Game 2 Thoughts: Central Connecticut St

[bac2therac]

Well that was not expected. It was an awful funless game to watch. Uninspired play from the opening tip right on to the final buzzer. Just a brief flurry of solid play for a few minutes that gave RU seperation...and that is not how it should be.

Now first let's not hit the panic button. A win is a win. Every school has games like these where they play down to a level of an inferior opponent (Hartford last year) and then bounce back as the season goes on with much improved play. So yes we cannot overanalzye this game, but lets start...

Last year RU beat this same team 79-37...well not totally the same...this year CCSU has Tyler Kohl a junior college transfer who was easily the best player on the court today....easily....8-18 fg, 4-8 from 3, 8 rebounds, 22 points who cares about the 8 TOs. Still RU had an experienced bunch and to me the biggest disappointment today was Corey Sanders. Lets just say I do not think he is a NBA player....4-15 today just 9 points, 0-4 from 3, 1-3 on ft, alot of forced bad shots. You would think as a junior Corey would not only be the best guy on the court but he would be a calming force for the team. I did not see that today. I did not see alot of leadership and focus from anyone other than Williams and Omuryai who were the only players that got a positive score from me today. In fact Eugene was a very pleasant surprise for me. He really stepped up his game and seemed to be the one guy that CCSU had trouble with....13 points, 7 boards, 6-12 shooting...big big game from him and this is the kind of performance or x factor RU is going to need in the big time so it was encouraging to see as he has struggled with any consistency in his career. Mike was instant offense and provided a spark to a sluggish team hitting back to back 3s. If he did not play today, RU would have lost. A game high 23 points, 5-10 shooting and a sparkling 10-12 at the line...thats how a senior leads. Unfortunately we didnt it see it from the other upperclassmen.

Lets not sugarcoat it, CCSU isnt a good team. Yes Kohl has a great day shooting and perhaps RU was not ready but RU clearly took this team lightly not only in the approach to the game but several times during the game. After the initial CCSU run and then RU seemed to take control, everytime it looked like RU was going to pull away it quickly let them back in...the worst being in the last 4:42 where RU made only one basket....RU lead 65-50 with 3:57...how on earth could this game go to the wire....CCSU went on a 11-0 run to cut the gap to 65-61 with 22 seconds left. There was a total meltdown of focus and not much leadership on the court. RU was doing alley oops, not running clock taking quick shots and then when they did run clock they were not running their offense just chucking a desperation 3 (Sanders). So yeah that ending was pretty embarrassing. This was CCSU not Michigan State.

So what I will be watching going forward is...

1. back to focus/intensity on defense..totally lacking today especially the first half
2. leadership roles on the team...lacking today save for Mike Williams
3. are Doucoure and Baker ready on this level...the former wasnt today, the latter struggled but I will say major kudos for hitting those 4 fts. Need to get them more comfortable playing and not forcing things.
4. meshing lineup and substitution patterns...need to get the right combo of guys out there if some are not performing. Sanders playing 34 minutes so early in the season against a supposed cupcake is a bit interesting to me.
5. more consistency out of Thiam who was so so today and Eugene O who was very good today
6. trying to deal with loss of Nigel/CJ....alot on the board thought it wasnt going to be an issue but back to point 3...its going to take time and it may take a lot of time
7. major concern with the 3 point shooting....6-32 against horrible competition..take Mike Williams out and its just 3-27....HUGE HUGE concern for later in the year with such an inexperienced 5 position

 

[winfield102]

How many 17 footers did we attempt with plenty of time on the clock? Why?

I thought I was watching a JV girls game with some of our bricked attempts.

While Geo was off again, I like what i see. The shots will start falling for him. Big fan of Williams.

 

[RU-ROCS]

I’m not too worried yet. Flat performances happen often this time of year. I would note that IMHO, Freeman was worse than Corey today, after playing very well v. SJU and CCNY. Freeman forced multiple shots while tripled team by CCS’s zone in the first half. It was hard to watch.

 

[KnightDC]

My biggest concerns from what i saw today (not in order):

1) awful shot selection
2) missed shots when shot selection was good
3) lack of dribble penetration
4) lack of defensive intensity (lazy close outs)
5) sloppy play in end game situations - alley oop WTF?? (freshman!)

Lots of film for Pike and staff to work with though.

