GAME 24 MARYLAND: Not meant to be

[bac2therac]

From an offseason injury to Acuff to the early season injuries J Will battled thru to the disappointing performances early of the portal players to the humbling loss at Kennesaw State to the defensive woes culminating with a wretched showing vs Princeton to a violent flu knocking out Dylan Harper and to Harper again being sidelined by an ankle injury and to make matters worse in perhaps Rutgers last stand to make a NCAA tourney push, Ace Bailey rendered pale and forced to the bench with the flu, for Rutgers, if it is not one thing, it is another. Everytime it looked like Rutgers was solving one issue, another one cropped up. Fix the defense and get better contribution from the bench and Rutgers cannot put Ace/Dylan on the court for more than one game. A season of no momentum. The rock never rolled. Sometimes you just have to accept facts. Perhaps it was not meant to be. The basketball gods who dropped two once in a lifetime talents in Pikiell's lap decided to play a cruel joke on the Rutgers community and jab pins and needles and cast spells on the hopes and aspirations of the 2024-2025 season. If you want to think positive, maybe you can hold out hope that this path is being laid for Rutgers to do the impossible and win the Big 10 tourney on an incredible 5 day but that is the only one Rutgers will make the NCAA tourney at this point.

I will tell you what, after the Ohio State loss and the poor effort of the team at fighting through Harpers sickness and stepping up, I found this team to be one of my least favorite teams. Since then though, this team has grown and grown on me. This team easily could have folded and packed it in. Credit them for fighting and fighting and finding toughness. The incredible strides the team has made and that includes the coaching staff has been remarkable to watch. What looked like too late to turn the corner became a case of can we put a healthy Ace/Dylan on the court for multiple games and see what happens. Its not just an Ace/Dylan thing. Rutgers has now started to get contributions recently from J Mike, Grant, Zak, even JD. The strong defensive performances in the last 2 at the RAC hinted that Pikiell finally figured things out with his charges and they were full buying into playing defense.

Today was such a tough performance battling and battling through alot of adversity and quite frankly a better team than even a full healthy Rutgers. Ace struggling with the flu and RU down 14 in the first half did not fold. They came out strong in the 2nd half and took it right to Maryland. Rutgers would go on a 14-4 run to draw to within 58-54 limiting the Terps to just one fg in 5 and half minutes while saddling the Maryland bigs with foul trouble. Dylan really wasnt on today and that will happen. Just 7-17 fg for 20 points, if anytime we needed a Vegas performance from Dylan with 35 plus points. it was today. He seemed frustrated and tip your hat to Maryland, this is the best defense, RU has faced since Texas A&M in Vegas. Yet RU had players like Lathan, Grant, JD and Zak all contribute and compete. The strides that Dylan Grant took in this one game was remarkable. Grant not afraid of the bigger Queen/Reese tandem did not hestitate to attack the rim when he had the chance. 30 minutes from Dylan on 6-12 fg shooting, 19 points and 8 boards in his most effective and productive game as a Scarlet Knight. How about 6 boards on the offensive side. One can wonder why Grant did not play earlier and took so much time for Pike to trust him to play major minute. Derkack may not have been able to shoot but he was fearless in taking it to the hoops and drawing a bunch of fouls on the Maryland bigs including knocking Gerinamos tooth out. 9-11 at the line in just 14 minutes, he really played his role as a tough as nails player to get to the foul line. Lathan poured in 12 points and had 9 rebounds. Its not a work of art with Lathan but he provided all he could today against simply better players. Zak Martini 10 points and 5 boards in 25 minutes, came up big in spots with 3 and then a knack for being in the right place and managed a 4 point flurry that got RU within 7. After that it was all Maryland. RU just wore down and the deep Terps started to lean heavily on Queen who was simply incredible in crunch time scoring 12 straight. Queen was the best player on the court going for 29 points, 9-16 fg, 11-13 ft, 15 rebounds and 5 assists..wow. Rutgers just simply does not have the horses to defend Queen because as good as Grant/Lathan can be on offense, they still are woefully unprepared defensively to handle the talent differential. RU didnt get good performances at all from J Will who committed silly fouls before fouling out and neither he nor a simpy overmatched J Miike was able to contribute anything offensively. Acuff just a few minutes was slow and ineffective and rode pine.

