Let me first say, I did not expect to win this game and I thought this road trip that RU would go 0-2 and fall to 8-6 and 5-7th place in league and 7 seed after they headed into Nebraska. It played out that way. Mag is a big loss. Yet the Indiana game showed that RU could hang in vs a hot team on their home court. RU had a couple players have wretched games. Today RU controlled this game for about 25 minutes before playing absolute piss poor basketball in a complete meltdown that falls on the entire team and coaching staff. A pitiful 19-0 run by Illinois that spanned 10 minutes. Its not that RU lost today, I expected to lose. Its the way this team lost and handled this and for the first time this year we witnessed the whole spool of thread fall apart. On a big picture the loss itself does not necessarily change the NCAA outlook . RU just finished their 3 game gauntlet 1-2 which was the expected result. RU returns home to face Nebraska and then has a bunch of winnable games scattered throughout the last 6. Its their easiest stretch of the season.
Yet the way this loss happened and how certain players are performing in the last few weeks is quite alarming. The competition gets easier but I am not convinced that the play from Indiana and first half of Illinois is going to carry over in the next 6 games. The program is at a crossroads right now....a fork in the road. Mag isnt coming back. No one is going to cry for RU. Every school has injuries. Its time to start having expectations. I think criticism of this team is fair right now. Cam Spencer is once again an issue. He was non existent today and then benched for a large stretch down the stretch. 2 points, 1-5 fg for 25 minutesm Cam now has had 4 poor games in his last 6. Cam is here to score for Rutgers, that is the bottom line. No breaks given. On a team without Mag, both Cam and Hyatt road pine????!!! How is this possible? Cam was horrid on both ends and Hyatt who should some of our only signs on offense, once again was poor rebounding and on defense. Cliff continues to make bad decisions and his 2nd foul was one he cant make and that sat him for the last 8 minutes of the first half. Cliff then g getting the ball stolen from him and then getting called for an inexcusable frustration foul right afterward with about 14 minutes left and RU up 47-44 just killed RU.
Now Im going to say, if I were Pike why are you taking him out. Bad move by Pike which set in motion just a horrific lineup he put out there....Reiber, Palm, Derek. He took Caleb out at the same time..wtf. Pike a really bad day today and he gambled with those guys to steal minutes and they were abused for easy buckets and were abysmal offensively. Why is Reiber taking shots in our offense...took 3 including blowing a fast break layup. The damage was done more so in momentum. Illinois had wrested control. So while by the time Cliff got back in the defecit was only 52-47 that didnt matter. RU was in meltdown mode. Their leadership from then on was incredbly poor. RU was charmin soft. Mentally weak..petite. It was very unrutgers like. We had not see this team respond like this. Cliff came back in and immediately got his 4th foul. Things would get worse from there with Wolf in and Illinois completed their 19-0 run going up 60-47 and the game was over right there.
The fact of the matter is once again the leaders on this team needed to take some heat. No one is stepping up. Cliff finished 14/10 but those stats are meaningless. He was a non entity on both ends. His defense was poor and whoevers fault it was offensively he wasnt getting the ball. Paul hit his first four shots but then stopped taking them. RU rode Calebs 12 points on 5-10 shooting in first half but that was fools gold. He missed all 4 in the 2nd half including a point blank bunny on a fast break. The ball was getting in the hands of the wrong people taking the wrong shots. RU panicked instead of valuing the basketball. Good lord the lead was just 5 points and we were acting like we were desperation mode. The awful turnovers and shots were maddening. The Pike lineup and lack of adjustments infuriating. The vaunted defense who played solid in the first half, completely was shredded in the 2nd half. Illinois housed RU on the boards in the 2nd half. RU was feeble. Totally outphysicalled for the 2nd straight game.
Lets face it folks. Rutgers is a bad offensive team. If RU isnt playing lock down defense and scoring in transition, they are going to play some bad basketball for stretches. Today was the worst of the season. There are no horses offensively. RU isnt establishing Cliff, Paul is not willing to take shots. Cam is in a ridiculous slump and we have 3 bench players who are forced into action probably not Big 10 level players. Derek just not developed enough for this roll. This is where the recruiting comes back to bit Pike. No Mag and the gig is up. RU leaves alot of points on the table by not converting easy shots but the big problem I am seeing the last 2 game is I do not think this team is valuing the possessions and that starts with Paul. He is delivering the ball to the wrong people and the ball is sticking. He is successful at times but it seems like the opposing defense makes some adjustments and Pike does not counter.