 

[goru7]

Agreed with almost everyone that was there today. One very flat performance. It started early with the lack of tough man to man defense and a Sunday lethargy that seemed like the team was out late last night.
If we are going to be successful this year Deshawn has to have a good to great game and unfortunately he did not today. We also need Corey to be a stud and tonight he was way off, tried to force too much and was too out of control. But make no mistake unless Corey and Deshawn bring it every night in conference we do not have a chance.
Our heart and soul and most valuable player, offense, defense, three point shooting, rebounding, guarding the other team's best player is Mike Williams. He was fantastic today as a senior should be. It looked like he tweaked his knee near the end of the game and I hope it was nothing serious. Mike has to start.
Coach starting Geo seems to be putting too much pressure on him. But my first glimpse is that Geo will be a real good player for us on the banks. Even though his three point shot was off, with 2 of them literally rimming in and out, his court awareness, 4 assists, rebounding and playing tough defense will make him an impact freshman . Coming off the bench can ease him into the game with less pressure. His shot will fall soon.
The major area of concern is that if Deshawn is not giving us low post points, the combination of Doucore, Shaq, and Sa do not look like offensive threats . They will have to crash the offensive glass and get their points that way. Like Eugene did today. He brought some terrific energy and has to continue to be around the glass to get his points.
They played intense defense for 3 minutes from the 645 mark to the under 4 timeout at 357 and the lead went from 1 to 15. The rest of the night was a disaster defensively.
But Coach can get the win and still step on them tomorrow in practice to get things corrected. We have an outstanding coach that will figure it out and still too early to figure out what type of team we will be. Be disappointed in the effort but happy with the win and correct things . We will be okay.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

If people weren't high on Pikiell everyone would be saying this looked like a poorly coached team.

This team outperforms if we win close games. This game was frightening in the end. That more than anything should sound an alarm.

 

[Unionst]

CJ/Nigel seem to be substantial losses. I do not see Geo substituting for Johnson's scoring. I think he has a chance to be very good in 2 years after he rebuilds his jumper. His shot has almost no rotation. There are no good jump shooters who lack backspin on their shots. Once (if) he fixes that he will be quite good. If not, he won't be.

That Souf was given a scholarship on a team that desperately needed shooters is a complete mystery to me. Other teams will have no need to cover the possibility he will shoot a jumper. Dadika might be the better choice as 4th guard.

Corey seemed to completely lack confidence in his outside shot today. One of them looked a bit like a set shot. He still can create a shot when the clock runs down though and we're going to need that.

 

[hoochie302]

Could be worse.....Indiana got pummeled by 21 in their home opener by Indiana State.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Some very good observations here . Glad to see it as opposed to the silliness of attacking individual players for every mistake that is seen in the Game Thread.


There was definitely a lack of defensive intensity, but, the good thing is, Coach Pikiell and staff will get that fixed. Also need to get more aggressive on the offensive glass because shooting percentage may be just about the same as last year

I agree, the shot selection was bad and I think it all comes back to Pikeill's concern about the lack of ball and player movement on offense. When a team does not have superior shooters or great dribble penetration by individual players, you must have superior ball and player movement to help generate easier and less contested shots. You must make that extra pass or passes to get better shots. It's a mindset that you have to constantly reinforce in the players. When one or more guys starts doing it, it becomes contagious and then you have a team really playing team basketball.

Af far as shooters...this team needs Thiam, Baker to make outside shots, Sanders to a lesser extent but he still needs to hit some.. It looks like Williams cemented his role as the top shooter... 40% from 3 would be great for this team this year. Freeman, needs to make that 15 footer.

I think Baker will come around soon on hitting from 3 point land. It's not uncommon for true freshmen to get off to a slow start on shooting 3's.

Really need Thiam on 3's....35-40% would be a godsend.

 

[BillyC80]

Corey and Geo will be a key backcourt tandem for us this year. Unfortunately both had a rough shooting night, a combined 5-22 including 0-7 from the arc. They will have better nights.

 

[scarletrat]

How much of this is what we tend to see with teams in the very early going, which is struggling with low major teams? Maybe give the team credit for winning a game that perhaps in past years we would have lost.

 

[PSUPOWER]

Corey and Geo will be a key backcourt tandem for us this year. Unfortunately both had a rough shooting night, a combined 5-22 including 0-7 from the arc. They will have better nights.

Did Doucoure play at all in the 2nd half ?

 

[bac2therac]

How much of this is what we tend to see with teams in the very early going, which is struggling with low major teams? Maybe give the team credit for winning a game that perhaps in past years we would have lost.

I think that is partially true and I would not be worried unless they play another nailbiter vs Cleveland State..but then again RU beat this team 79-37 last year.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Few thoughts

1. Sa was pretty good. If he works hard in practice I think he will be our starting center
2. Duocore defense was pretty bad
3. Every time Souf came in the game Ct Ct went zone.
4. Lateral foot speed not a strength for Issa. He has to become a 40% 3 point shooter right now to be a guy who can help win
5. I'm OK with Corey's game today. However him not addressing perimeter shooting kills him as a player and destroys '17-'18 Rutgers
6. Please hit Eugene on the high post against zone
7. Mike Williams not healthy, but won us the game. He is the man and is the face of the program
8. Freeman was brutal at times defensively
9. Over the next 4 games Baker has to start asserting himself offensively. I hope he can shoot. If not......................
10. Maybe we played poorly because our guys wear bras
11. Decision making in the end game give us little confidence that all those close losses from last year flip our way