The physicality of Maryland in general was just too much for Rutgers. They have the best starting lineup in the league. A threat to score at every position and anyone one of them could go off at any time. I came away exrremely impressed by them and this was with Julian Reese who was averaging 20 ppg in his last 4 playing like ass and saddled with foul trouble before fouling out. Queen was dominant early and closed it out but t was the 3 point shooting in the first half by Miguel in the first half and Rice in the 2nd. Rice in particular seemed to get Maryland out of a jam and halting the Rutgers 2nd half momentum hitting a 3 and then getting fouled on two 3 point attempts one of which he made a 4 point play. RU fought and fought but just couldnt shut down Maryland and their offensive production was spotty. Credit Pike with his team drawing fouls and getting to the line...making 26 of 31 while the Terps were just 22-34. Both teams fouled a ton (49 combined) and there could have been more fouls called. It was fairly even and RU did put Maryland at the line down the stretch so they ended up with more 27 to 22

RU heroically outrebounded the Terps 43-37 and 15-13 offensively and that was after a poor start where Maryland was dominating. If you want to look at the one key stat as to why Rutgers lost...its 3 point shooting. 3-16 for Rutgers and 10-27 for Maryland. Cannot win only making 3 and 2 were from Zak and 1 late from J Mike. Nothing from Dylan and that hurt and Im not sure that RU taking anymore of them would have mattered. RU at times did not defend the perimeter and they payed for it dearly. Pick your poison..crowd the paint or defend the perimeter. Either way RU got burned. Its sort of noteworthy that RU was within range of this game without Ace and with Maryland playing an A type game. That at least is something to take some solace in.

As for NCAA talk, I didnt buy too much into coming into this game. RU would have needed to be 19-12 to feel good. This was A MUST WIN to even keep faint hopes alive. Now at 12-12 they simply need a Big 10 tournament championship to punch a ticket. Some thing just not meant to be. Still get Ace healthy right away and RU will compete in every game left and no they wont sweep the road games. RU has 3 games left at home against beatable teams..a sinking Iowa and talented but erratic USC and an overacheving Minnesota...win those 3 at the RAC which Rutgers should and RU will qualify for the Big 10 tournament and take it from there.

There's still time to turn this around
Should we be building this up instead of tearing it down?
But I keep thinking maybe it's too late
It's like one step forward and two steps back
No matter what I do, you're always mad
And I, I can't change your mind
I know it's like trying to turn around on a one-way street
I can't give you what you want, and it's killing me
And I, I finally see
Baby, we're not meant to be

 

[FAT MOON]

I agree with you. Team is definitely growing on me. They are competing hard as hell every game now.

Also agree with you that the season is just cursed. Could not BEEEEEEELIEVE it when I saw Ace sitting with that towel over his head.

 

[ScarletNut]

14 games this season where either Harper or Bailey were sick or injured. Not even counting the games where Williams was sick or injured, Ogbole out and a not completely healthy Acuff. Damn shame that this season turned out this way.

 

[RAC93]

Another accurate recap. When we got it to 53-50, I thought we were going to take the game and win it. We looked like the tougher team and we were the better team for that early stretch in the second half. But that was a summary of this season, being able to play a complete and winning basketball game for as close to 40 minutes as possible. Many games this year we’ve played great for 10-20 minutes of a game this year, even outplayed our opponents and fought hard, yet we still ended up with a loss. Effort was never the issue, we always played hard, no matter what combo Pike threw out on the floor. Each loss was a different story or reason for the loss, but ultimately most losses seemed like we would always played great for a stretch or outplay our opponent for a long stretch, but just not long enough to walk away with the win.

This team rarely was blown out this year, a few times but they were often in games to the point that with 10 minutes left many games still seemed winnable. That’s the reason this team is so frustrating is that the 12-12 record could have been better as they were in position to win many more games. Even though we were screwed with roster construction (an open scholarship was never even used, not enough big men on the roster, the transfers we did acquire were not good enough), this team fought pretty hard in most games. But at this point, I am accepting of what this season now is, just trying to get in the Big 10 tournament and see if Dylan can fire off a Hail Mary pass that Ace catches in the end zone for a miracle.

