Rice and Jordan but the harsh reality is that in terms of wins/losses and expectations, Rutgers is still the favorite for the Big 10 basement this year. When a team follows up a huge win over a ranked team in Seton Hall with two horrific losses to low majors at home then yes the Same Old Rutgers label still applies.
Two big cliches we hear is "they would have lost this game last year"...well they actually won it last year in a dogfight...and "they will learn from this loss(Stony Brook)"...no they didnt they played exactly the same. Remember LeBonnaBing or losing back to back to Drexel and William and Mary. Well welcome to StonyHart. Two losses that certainly rival those losses and may be worse given the level of opponent. Lets stop with the Stony Brook/Hartford are pretty good talk..they were only good because RU let them be good. When you allow low majors to walk on to your home court and play them evenly and then when given a chance to put them away you allow them back in, you deserve to lose. RU deserved to lose these last two games...outplayed, outhustled, outcoached. Its as if this was just a continuation of the Stony Brook game with just a different opponent. Almost the same exact game where RU continually shot themselves in the foot, bricked shots, bricked foul shots and when you allow a low major team to stay in the game to the last few possessions, you get what you deserve.
I blame the coaches. I blame the players. These two games are inexcusable from both. To actually approach the game with the same mindset that lost you the last game is mind boggling. How..how? Thats on coaches, thats on players. You know why I absolutely hated playing all 13 conference games at home...why? because I felt the team would develop bad habits while not challenging themselves and thats exactly where we got the last two games. Those bad habits, those 5-10 minutes of poor play earlier in the season came back to haunt them. The SHU win may turn out to be a negative. This team developed an inflated ego and felt that all they had to do is step on the court. They lacked hunger, they went through the motions, they lacked purpose. Perhaps more road games or some tougher home games might have set this teams mindset on a different road. What is stunning is how bad fundamentally this team looked the past two games, it doesn't look well coached..that after looking extremely well coached the past few weeks. They cannot run a proper break, they cannot make a layup, they cannot hit foulshots, they cannot rebound, they do not move in their offensive sets. Just a breakdown from coach to players.
That last play with 14 seconds..what was that...for a team that has trouble executing, waaaaaaaay too much dribbling away from the basket...wtf was Pike calling there. It looked doom from the start. Would rather attack the hoop then fumble away and not even take a shot...poor job there but the game was lost way before that.
No I dont have a problem with Pike sitting Corey. Have to show discipline, that wasnt the first time, the team had many opportunities to win the game. Went up 27-20 and Freeman throws up a stupid 3 and from there it was a game...that after a 19-4 RU run which made it look like RU would take this one easy.
So yeah its all about negativity tonight because it should be. Save the excuses and sugarcoating. This team just suffered two back to back home losses that rival what Jordan and Hill did..that is not fake news. What does that mean? Well who knows, right now we are a bad team that cannot shoot and runs horrible offensive sets. I do know this team will lose ugly at Purdue and Michigan State and Wisconsin at home almost becomes a must win or do you really feel confident in this team overcoming a 0-5 league start. Confidence has dropped on whether this team can get to 6-12 and finish over 500. I think there is a shot but considering the program is 6-48 in league games over the past 3 years, that clearly will require the program shedding the Same Old Rutgers label. I get tired of posting that this team needs to play a full 40 minutes to win games and the small margin of error. I unfortunately didnt think it applied to the cupcake games but here we are. If they can whether the storm the next two weeks and go back to basics of hard work then maybe things will uptick again