 

[BigEastPhil]

A few notes from my end:

- Big time kudos to Mike Williams and to Eugene O for terrific games. Mike was outstanding hustling all over the court and was just as tenacious on the defensive side as he was offensively. He held nothing back and was conversing with friends / relatives as well in the crowd.
- Eugene had a very strong game on both ends of the game as well.
- I thought we should have went inside more / drove to the paint as it appeared we were settling for outside shots. And as they say "when your outside shot is not going down - go inside; get fouled etc.
- Coach was not happy with the lack of desire on the defensive side of the ball.
- Geo is very solid; a big time addition and it'll only be a matter of time until his shot goes down. He was cool as a cucumber hitting those last 4 FT's.
- I expect Corey and Freeman to rebound with strong games on Tuesday Night. Good players rebound quickly.
- Last 4 minutes of game were painful as we played terrible clock management and 2 very poor decisions in the last minute with the alley oop, etc.
- Team played too lackadasical expecting an easy win and I expect a much better effort on Tuesday.


-

 

[MadRU]

I watched Geo shooting pregame and he has better rotation, but during the game his shot comes off flat with little rotation, could be jitters. Hopefully the 4 foul shots at the end give him confidence, we need him and Issa to join Mike to be our outside shooters.

The paint was packed in. It seemed like every time Corey went to drive he had a few defenders to deal with. Beating his man wasn't enough. He has to do a better job in reading this. I will not comment on Freeman, my yelling during the game was enough. And the Geo ally-oop has been commented on already.

Positives, much better foul shooting, helps when you get the right players to the line.

Hopeful for a good bounce back game on Tuesday. Writing this one off as we are 2-0.

 

[RocktheRac]

Good to see Baker hit those 4 FT at the end.

 

[SirScarlet]

If people weren't high on Pikiell everyone would be saying this looked like a poorly coached team.

This team outperforms if we win close games. This game was frightening in the end. That more than anything should sound an alarm.

What alarm exactly?

 

[80RU]

Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought Mike Williams was way off of his usual defensive game. He had a lot of trouble keeping #1 front of him, and he was not one of those Saint John’s type quick little guards. I am guessing that while it did not affect his offense, the injury was still affecting his lateral movement on defense.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Baker will be fine. He’s a 3 star guard starting a season opener on a B1G team. I expect him to be very solid in a couple of years. His shot does seem to have a funky spin to spin to it. He seems to be a very good passer and plays very smart for a freshman.

I expected Doucoure to be a project offensively, but I didn’t expect his D to be so weak. He has a bright future, however. Doorson is Doorson. He’ll eat up space and give you five fouls in the B1G games.

So far, I see no difference in Sanders.

I’ve always liked Eugene and I like him more now. He’s and under-the-radar type player who doesn’t have a special skill but is a ball player who does all the dirty work.

I really like what I saw from Williams. It’s like the “senior-switch” clicked on and he stepped up.

Freeman was a mess yesterday but he’s better than that. I got the feeling that he felt he should score more when we play smaller teams and he was forcing everything.

Mensah is a situational player to spell our guards. We can insert him whenever we want the other team to switch to zone...just kidding, but he has to be used carefully. I’m not as down on him as others on here are.

We will struggle in the B1G because of our inability to shoot and our big men. Not really a surprise.

 

[BillyC80]

Mike may have been a half-step slower laterally due to his recent knee injury which tells me he was playing through a little pain.

Makes me only admire him more, because his effort on both ends of the floor was unmatched by other players on either team.

He's a spark that is the ideal 6th man who plays starters minutes.

 

[higgins3]

If Williams was playing through pain, that was a poor communication issue on him and Coach. Sorry, but he should have been given more time. If you were at the game he got injured, you would agree.

He is not needed for these games. I don't care if Rutgers loses yesterday. The BIG ten is most important.

Sanders played poorly against the lesser opponents last year, and stepped it up in big ten play. I suspect the same.

 

[BillyC80]

It's a question of pain level. Obviously Mike was good to go and did not hold back.

