GAME 21 Ohio State: Not ready yet

[bac2therac]

Cannot say I am surprised at today's result. For starters, let us give credit to Ohio State. Its a very good team. Based on their resume they have a very good shot at being a NCAA tourney team. Wesson is a great player. He was focused and stayed out of foul trouble and was dominant in the first half and RU had no answer. In the 2nd half, Jackson and Mohommad stepped up and they hit shots and took care of the ball. RU was the better team in the first meeting, OSU the better team today, all things being equal, I think the Buckeyes are the better team and more complete team right now. While RU did stay within range, the Buckeyes were in total control and the outcome was not really in doubt. OSU needed this game, they have something bigger fish to fry than RU and thats the NCAA tourney and it showed today.

While we would all have loved a win today or a more competitive performance from Rutgers. Here is the deal. Rutgers has come along way the past few weeks. 3 straight wins, growth from the freshmen, the team showing grit, the coaching having a good pulse on the team. Its just that RU is not ready to take this next step. My last 3 recaps all talked about taking giant leaps forward. Well in building a program sometimes you hit walls and sometimes you run into better teams and situations that lead you back to the drawing board. I didnt think RU had any answers on defense to challenge. They had no answers for Wesson and no answers on the perimeter. OSU exploited RU's biggest defensive weakness which is defending the 3. OSU hit 13-28. Going to be tough to be able to match that when RU is only 6-19 and not a threat from there. Also OSU had zero turnovers and RU had 8 in the 2nd half including 5 in the first 5 minutes. RU just was not ready to show the maturity and consistency to win this game. Every time they got it to 6 or 8 they would make some critical mistakes or turnovers that would allow OSU to maintain their cushion.

We can go back to prior recaps...RU is not winning games when they are not getting points or contribution from a bunch of players. Mathis, Geo, and Harper scored 43 in the last meeting vs OSU and had 11 combined today. Geo and Mathis were a hideous 3-18, Harper took only one shot which he made. There is no way to beat a hot shooting OSU, when your top two guards come up empty. And it wasnt just shooting. Geo was dominated by Mohommad on both ends. Mentally Geo didnt have it this game, he was slow defensively and his decision making on offense was sketchy. Gotta to get more consistency from him with his focus but I am not worried about him. Mathis now two games looks like he hit the freshmen well and you can see his frustration in his body language. He came out of nowhere and flourished and now finding things tougher. That is okay, he will work through it, credit to Pike for realizing this and limiting his minutes. Sometimes you have to do that to help the growth of not only Montez but of the team as well.

Once again Eugene the huge warrior. For a while he single handedly kept the team from getting blown away. 7-11 shooting, 6 boards, 3 assists for 18 points, once again very solid on D. There really isnt much to say that has not been said. He is the heart and soul of the team and is the hardest worker. Caleb McConnell had his best game of the night so this is a silver lining today. His coming out party....5-10, 3-6 from 3 and 14 points but more importantly is that Caleb looks really comfortable out there and his shot was smooth. With expected inconsistency from Ron and Montez, Caleb is going to be counted on for some instant offense especially in light of Kiss really not able to generate much offensively. As for the rest Doorson 9 points played his role and Johnson had just 4 but they were great looks and 8 rebounds. Continues to be solid. Kiss had a lot of minutes but really not much to show for it, missing all 4 of his 3s and once again missing his foul shots. I thought Carter was frustrated and really struggled today, first game vs Wesson/OSU he was outstanding but today totally outplayed and outwitted.

Have to bring up foul shooting...hideous at 8-17....big issue in first half too where if they just make three more they were only down 5. I do not think RU would win either way but you just cannot leave that many points off the scoreboard.

Now the challenge of Michigan. Its a huge challenge and they are really good from the outside. Struggling a bit recently but if RU struggles offensively, Michigan has the potential to really shred them in transition and from 3. We need a focused and confident RU to show up vs Michigan. As fans we should still be excited about this game, losing to OSU does not change all the good things that we have seen the past few weeks. RU is at home and playing with alot of house money and goodwill.

