Well that was not pleasant. Unfortunately , this game was played like an early Pike game like year 2-3 . After a terrific start , the Pike sub at the 14:57 mark up 8 removing Mag, Cliff and Paul and the bench didn’t have it as Aundre and Dean and Derek just have minute after minute of a bad sequence. Aundre cannot shoot 0-7 if he is going to get us over the top. Dean’s defense was non existent and Derek did freshman things.
Before the game , I was saying the only way in my opinion MSU could beat us if we are playing our normal game was for them to hit 3’s. They average 7 a game and had 5 at the half and 7 within a minute or two into the second half. They were not going to beat us in the paint but for some reason we decided to leave guys wide open and not contest. All 7 threes were wide open. Totally inexcusable . Giving up 12 was a recipe for disaster even as terrible as we were shooting today. I really did not understand the defense which was scrambling into rotations all night. Did not know why. Only had to stay in front of our man and if beat allow them to take contested 2’s in the lane over our length. That was not the game plan and we got burnt.
Now we are not going to win many games being outscored 12-3 from 3 point land( 36-9), not when Cam shoots 3-14 and 1-12 until the 2 last meaningless buckets and Aundre shoots 0-7. Most of Cam’s shots were wide open making it more frustrating . I thought Pike was going to ride the starters as the game was still there for the taking, but the bench was not able to give us much of anything. But once again a key uncontested layup Miss by Hyatt that would have tied the game at 43 , was followed by Paul throwing it right to his defender leading to run out flush to make it 45-41 . Huge sequence. Would have put the pressure on Michigan State with 12:50 to go in the game. Instead Ru calls a timeout , Cam and Cliff miss easy shots and we could not recover. It is beyond belief that Hyatt has missed 3 critical layups this year , at Miami and SetonHall both late in the game and more impactful and can be argued cost us those games , whereas this one was with 12 minutes left . However , it would have been psychologically important to get the game tied since we were chasing that since we were down 6 at the half.
Now if we continued to play scrambling , overplaying defense instead of just keeping them in front of us and not leaving their guys all alone , it wouldn’t have mattered but damn I would have liked to have been tied and taken my chances.
Rotations tonight did not work in first half with Mag, Cliff and Paul being subbed out and would have not done it again in second half. Maybe not 3 at the same time , maybe just one at a time a few minutes apart . Doing the same thing that didn’t work in first half and hoping something different would happen in second half when no one was seeing any success or advantage with the subs can be argued either way.
Tough shooting night , yes , disappointing and move on and do not dwell on this loss when we shoot as bad as possible but this was a pre winning Rutgers display like from the 2017 - 2018 Pike teams which was the most upsetting part of the night. Our seniors Paul and Caleb have to do a better job when shots don’t fall to remind the team what it took to get to be a winning team and they both failed miserably. They have to move the ball better , cut to the basket and play more inside out to get out of the funk. We cannot be leaving guys wide open. I think all 12 made threes were open or wide open. That cannot happen again.
Before the game , I was saying the only way in my opinion MSU could beat us if we are playing our normal game was for them to hit 3’s. They average 7 a game and had 5 at the half and 7 within a minute or two into the second half. They were not going to beat us in the paint but for some reason we decided to leave guys wide open and not contest. All 7 threes were wide open. Totally inexcusable . Giving up 12 was a recipe for disaster even as terrible as we were shooting today. I really did not understand the defense which was scrambling into rotations all night. Did not know why. Only had to stay in front of our man and if beat allow them to take contested 2’s in the lane over our length. That was not the game plan and we got burnt.
Now we are not going to win many games being outscored 12-3 from 3 point land( 36-9), not when Cam shoots 3-14 and 1-12 until the 2 last meaningless buckets and Aundre shoots 0-7. Most of Cam’s shots were wide open making it more frustrating . I thought Pike was going to ride the starters as the game was still there for the taking, but the bench was not able to give us much of anything. But once again a key uncontested layup Miss by Hyatt that would have tied the game at 43 , was followed by Paul throwing it right to his defender leading to run out flush to make it 45-41 . Huge sequence. Would have put the pressure on Michigan State with 12:50 to go in the game. Instead Ru calls a timeout , Cam and Cliff miss easy shots and we could not recover. It is beyond belief that Hyatt has missed 3 critical layups this year , at Miami and SetonHall both late in the game and more impactful and can be argued cost us those games , whereas this one was with 12 minutes left . However , it would have been psychologically important to get the game tied since we were chasing that since we were down 6 at the half.
Now if we continued to play scrambling , overplaying defense instead of just keeping them in front of us and not leaving their guys all alone , it wouldn’t have mattered but damn I would have liked to have been tied and taken my chances.
Rotations tonight did not work in first half with Mag, Cliff and Paul being subbed out and would have not done it again in second half. Maybe not 3 at the same time , maybe just one at a time a few minutes apart . Doing the same thing that didn’t work in first half and hoping something different would happen in second half when no one was seeing any success or advantage with the subs can be argued either way.
Tough shooting night , yes , disappointing and move on and do not dwell on this loss when we shoot as bad as possible but this was a pre winning Rutgers display like from the 2017 - 2018 Pike teams which was the most upsetting part of the night. Our seniors Paul and Caleb have to do a better job when shots don’t fall to remind the team what it took to get to be a winning team and they both failed miserably. They have to move the ball better , cut to the basket and play more inside out to get out of the funk. We cannot be leaving guys wide open. I think all 12 made threes were open or wide open. That cannot happen again.