 

[TobyTyler1]

Few thoughts

1. Sa was pretty good. If he works hard in practice I think he will be our starting center
2. Duocore defense was pretty bad
3. Every time Souf came in the game Ct Ct went zone.
4. Lateral foot speed not a strength for Issa. He has to become a 40% 3 point shooter right now to be a guy who can help win
5. I'm OK with Corey's game today. However him not addressing perimeter shooting kills him as a player and destroys '17-'18 Rutgers
6. Please hit Eugene on the high post against zone
7. Mike Williams not healthy, but won us the game. He is the man and is the face of the program
8. Freeman was brutal at times defensively
9. Over the next 4 games Baker has to start asserting himself offensively. I hope he can shoot. If not......................
10. Maybe we played poorly because our guys wear bras
11. Decision making in the end game give us little confidence that all those close losses from last year flip our way

I'm torn on Sa..sometimes I think why isn't he on the court more , but his hands are rough, even basic catch and dunk becomes an adventure sometimes

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

I'm torn on Sa..sometimes I think why isn't he on the court more , but his hands are rough, even basic catch and dunk becomes an adventure sometimes

Sa would be better if he was more assertive with the ball...just get it and go up quickly. But...this more be his physical limitation. He just does not appear to be explosive enough..not a fast jumper to advantage of his height.

That uncontested and missed layup at the end of the game should have been a dunk...he is 6'10.

 

[knights1212]

I think we threw 4 lobs yesterday and all failed. Why are we trying to force this? In the last 2 minutes on one possession we shot within 7 seconds when we should have been using the clock. We do need a little more scoring from our centers. Doucoure had 2 foul shots and Sa had one field goal for a total of only 4 points between them. We really need at least about 8-10 between our centers if we want to compete in the BIG. Every team is probably planning to zone us unless we start hitting some outside shots. I think Geo and Issa can help here and hopefully can start tomorrow night.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Sa was a lot more active than Doorson and Duocore. At this stage offense is out of the equation.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Sa would be better if he was more assertive with the ball...just get it and go up quickly. But...this more be his physical limitation. He just does not appear to be explosive enough..not a fast jumper to advantage of his height.

That uncontested and missed layup at the end of the game should have been a dunk...he is 6'10.

Careful of what you wish for. Sometimes Sa' thinks he is Steph or Dale Curry. Compared to some of our guards he may be.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I watched Geo shooting pregame and he has better rotation, but during the game his shot comes off flat with little rotation, could be jitters. Hopefully the 4 foul shots at the end give him confidence, we need him and Issa to join Mike to be our outside shooters.

interesting observation..in games so far i think you are right.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Sa was a lot more active than Doorson and Duocore. At this stage offense is out of the equation.

I think we need to the 3 Centers to really focus on offensive rebounds and put backs...they are not going to be low post threats like Gettys.

Defense and rebounding is what we need from them...they need to make the put backs.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Exactly. having concerns that we can't have 40 minutes of them on the floor.

 

[RUBigFrank]

Team did not mesh very well yesterday.

Mike W and Eugene were great!

 

[RU-ROCS]

One of the most disappointing things for me was it seemed as if RU had never seen a zone before in the first half. They had no idea how to attack it.

 

[jellyman]

A lot of good comments in this thread, so I will add my own (hopefully considered good also). Some comments will, no doubt, duplicate others. Other comments will respond to thoughts in this thread.

Team:

1) The defensive effort was awful. especially in the 1st half, and the last 4 minutes. Several times during the game I commented to people around me that Pikiell is going to go ballistic on the team this week. There was no excuse for letting CCSU shoot 50% in the 1st half ... there were just SO many uncontested shots ... and there were WAY too many lay-ups allowed. The help and rotation defense was particularly poor. Though no RU players were particularly good rotating defensively in this game, the players who were least awful in rotation were Sa and Omoruyi. The players who were best at on-ball defense in this game were Williams (duh!) and Baker. As one illustration of the poor rotation and communication, late in the 2nd half Williams was guarding #1 (Kohl) on the wing, and overplayed him to the right. Kohl drove to the baseline and got an uncontested lay-up ... Freeman was extremely late getting there. Williams pulled Freeman aside, and it was crystal clear Williams expected help, but that the help never got there.

2) Still too many turnovers, though turnovers felt worse than the absolute numbers ... though the primary culprit was Freeman forcing things in this game (4 of RU's 12 turnovers). Baker had 3 turnovers, buit the agredious one was late in the game on a 2 on 1 fast break where he both kept the ball too long, and then tried the dramatic and TOUGH alley-oop play to Freeman ... had he delivered the simple play, a simple bounce pass 1 or even 2 dribbles earlier, Freeman has the easy dunk.

3) Rebounding: Though RU ended up with 17 offensive rebounds, and out-rebounded CCSU 42 to 34, RU should have been better, frankly. CCSU did do a nice job boxing out, but rebounding is effort, and frankly, 6 of the offensive rebounds were on 2 possessions - the 1st or 2nd possession of the game, and a possession during RU's run in the 2nd half.

4) FG Shooting: Still 3-point shooting issues, it appears. RU was 1-10 outside of Mike Williams. Sanders was very hesitant on the 3-point attempts. As Eli Wallach said in the "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," ... "When you have to shoot, shoot ... don't talk." If Sanders is going to take the 3, he should take it in the flow, without hesitation ... or he should not shoot the 3. Baker had 2 3's roll in ... and out. Thiam was 1-3, but it was nice to see the last one go in. Thiam shooting even 33% from 3 would help the team a lot. I hope Baker can start to hit, and shoot at least 30% for the season. By the way, Omoruyi, while his shooting is still a work in progress, was able to finish better in this game than in any game last season - and did hit some 4-5 foot shots, which he could not do for his life last year.