 

[RUJMM78]

I agree there was no surprise with the end result but rather disappointment with the lack of scoring from Baker,Harper , Mathis and Kiss, poor foul shooting and poor defense against the 3 point shot. Rutgers can't win if the opponent scorers more than 70 points when the offense is so inconsistent game to game.

 

[RU MAN]

Nailed it BAC. OSU probably played one of their best games of the season especially from the outside where they shot an unconscionable 46%. I think Pike gave waaaaay too many minutes to Kiss this game and he came up empty. The kid had 4 uncontested threes and missed all of them. It's ridiculous how Harper only got one shot, which he made from beyond the arc.

As to the charity stripe: Frankly, I wasn't surprised because many of those misses came from Doorson, Johnson and Kiss. Not exactly very good FT shooters. But again, there is a reason they're called free throws and we have to be better from the charity stripe.

 

[kcg88]

The first half defense was disappointing.

Not necessarily the three pointers allowed, that's whatever, it happens. But zero turnovers is not good. We didn't get our hands on passes. We didn't draw any offensive fouls. We didn't defend hard enough to rattle them into shuffling their feet. That's where the game was lost imo.

 

[Upstream]

We might be playing with house money vs Michigan, but I am very concerned about that game. It has the potential to be very ugly in a sold-out RAC, which means a lot of UM fans making noise, or fair-weather Rutgers fans set up for disappointment. It's a tall order for this Rutgers team to get the W, or even keep it interesting to the end.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I said in the prediction thread that we weren’t ready to beat a good team on the road, and thought we would lose 73-61. The game played out as I thought it would.

We just don’t have enough offensive options and consistency to beat a team like this in their place. We didn’t play a bad game, as we got open looks but just couldn’t cash in, and OSU was simply unconscious at times, nothing we could have done better to defend a lot of those shots. I mean, Wesson drains three 3s, are you kidding me?

Mathis has definitely hit the wall, and when he misses shots or gets frustrated, he seems to mope and feels sorry for himself. Needs to toughen up mentally.

REALLY liking what McConnell has been giving us over the past several weeks. Sometimes he’s sloppy with the ball, but if he cleans that up, he does so much else that’s good. Very good on defense with that long wingspan, can create his own shot off the bounce, and has a smooth stroke from deep. If he continues to shoot like this, I don’t think Thiam will find his way back in the rotation.

Man, Kiss was just brutal today. Four WIDE OPEN looks from 3-pt range, four clangs. And misses another two FTs. Ugh, just ugh.

Oh well, we actually didnt play one of those awful away games where we get run out of the building. We were never really in it, but never really out of it either. Just life on the road in the Big Ten.

Michigan will be tough, but I hope we can finally play well in front of a sold out RAC. Need to show our casual fans that this thing is really turning.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Put this in another thread. Teams have figured out that running high ball screens against the RU guards opens up the 3 all around.

Not easy to win when the opponent hits +44% from 3.

Interestingly - RU defense changes when Thiam got on the court.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

3 steps Forward. One step sideways.

There are quite a few positives that we can take from the game.

1. Our spacing and passing in the half court was very good
2. We really shared the basketball and I thought, save 2 bad late TO, Eugene was very good in the point forward Ethan Happ role
3. Caleb stepped up and was solid and my fill the gap at the “3” position along with Harper
4. We did score 62 in 60 possessions so despite not shooting from the perimeter we cracked the magic barrier
5. Won the glass and most players won their share of 50/50s

Bad
1. Didn’t defend the line. Cardinal sin (almond with transition D which we were fine)
2. Didn’t attempt to get transition baskets. A road thing and a Harper Mathis thing. They didn’t play big roles and they are the guys who run
3. Mathis again having to sit for taking possessions off. Going to subscribe to BAC and the wall (thank goodness not that wall).
4. A few guys need a better nose for the ball. Won’t name names, but unacceptable on a Pikiell team


Luther Muhammad is a stud. He owns Geo. I like that Geo stayed within himself. Don’t recall any bad shots from anyone.