 

[RUJMM78]

The lack of consistent winning has been caused by:
1.Injuries/flu illness to key players
2.Abysmal 3 point shooting
3.Poor rebounding and man to man defense allowed too many easy baskets on pick/rolls and backdoor cuts
4.Lack of consistent third scoring threat on the court
5.Half court offense lacks player and ball movement which limits open shots for Bailey/Harper and instead resulted in their being double teamed on every possession
6.Lack of using Grant early in the season
7.Roster formation failed in attracting 3 point scorers and a experienced center

 

[jtung230]

So frustrated with this team. Derkack and Williams need to have less minutes. Harper needs to be able to run the offense on a consistent basis.

 

[runrutgersrun]

Thanks for the inspirational write up. This team has shown real toughness and resilience in the face of very real, nearly constant hurdles. Still time to accomplish team goals, I think, due to this mental fortitude. Go RU...don't give up the ship. If, for some reason, you don't/can't reach your stated goals, the next best thing is to try your hardest in your attempts. I hope this team ends up being remembered fondly and that it ends up being a pretty darn good coaching job by Coach.

 

[Duff366]

Thanks for the inspirational write up. This team has shown real toughness and resilience in the face of very real, nearly constant hurdles. Still time to accomplish team goals, I think, due to this mental fortitude. Go RU...don't give up the ship. If, for some reason, you don't/can't reach your stated goals, the next best thing is to try your hardest in your attempts. I hope this team ends up being remembered fondly and that it ends up being a pretty darn good coaching job by Coach.

Agreed. Obviously, if goals aren't going to be met, it will a huge disappointment. But I'm liking how this team is fighting. One of the reasons I like Pike, he's given an identity to Rutgers, that you'll be in for a rock fight when playing RU.

If things don't work out and you've given your best then there is something admirable about that even in failure.

 

[RAC93]

The lack of consistent winning has been caused by:
1.Injuries/flu illness to key players
2.Abysmal 3 point shooting
3.Poor rebounding and man to man defense allowed too many easy baskets on pick/rolls and backdoor cuts
4.Lack of consistent third scoring threat on the court
5.Half court offense lacks player and ball movement which limits open shots for Bailey/Harper and instead resulted in their being double teamed on every possession
6.Lack of using Grant early in the season
7.Roster formation failed in attracting 3 point scorers and a experienced center

Excellent list, unfortunately. Numbers 6. and 7. fall right at the feet of Pike. He really needs someone to help him construct the roster and to evaluate talent that is in the portal and even on his roster. He didn’t use Grant early enough in the season, and we had others who were really struggling (Martini, Hayes, Acuff) who were getting minutes instead in the rotation. The reason Number 2. (3 point shooting) existed was the transfers did not provide the shooting we hoped for or we couldn’t put them in the game due to the myriad of issues they presented when on the floor. The roster construction impacted so many areas that led to the losses this year.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Excellent post bac. You definitely have your finger on the pulse of ru basketball.

 

[fluoxetine]

I doubt Grant was as ready as people think early in the season.

Regarding “abysmal” 3p% shooting: we are at 32.9%. D1 average is 33.7%. The difference there is about 4 makes over the season so far or 12 total points. It isn’t good but it’s not a major reason for failure imo.

 

[RUskoolie]

This is a .500 team, I have said this since the Princeton debacle.

Just enjoy the wins when they come and hope we crack the top 9 and go on some epic run.

The most likely outcome is we are talking about this team 15-20 years from now as the biggest disappointment in RU sports history, the .500 hoops team with two top 5 NBA lottery picks.

 

[darkcheck]

Theory of a Deadman would be proud

 

[FAT MOON]

I doubt Grant was as ready as people think early in the season.

Regarding “abysmal” 3p% shooting: we are at 32.9%. D1 average is 33.7%. The difference there is about 4 makes over the season so far or 12 total points. It isn’t good but it’s not a major reason for failure imo.

agreed on both...

if grant looked like this early he would've played more. and btw he is still allowing at least 4-5 easy buckets on the other end by not shutting down drives by others players when he's clearly the help. He and Sommerville out there together has a lot of positives but protecting the rim ain't one of them.

our overall team defense is way more to blame for 12-12 than hitting a few more 3s. that and the fact that we just can't seem to have our two studs out there together for enough of this season.

 

[T2Kplus20]

14 games this season where either Harper or Bailey were sick or injured. Not even counting the games where Williams was sick or injured, Ogbole out and a not completely healthy Acuff. Damn shame that this season turned out this way.

This team is soft and stupid. Nothing else to say. Most disappointing team in the nation this season.

 

[fluoxetine]

This is a .500 team, I have said this since the Princeton debacle.