5) FT Shooting: Some good things here, frankly. Williams, obviously. Freeman DID hit 3 of his 4 FT's - and his form looks better. Baker hit 4 straight down the stretch. And Doucore ... I like his form on FT's ... he is a work in progress, but looks like he can hit FT's (now 4-4 on the season). Sanders, however, missing 2 badly, before making 1.

6) Offensive Flow: Okay, frankly, but DOES need a little work. Baker and Mensah play more PG during most possessions than does Sanders, with Sanders taking the PG role with under 10 seconds left on the clock. After 2 games it looks to me like BAKER is the best passer on the team, and helps create the best offensive flow, followed by Mensah. Sanders still IS the best at creating his own shot, of course. In THIS game, when the ball went into Freeman in the post, it disappeared, and offensive flow stopped. This is just 1 game, though.

7) Replacing Nigel Johnson and Gettys: Several posters in this thread have said this has been tough. I am not convinced. I thought Doucore, Doorson and Sa were okay as a combo ... yes, both Doucore and Doorson were slow in their defensive rotations in this game ... but there were times last season when Gettys was also slow in rotation, partly because he was ... well ... slow. Obviously, the post players have work to do to improve, but they WILL improve. Hopefully they will improve fast enopugh. As for Johnson ... Baker is not the instant scorer that Johnson could be. But he is also much taller, a much better passer, and the offense flows better with Baker than it ever did with Johnson. Defense? Johnson sometimes played well defensively, but often was pulled because of lackadaisical defense. Baker needs to present better lateral defense ... it is probably positioning, not athleticism, since he seems athletic enough. If Baker hits 30% of his 3's this year, by the end of the year, RU will not miss Johnson.

Players:

Williams: With all due respect to Bac, Kohl was not the best player on the court last night, Williams was. Williams was terrific. And frankly, his defense was really good also - he played very tough defense (so I disagree with the single poster who thought Williams' defense was off). Plus, Williams intensity was really high. The pre-game huddle was led by Williams. Williams is the clear leader of this team. What else can you say? By the way, as I kept score I counted Williams getting 5 rebounds - he was only credited with 3, officially. He also had 4 steals, 2 assists and 1 turnover.

Omoruyi: He was excellent. After the CCNY game I stated I saw no improvement from Omoruyi versus last year. This game I saw VAST improvement. This was one of his best performances as an RU player. Most importantly, he hit some of those 4-6 footers that he ALWAYS missed last season. He gets a lot of those types of shots, so his ability to hit those FG's are very important. And he played over Freeman at a number of chunks in this game because he was playing better defense than was Freeman. He had 13 points, 7 reb and 2 blocks ... and 1 taken charge on defensive rotation.

Rest of Players:

Sanders: A relatively poor game, but not the worst game of RU starters (see Freeman). As a positive, he did not turn the ball over. On the other hand, he also forced some shots, and played only okay defense (not awful defense, but only okay). He was, unfortunately, 0-4 from 3, and just 1-3 from the FT line - including missing the front end of a 1 and 1. He will absolutely have better games ... hopefully when RU needs them.

Freeman: One of his worst games as an RU player. Not only did he play quite lackadaisical defense, but he also muffed 2 alley-oop plays. Maybe those alley-oops were not great passes, but it looked like he did not get up as high as he often does - is he dinged? He also forced way too much action - 4 turnovers were the result. But he also missed 4-5 easy inside shots, plus 2 open jump shots. I will say that he was often hammered as he shot, and should have gotten FT's ... but ... he was forcing things. But it was his defense that was so bad. He was slow to both rotate to help, AND slow to get out on the CCSU players he was defending on the perimeter.

Baker: Other than his 3-point shooting, I like what I see, though he does have to get a little better with his on-ball defense. He did have 4 steals, 2 or 3 on help defense, playing centerfield, or helping on the drive. He is the primary PG, by the way, for whatever that is worth ... until the last 10 seconds of the shot clock, when Sanders takes the ball. I think Baker is the best passer on the team (this despite his poor decision cited above to throw the alley-oop, not the bounce pass). And it looks like he can hit FT's. He is going to be very solid for RU this year, in my opinion, and maybe very good (better than solid) for his career.

Thiam: Much improved. Yes, he only scored 5 points, and yes he needs to keep improving his defensive lateral movement and positioning.. But you can see how much more confidence he has overall, and how he is willing to try more than just a 3 point shot (he had another driving move toward s the basket). But he also added 4 rebounds and did not turn the ball over. It may not happen at all, or only a few games, this season, but I believe Thiam might end up a real impact player for RU. He is clearly improved, clearly stronger, and clearly more confident ... all good for RU.