So this crossroads. Where is RU going. They can sulk and let it get to their heads which I fear or they can come out strong at the RAC and dispatch of Nebraska to get back on track. There is enough good on this team where they pick up the needed 3 wins in next 6 to ensure a NCAA and 2 plus a BE tourney win would probably be enough. Not worried yet about NCAA. I will be worried if RU loses to Nebraska. Rutgers needs to do a little Taylor Swift and SHAKE IT OFF......things can go downhill very quickly. I have said this before, every school goes through a rough stretch in league. The trick is to avoid losing games in a row. This is the first time RU has lost 2 in a row. Its okay. Yet I see red flags all over the place right now. The first goal to not take anything from granted so one game at a time. The NCAA tourney is the goal. RU still has to earn that. The win at Purdue can be wiped away if we see play like we did today during that 19-0 run. Schools like Wisconsin and Penn State can and will beat RU if this team and its coach cannot figure out how to handle the loss of Mag and a better way to respond when things are not going well. The veteran team did not show maturity today. Its not the loss today that bothers me. Its the way it happened. Rutgers has played too good this year to ruin things because they cannot find a path forward
Yet the way this loss happened and how certain players are performing in the last few weeks is quite alarming. The competition gets easier but I am not convinced that the play from Indiana and first half of Illinois is going to carry over in the next 6 games. The program is at a crossroads right now....a fork in the road. Mag isnt coming back. No one is going to cry for RU. Every school has injuries. Its time to start having expectations. I think criticism of this team is fair right now. Cam Spencer is once again an issue. He was non existent today and then benched for a large stretch down the stretch. 2 points, 1-5 fg for 25 minutesm Cam now has had 4 poor games in his last 6. Cam is here to score for Rutgers, that is the bottom line. No breaks given. On a team without Mag, both Cam and Hyatt road pine????!!! How is this possible? Cam was horrid on both ends and Hyatt who should some of our only signs on offense, once again was poor rebounding and on defense. Cliff continues to make bad decisions and his 2nd foul was one he cant make and that sat him for the last 8 minutes of the first half. Cliff then g getting the ball stolen from him and then getting called for an inexcusable frustration foul right afterward with about 14 minutes left and RU up 47-44 just killed RU.
Now Im going to say, if I were Pike why are you taking him out. Bad move by Pike which set in motion just a horrific lineup he put out there....Reiber, Palm, Derek. He took Caleb out at the same time..wtf. Pike a really bad day today and he gambled with those guys to steal minutes and they were abused for easy buckets and were abysmal offensively. Why is Reiber taking shots in our offense...took 3 including blowing a fast break layup. The damage was done more so in momentum. Illinois had wrested control. So while by the time Cliff got back in the defecit was only 52-47 that didnt matter. RU was in meltdown mode. Their leadership from then on was incredbly poor. RU was charmin soft. Mentally weak..petite. It was very unrutgers like. We had not see this team respond like this. Cliff came back in and immediately got his 4th foul. Things would get worse from there with Wolf in and Illinois completed their 19-0 run going up 60-47 and the game was over right there.
The fact of the matter is once again the leaders on this team needed to take some heat. No one is stepping up. Cliff finished 14/10 but those stats are meaningless. He was a non entity on both ends. His defense was poor and whoevers fault it was offensively he wasnt getting the ball. Paul hit his first four shots but then stopped taking them. RU rode Calebs 12 points on 5-10 shooting in first half but that was fools gold. He missed all 4 in the 2nd half including a point blank bunny on a fast break. The ball was getting in the hands of the wrong people taking the wrong shots. RU panicked instead of valuing the basketball. Good lord the lead was just 5 points and we were acting like we were desperation mode. The awful turnovers and shots were maddening. The Pike lineup and lack of adjustments infuriating. The vaunted defense who played solid in the first half, completely was shredded in the 2nd half. Illinois housed RU on the boards in the 2nd half. RU was feeble. Totally outphysicalled for the 2nd straight game.
Lets face it folks. Rutgers is a bad offensive team. If RU isnt playing lock down defense and scoring in transition, they are going to play some bad basketball for stretches. Today was the worst of the season. There are no horses offensively. RU isnt establishing Cliff, Paul is not willing to take shots. Cam is in a ridiculous slump and we have 3 bench players who are forced into action probably not Big 10 level players. Derek just not developed enough for this roll. This is where the recruiting comes back to bit Pike. No Mag and the gig is up. RU leaves alot of points on the table by not converting easy shots but the big problem I am seeing the last 2 game is I do not think this team is valuing the possessions and that starts with Paul. He is delivering the ball to the wrong people and the ball is sticking. He is successful at times but it seems like the opposing defense makes some adjustments and Pike does not counter.
So this crossroads. Where is RU going. They can sulk and let it get to their heads which I fear or they can come out strong at the RAC and dispatch of Nebraska to get back on track. There is enough good on this team where they pick up the needed 3 wins in next 6 to ensure a NCAA and 2 plus a BE tourney win would probably be enough. Not worried yet about NCAA. I will be worried if RU loses to Nebraska. Rutgers needs to do a little Taylor Swift and SHAKE IT OFF......things can go downhill very quickly. I have said this before, every school goes through a rough stretch in league. The trick is to avoid losing games in a row. This is the first time RU has lost 2 in a row. Its okay. Yet I see red flags all over the place right now. The first goal to not take anything from granted so one game at a time. The NCAA tourney is the goal. RU still has to earn that. The win at Purdue can be wiped away if we see play like we did today during that 19-0 run. Schools like Wisconsin and Penn State can and will beat RU if this team and its coach cannot figure out how to handle the loss of Mag and a better way to respond when things are not going well. The veteran team did not show maturity today. Its not the loss today that bothers me. Its the way it happened. Rutgers has played too good this year to ruin things because they cannot find a path forward