Just enjoy the wins when they come and hope we crack the top 9 and go on some epic run.

The most likely outcome is we are talking about this team 15-20 years from now as the biggest disappointment in RU sports history, the .500 hoops team with two top 5 NBA lottery picks.

The thing is the team has improved dramatically since Princeton. You can tell because we are getting slightly better results while being drastically below full strength.

 

[Groz]

From an offseason injury to Acuff to the early season injuries J Will battled thru to the disappointing performances early of the portal players to the humbling loss at Kennesaw State to the defensive woes culminating with a wretched showing vs Princeton to a violent flu knocking out Dylan Harper and to Harper again being sidelined by an ankle injury and to make matters worse in perhaps Rutgers last stand to make a NCAA tourney push, Ace Bailey rendered pale and forced to the bench with the flu, for Rutgers, if it is not one thing, it is another. Everytime it looked like Rutgers was solving one issue, another one cropped up. Fix the defense and get better contribution from the bench and Rutgers cannot put Ace/Dylan on the court for more than one game. A season of no momentum. The rock never rolled. Sometimes you just have to accept facts. Perhaps it was not meant to be. The basketball gods who dropped two once in a lifetime talents in Pikiell's lap decided to play a cruel joke on the Rutgers community and jab pins and needles and cast spells on the hopes and aspirations of the 2024-2025 season. If you want to think positive, maybe you can hold out hope that this path is being laid for Rutgers to do the impossible and win the Big 10 tourney on an incredible 5 day but that is the only one Rutgers will make the NCAA tourney at this point.

I will tell you what, after the Ohio State loss and the poor effort of the team at fighting through Harpers sickness and stepping up, I found this team to be one of my least favorite teams. Since then though, this team has grown and grown on me. This team easily could have folded and packed it in. Credit them for fighting and fighting and finding toughness. The incredible strides the team has made and that includes the coaching staff has been remarkable to watch. What looked like too late to turn the corner became a case of can we put a healthy Ace/Dylan on the court for multiple games and see what happens. Its not just an Ace/Dylan thing. Rutgers has now started to get contributions recently from J Mike, Grant, Zak, even JD. The strong defensive performances in the last 2 at the RAC hinted that Pikiell finally figured things out with his charges and they were full buying into playing defense.

Today was such a tough performance battling and battling through alot of adversity and quite frankly a better team than even a full healthy Rutgers. Ace struggling with the flu and RU down 14 in the first half did not fold. They came out strong in the 2nd half and took it right to Maryland. Rutgers would go on a 14-4 run to draw to within 58-54 limiting the Terps to just one fg in 5 and half minutes while saddling the Maryland bigs with foul trouble. Dylan really wasnt on today and that will happen. Just 7-17 fg for 20 points, if anytime we needed a Vegas performance from Dylan with 35 plus points. it was today. He seemed frustrated and tip your hat to Maryland, this is the best defense, RU has faced since Texas A&M in Vegas. Yet RU had players like Lathan, Grant, JD and Zak all contribute and compete. The strides that Dylan Grant took in this one game was remarkable. Grant not afraid of the bigger Queen/Reese tandem did not hestitate to attack the rim when he had the chance. 30 minutes from Dylan on 6-12 fg shooting, 19 points and 8 boards in his most effective and productive game as a Scarlet Knight. How about 6 boards on the offensive side. One can wonder why Grant did not play earlier and took so much time for Pike to trust him to play major minute. Derkack may not have been able to shoot but he was fearless in taking it to the hoops and drawing a bunch of fouls on the Maryland bigs including knocking Gerinamos tooth out. 9-11 at the line in just 14 minutes, he really played his role as a tough as nails player to get to the foul line. Lathan poured in 12 points and had 9 rebounds. Its not a work of art with Lathan but he provided all he could today against simply better players. Zak Martini 10 points and 5 boards in 25 minutes, came up big in spots with 3 and then a knack for being in the right place and managed a 4 point flurry that got RU within 7. After that it was all Maryland. RU just wore down and the deep Terps started to lean heavily on Queen who was simply incredible in crunch time scoring 12 straight. Queen was the best player on the court going for 29 points, 9-16 fg, 11-13 ft, 15 rebounds and 5 assists..wow. Rutgers just simply does not have the horses to defend Queen because as good as Grant/Lathan can be on offense, they still are woefully unprepared defensively to handle the talent differential. RU didnt get good performances at all from J Will who committed silly fouls before fouling out and neither he nor a simpy overmatched J Miike was able to contribute anything offensively. Acuff just a few minutes was slow and ineffective and rode pine.