Doucore: Man, he just oozes potential, in my opinion. He DOES have work to do with his defensive positioning - hence his few minutes so far. He is also raw offensively as well as defensively. BUT ... he got 4 rebounds in just 8 minutes of play, and I like his FT form - he is 4-4 in the 1st 2 games. And you can see his body and athleticism are very good. He will be inconsistent, and often invisible, this year. But you will also see some good play, and he has a chance to be very good over 4 years with RU.

Sa: He was the best center in this game. He gave very good energy, was very active, and after being not great defensively in the 1st half (like every RU player other than Williams), was much better in the 2nd half. He was also active on the boards, and around the basket offensively. He did get 6 rebounds, and was 1-2 FG - though he seemed to have even a greater positive impact than that. I would give him, Williams and Omoruyi positive grades for the game ... Baker neutral ... all other negative.

Mensah: I thought Mensah was ... okay. Not great, but fine. He is going to get 8-10 minutes a game as RU's 4th guard - and is better than Dadika (a post in this thread thought Dadika provided more - no). His defense was fine in this game, I thought - especially in the 1st half, when he first came in and provided an intensity lift for the team, along with Williams. BUT ... he drove me nuts with his positioning in RU's half court offense ... for much of the game he set up 3-4 feet behind the 3-point line, where he is absolutely no threat ... therefore a waste of space. Other times he was wide open at the 3-point line, but ignored ... and did not shoot (probably does not have the range). This is a problem. He was better in the 2nd half. But he gave me apoplexy on one play: He made a GREAT move to get into the lane against the zone and was WIDE open, with no defender anywhere near him, in the middle of the lane 8 feet from the basket .. and instead of taking that WIDE OPEN 8 footer, he passed to the wing to a slightly covered Williams (or Baker), who then missed the tougher shot - which had to be taken, since the shot clock was winding down.

Doorson: Not much impact, decent effort, but slow to rotate defensively. Mainly a big body. May be still working into basketball shape.

Obviously, this was an overall poor performance for RU. I expect Pikiell to light a fire under the team ... which may not be a bad thing. And though RU does need to improve its defense, rebounding and 3-point shooting, I suspect RU will do so in a number of games. Way too early to either panic - or to assume the improvement we all want.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Careful of what you wish for. Sometimes Sa' thinks he is Steph or Dale Curry. Compared to some of our guards he may be.

On no...You are correct, no one wants to see Sa taking 15 footers or 3's....his assertiveness needs to confined to the paint.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Great job Jelly. I saw the same things with Freeman defensively.

I am an a emotional fan so I am almost in panic mode.

Although it comes out anti-Mensah (and probably is) I'd like to see some Baker without Mensah and Sanders on the court. I'm intrigued over the next 3-4 games seeing a potential 4 minutes (around 12 minute mark) with baker, williams, thiam, eugene, sa. You wouldn't see zone and I'd like to think the offensive sets would be run and we'd get good look (talking OOC)

 

[RUJMM78]

I fully expect more opponents to play zone against Rutgers.Freeman was having a hard time with his spin moves around the basket and the centers weren't finishing shots around the basket.Outside shooting will be a problem all year unless Baker and Thiam find their stroke.

Hopefully this game will be a learning experience for the team .Big shout out to Williams for playing with pain and still showing his outstanding grit along with 23 points.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

A lot of good comments in this thread, so I will add my own (hopefully considered good also). Some comments will, no doubt, duplicate others. Other comments will respond to thoughts in this thread.

Team:

1) The defensive effort was awful. especially in the 1st half, and the last 4 minutes. Several times during the game I commented to people around me that Pikiell is going to go ballistic on the team this week. There was no excuse for letting CCSU shoot 50% in the 1st half ... there were just SO many uncontested shots ... and there were WAY too many lay-ups allowed. The help and rotation defense was particularly poor. Though no RU players were particularly good rotating defensively in this game, the players who were least awful in rotation were Sa and Omoruyi. The players who were best at on-ball defense in this game were Williams (duh!) and Baker. As one illustration of the poor rotation and communication, late in the 2nd half Williams was guarding #1 (Kohl) on the wing, and overplayed him to the right. Kohl drove to the baseline and got an uncontested lay-up ... Freeman was extremely late getting there. Williams pulled Freeman aside, and it was crystal clear Williams expected help, but that the help never got there.

2) Still too many turnovers, though turnovers felt worse than the absolute numbers ... though the primary culprit was Freeman forcing things in this game (4 of RU's 12 turnovers). Baker had 3 turnovers, buit the agredious one was late in the game on a 2 on 1 fast break where he both kept the ball too long, and then tried the dramatic and TOUGH alley-oop play to Freeman ... had he delivered the simple play, a simple bounce pass 1 or even 2 dribbles earlier, Freeman has the easy dunk.

