Every season, it's the same nonsense and overreacting and unfortunately, as a college sports fan, no one wants to understand it....
No one wants to ever say "College Basketball is like the NBA".....I know it's sacrilegious to say this, but ultimately it is true....some fans will say "no it's not, because they don't play in back to back nights (until they do in a conference tournament setting).
Some fans will say "NBA players don't care.....or they don't play defense every night......or they don't show up sometimes, so that's why I don't watch the NBA".....but you read Twitter or comments about the up and down performances of CBB (or here about RU), and think it's different??? Why, because in a college sports fans warped reality, they want to believe it???
Others will say, "the NBA areans aren't exciting or the environment is boring".....
Well, if you are equating what a drab arena, drab opponent, drab environment is like, it is playing at Penn State....
"But Hawk, they just played so well in their last 2 (or last 4) games at home, how come they don't bring that same energy on the road???"
I could overreact and say, RU has elite talent and should be 6-4 or 7-3 on the road in the B1G.....they should beat a similarly talented PSU team on the road.......and go 10-0 or 9-1 @ the RAC....that would be 15-5 or 16-4 overall.........whic even the elite teams, don't consistently go 17-3 or 16-4....or even 15-5.........they usually land at 14-6, 13 -7 over 20 games in the B1G....
So, is RU armed with an elite roster?? I would say they have 2 to 3 players who at times, can play lights out.....but part of the coverage on BTN, showed "Top 10 B1G players of the year candidates "
Trevion Williams (Purdue)
Zach Edey ( Purdue)
Jaden Ivey (Purdue)
Johnny Davis (Wisconsin)
Hunter Dickinson (Michigan)
Trace Jackson-Davis (Indiana)
EJ Liddell (OSU)
Keegan Murray (Iowa)
Kofi Cockburn (Illinois)
Gabe Brown (Sparty)
Once you get past these 10 players or unique players, there are a LARGE amount of front line players across the B1G, who can really play....so why am I bringing this up??
We have RHJ, Baker, Cliff and as of today I can argue Harper should be in the Top 10 players of the B1G.....but the league is balanced and games are tough to win.....is RHJ better than the other 10 listed?? Some days yes, but if you lack the consistently good efforts, can we place a player there and expect him to carry a roster to a 14-6 type of B1G season??
I think if most RU fans were truthful about the schedule at the start and saw Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Maryland as your 1st 6 games, what would you have expected??? Would 5-1 been likely, 4-2....or 2-4 or did I see 1-5, "because RU was going to start 0-3 in the B1G".
I don't know where this roster is going to develop into, but I never thought it was an elite Top 5 B1G roster....I think the preseason rankings had RU in a 8 to 10-11 range......
If RU had a chance to be 9-1 or 8-2 vs the B1G at home and 3-7 on the road, is that where you expected?? Or is that overachieving??
I know RU "needs road wins".....but I think the bigger picture is RU doesn't have dominant talent, yet the fans believe it should dominate and win 5 to 6 B1G road games....who actually does that???
Maybe RU isn't good enough, maybe Pike hasn't done a good job with Jaden Jones or Mag with a plan of development......and he doesn't seem to have a plan for Aundre Hyatt.....or the transfer portal....maybe this roster isn't elite??
But CBB is not "show up and roll teams on the road"......move onto Maryland folks....life on the road is ugly and not fun most nights......