The physicality of Maryland in general was just too much for Rutgers. They have the best starting lineup in the league. A threat to score at every position and anyone one of them could go off at any time. I came away exrremely impressed by them and this was with Julian Reese who was averaging 20 ppg in his last 4 playing like ass and saddled with foul trouble before fouling out. Queen was dominant early and closed it out but t was the 3 point shooting in the first half by Miguel in the first half and Rice in the 2nd. Rice in particular seemed to get Maryland out of a jam and halting the Rutgers 2nd half momentum hitting a 3 and then getting fouled on two 3 point attempts one of which he made a 4 point play. RU fought and fought but just couldnt shut down Maryland and their offensive production was spotty. Credit Pike with his team drawing fouls and getting to the line...making 26 of 31 while the Terps were just 22-34. Both teams fouled a ton (49 combined) and there could have been more fouls called. It was fairly even and RU did put Maryland at the line down the stretch so they ended up with more 27 to 22

RU heroically outrebounded the Terps 43-37 and 15-13 offensively and that was after a poor start where Maryland was dominating. If you want to look at the one key stat as to why Rutgers lost...its 3 point shooting. 3-16 for Rutgers and 10-27 for Maryland. Cannot win only making 3 and 2 were from Zak and 1 late from J Mike. Nothing from Dylan and that hurt and Im not sure that RU taking anymore of them would have mattered. RU at times did not defend the perimeter and they payed for it dearly. Pick your poison..crowd the paint or defend the perimeter. Either way RU got burned. Its sort of noteworthy that RU was within range of this game without Ace and with Maryland playing an A type game. That at least is something to take some solace in.

As for NCAA talk, I didnt buy too much into coming into this game. RU would have needed to be 19-12 to feel good. This was A MUST WIN to even keep faint hopes alive. Now at 12-12 they simply need a Big 10 tournament championship to punch a ticket. Some thing just not meant to be. Still get Ace healthy right away and RU will compete in every game left and no they wont sweep the road games. RU has 3 games left at home against beatable teams..a sinking Iowa and talented but erratic USC and an overacheving Minnesota...win those 3 at the RAC which Rutgers should and RU will qualify for the Big 10 tournament and take it from there.

There's still time to turn this around
Should we be building this up instead of tearing it down?
But I keep thinking maybe it's too late
It's like one step forward and two steps back
No matter what I do, you're always mad
And I, I can't change your mind
I know it's like trying to turn around on a one-way street
I can't give you what you want, and it's killing me
And I, I finally see
Baby, we're not meant to be

Great recap as usual Bac.

Best of Luck,
Groz

 

[RUChoppin]

This team can't seem to get it together. When everyone was healthy early, they didn't know how to play with each other. Now that they've started to gel, they can't get everyone healthy and on the floor together.

Our only hope at this point is for all cylinders to fire during the B1G tournament, but with our luck that will be the week Sommerville comes down with a virus or whatever other snake bite.

This team, even as constructed, could have been a tournament team if a) they had stayed healthy, and b) they had gelled earlier. Too many freshmen and new faces meant a longer ramp to a functioning team, and too many health issues kept our best players from playing together.

I'm already looking past this year. We need to keep a core of carry-over players to build with, to supplement with additional talent. We can't have a redux of Nov/Dec where everyone is still trying to figure out who does what.

 

[lion1983]

Good recap - I touch on a lot of similar themes in my post mortem posted a little bit ago.

One thing I will add, from my post mortem: Even with bailey at just 4 points, RU had drawn to 53-56 with 13 minutes left in the game with even an ill Bailey in the line-up. It all fell apart after he went to the bench to stay. I think Bailey had a big impact on the game when he was in, even not scoring and even ill. His presence drew defensive attention, he provided length and rebounding - and a couple of steals - on defense, and he had 3 assists - he was play-making even though he was not taking shots. Credit to MD for defending him well, but he drew a lot of double teams when he was in, and was willingly passing the ball to open teammates.

So ... when Bailey left the game: ... used in the best ever RU highlight video (RU v Louisville, Pandemonium in Piscataway game, and the credits theme song for Jason Bourne movies, I think - or is it Mission Impossible? ... see this RU highlight link: ).