3) Rebounding: Though RU ended up with 17 offensive rebounds, and out-rebounded CCSU 42 to 34, RU should have been better, frankly. CCSU did do a nice job boxing out, but rebounding is effort, and frankly, 6 of the offensive rebounds were on 2 possessions - the 1st or 2nd possession of the game, and a possession during RU's run in the 2nd half.

4) FG Shooting: Still 3-point shooting issues, it appears. RU was 1-10 outside of Mike Williams. Sanders was very hesitant on the 3-point attempts. As Eli Wallach said in the "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," ... "When you have to shoot, shoot ... don't talk." If Sanders is going to take the 3, he should take it in the flow, without hesitation ... or he should not shoot the 3. Baker had 2 3's roll in ... and out. Thiam was 1-3, but it was nice to see the last one go in. Thiam shooting even 33% from 3 would help the team a lot. I hope Baker can start to hit, and shoot at least 30% for the season. By the way, Omoruyi, while his shooting is still a work in progress, was able to finish better in this game than in any game last season - and did hit some 4-5 foot shots, which he could not do for his life last year.

5) FT Shooting: Some good things here, frankly. Williams, obviously. Freeman DID hit 3 of his 4 FT's - and his form looks better. Baker hit 4 straight down the stretch. And Doucore ... I like his form on FT's ... he is a work in progress, but looks like he can hit FT's (now 4-4 on the season). Sanders, however, missing 2 badly, before making 1.

6) Offensive Flow: Okay, frankly, but DOES need a little work. Baker and Mensah play more PG during most possessions than does Sanders, with Sanders taking the PG role with under 10 seconds left on the clock. After 2 games it looks to me like BAKER is the best passer on the team, and helps create the best offensive flow, followed by Mensah. Sanders still IS the best at creating his own shot, of course. In THIS game, when the ball went into Freeman in the post, it disappeared, and offensive flow stopped. This is just 1 game, though.

7) Replacing Nigel Johnson and Gettys: Several posters in this thread have said this has been tough. I am not convinced. I thought Doucore, Doorson and Sa were okay as a combo ... yes, both Doucore and Doorson were slow in their defensive rotations in this game ... but there were times last season when Gettys was also slow in rotation, partly because he was ... well ... slow. Obviously, the post players have work to do to improve, but they WILL improve. Hopefully they will improve fast enopugh. As for Johnson ... Baker is not the instant scorer that Johnson could be. But he is also much taller, a much better passer, and the offense flows better with Baker than it ever did with Johnson. Defense? Johnson sometimes played well defensively, but often was pulled because of lackadaisical defense. Baker needs to present better lateral defense ... it is probably positioning, not athleticism, since he seems athletic enough. If Baker hits 30% of his 3's this year, by the end of the year, RU will not miss Johnson.

Players:

Williams: With all due respect to Bac, Kohl was not the best player on the court last night, Williams was. Williams was terrific. And frankly, his defense was really good also - he played very tough defense (so I disagree with the single poster who thought Williams' defense was off). Plus, Williams intensity was really high. The pre-game huddle was led by Williams. Williams is the clear leader of this team. What else can you say? By the way, as I kept score I counted Williams getting 5 rebounds - he was only credited with 3, officially. He also had 4 steals, 2 assists and 1 turnover.

Omoruyi: He was excellent. After the CCNY game I stated I saw no improvement from Omoruyi versus last year. This game I saw VAST improvement. This was one of his best performances as an RU player. Most importantly, he hit some of those 4-6 footers that he ALWAYS missed last season. He gets a lot of those types of shots, so his ability to hit those FG's are very important. And he played over Freeman at a number of chunks in this game because he was playing better defense than was Freeman. He had 13 points, 7 reb and 2 blocks ... and 1 taken charge on defensive rotation.

Rest of Players:

Sanders: A relatively poor game, but not the worst game of RU starters (see Freeman). As a positive, he did not turn the ball over. On the other hand, he also forced some shots, and played only okay defense (not awful defense, but only okay). He was, unfortunately, 0-4 from 3, and just 1-3 from the FT line - including missing the front end of a 1 and 1. He will absolutely have better games ... hopefully when RU needs them.

Freeman: One of his worst games as an RU player. Not only did he play quite lackadaisical defense, but he also muffed 2 alley-oop plays. Maybe those alley-oops were not great passes, but it looked like he did not get up as high as he often does - is he dinged? He also forced way too much action - 4 turnovers were the result. But he also missed 4-5 easy inside shots, plus 2 open jump shots. I will say that he was often hammered as he shot, and should have gotten FT's ... but ... he was forcing things. But it was his defense that was so bad. He was slow to both rotate to help, AND slow to get out on the CCSU players he was defending on the perimeter.