Let’s beat Michigan so we can start talking about post season again :golf:

 

[read option]

0-7 in February is very possible. Would sign for 2-5.

 

[Knightmoves]

Without shooters in the lineup we will see more outcomes like this.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Without shooters in the lineup we will see more outcomes like this.

62 points in 60 possessions. Offense wasn’t the issue today despite shooting blanks.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

I think if Ohio State has Wesson hitting 3s, then Michigan's bigs will have the same room. The difference is Michigan doesn't provide the difficult interior post offense of MSUs Nick Ward, MD with Fernando and Smith and OSU with Wesson.

I am also not sure how Michigan is going to react after the Iowa game, but they're not going to overpower anyone in the paint.

The McConnell contributions kept this game from being very ugly, considering what we didn't get from the others BAC mentioned. I don't know how we can start or play Doorson vs Michigan, i would start Shaq Carter or Myles Johnson.

This is a game where you have to at least attempt to matchup. I think RU is OK at spots 1, 2 and 3....but someone has to get out on shooters so I would expect to see a lot more McConnell and Kiss vs Michigan.

An isolated item to consider with Baker, Mathis and Harper.....there were very few "cheapies"....or easy baskets today. We got one with McConnell off a deflection but Mathis has to play 28 to 30 minutes to play through the small speed bumps. He's still the one guy that can get a deflection and get out in transition against Michigan.

I also think Kiss is officially a streaky player and if that's his definition right now, the staff has to be creative and the rest of the roster has to find a set play or something to set him up to score. If his 1st shot or basket drops, he's suddenly worth 7 to 9 points a night. If he misses his 1st 2, you may get a game like today.

I also didn't think Luther Muhammad impacted Geo Baker as much as Geo Baker impacted himself. He turned down an open 3 and drove into a charge early and wasn't a factor. This is still a young roster, although they've shown flashes in recent weeks, Geo is still a sophomore. I think we get Geo back Tuesday with a big game and are very competitive with the Wolverines.

 

[goru7]

62 points in 60 possessions. Offense wasn’t the issue today despite shooting blanks.

That is my frustration. We did not lose this game because of our offense but because of our defense . Our intensity and getting in their grille never materialized..We contest 2-3 more threes and they miss, then the game is right there for our victory . Every time we got it down to 8 , they would hit a 3. Missed opportunity today.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

The Kaleb Wesson thing kind of hurt. We made a decision going in we were playing man to man. Un fortunately our 5s cant play D 25 feet out.

 

[RUJMM78]

Without shooters in the lineup we will see more outcomes like this.

Yes,its the lack of Rutgers shooters which has been known all season.What is equally important is the scoring of opponents.When they score to their average or above Rutgers is in big trouble because 60-65 point range simply isn't enough points to win most games.

 

[BillyC80]

The Kaleb Wesson thing kind of hurt. We made a decision going in we were playing man to man. Un fortunately our 5s cant play D 25 feet out.

This. Second half was better D on Wesson but we spent the whole second half trying to dig out of that first half hole. Then we kept shooting ourselves in the foot whenever we had a chance to make it a one possession game.

 

[RUonBrain]

How gorgeous was Eugene’s behind the back bounce pass to Doorson for the layup?

Best pass I’ve seen all year.

 

[RUonBrain]

Other than the open 3’s, I think Doorson’s D vs Wesson was fine.

Wesson was just unconscious and could not miss. It was switch city.

No one could stop Wesson when he is shooting that well.

 

[Scarlet83]

How gorgeous was Eugene’s behind the back bounce pass to Doorson for the layup?

Best pass I’ve seen all year.

Absolutely! Wonder what Hawk thinks if that pass.