Baker: Other than his 3-point shooting, I like what I see, though he does have to get a little better with his on-ball defense. He did have 4 steals, 2 or 3 on help defense, playing centerfield, or helping on the drive. He is the primary PG, by the way, for whatever that is worth ... until the last 10 seconds of the shot clock, when Sanders takes the ball. I think Baker is the best passer on the team (this despite his poor decision cited above to throw the alley-oop, not the bounce pass). And it looks like he can hit FT's. He is going to be very solid for RU this year, in my opinion, and maybe very good (better than solid) for his career.

Thiam: Much improved. Yes, he only scored 5 points, and yes he needs to keep improving his defensive lateral movement and positioning.. But you can see how much more confidence he has overall, and how he is willing to try more than just a 3 point shot (he had another driving move toward s the basket). But he also added 4 rebounds and did not turn the ball over. It may not happen at all, or only a few games, this season, but I believe Thiam might end up a real impact player for RU. He is clearly improved, clearly stronger, and clearly more confident ... all good for RU.

Doucore: Man, he just oozes potential, in my opinion. He DOES have work to do with his defensive positioning - hence his few minutes so far. He is also raw offensively as well as defensively. BUT ... he got 4 rebounds in just 8 minutes of play, and I like his FT form - he is 4-4 in the 1st 2 games. And you can see his body and athleticism are very good. He will be inconsistent, and often invisible, this year. But you will also see some good play, and he has a chance to be very good over 4 years with RU.

Sa: He was the best center in this game. He gave very good energy, was very active, and after being not great defensively in the 1st half (like every RU player other than Williams), was much better in the 2nd half. He was also active on the boards, and around the basket offensively. He did get 6 rebounds, and was 1-2 FG - though he seemed to have even a greater positive impact than that. I would give him, Williams and Omoruyi positive grades for the game ... Baker neutral ... all other negative.

Mensah: I thought Mensah was ... okay. Not great, but fine. He is going to get 8-10 minutes a game as RU's 4th guard - and is better than Dadika (a post in this thread thought Dadika provided more - no). His defense was fine in this game, I thought - especially in the 1st half, when he first came in and provided an intensity lift for the team, along with Williams. BUT ... he drove me nuts with his positioning in RU's half court offense ... for much of the game he set up 3-4 feet behind the 3-point line, where he is absolutely no threat ... therefore a waste of space. Other times he was wide open at the 3-point line, but ignored ... and did not shoot (probably does not have the range). This is a problem. He was better in the 2nd half. But he gave me apoplexy on one play: He made a GREAT move to get into the lane against the zone and was WIDE open, with no defender anywhere near him, in the middle of the lane 8 feet from the basket .. and instead of taking that WIDE OPEN 8 footer, he passed to the wing to a slightly covered Williams (or Baker), who then missed the tougher shot - which had to be taken, since the shot clock was winding down.

Doorson: Not much impact, decent effort, but slow to rotate defensively. Mainly a big body. May be still working into basketball shape.

Obviously, this was an overall poor performance for RU. I expect Pikiell to light a fire under the team ... which may not be a bad thing. And though RU does need to improve its defense, rebounding and 3-point shooting, I suspect RU will do so in a number of games. Way too early to either panic - or to assume the improvement we all want.

Only people in Game Threads panic and lose their minds a few games into the season about the team or individual players.

I've already commented on the 3 Centers and what I would like to see the focus on...defense and rebounding.

I think Baker is just jittery. Shooting woes is not uncommon for true freshmen.

Regarding Mensah, yes, he probably needs to take some of those short jumpers. He made an open foul line jumper in the last game. In that same game, he passed up one to make the extra pass down low for an easy score by one of the bigs. Yesterday, he passed up a short jumper to make the extra pass to Thiam for a wide open 3 point shot...unfortunately, he missed.

 

[lester19]

What aggravated me the most was that some of the players think that there are style points awarded. How many layups were missed because we needed to add a little mustard on the shot instead of laying it in? How many lobs ended up out of bounds? In a blow-out I can see the players being allowed to show off a little. In a game that shouldn't have been close and was what was needed was for our players to assert themselves with good solid passing and shooting. I was surprised (and disappointed)that after some of the ridiculous shots taken that the offenders weren't yanked out of the game.

 

[MadRU]

As one illustration of the poor rotation and communication, late in the 2nd half Williams was guarding #1 (Kohl) on the wing, and overplayed him to the right. Kohl drove to the baseline and got an uncontested lay-up ... Freeman was extremely late getting there. Williams pulled Freeman aside, and it was crystal clear Williams expected help, but that the help never got there.

I had a great angle on this play. Geo was under the basket (other side of the rim) and had his back turned to the play, never saw it coming. I am sure they will look at film and correct things.