Who's fault is it that they're not surrounded with what you deem to be talented pieces? Could it just be a coaching issue?
- Granted it's a lower level conference but Dercack was the player of the year for his entire conference. He had other p4 suitors.
- Acuff was the nations 8th leading scorer last year and had many p4 suitors
- Martini looked dominant vs us last year and now is just a dud, did he change as a player or did coaching change?
- PJ Hayes was one of the best 3 ball shooters in the portal
- Cliff's offensive efficiency rating is significantly higher at Bama than it was here. He's being put in positions to succeed. Coaching
- Mag is now a key cog on BYU's team. His offensive efficiency rating is significantly higher than it ever was here
You can say whatever you want. Come up with whatever narrative you please but at the end of the day, this is all pikes fault. Lack of coaching ability, not giving max effort to raise NIL because he doesn't think it's part of his job, etc.
Pike picked players that he thought looked like they would help Dylan and ACE but haven’t
Jordan has almost terrible most nights and for a reigning NEC defensive player of the year , his defense is atrocious as he gets beat a lot and cheats for steals and gets burned . So except for MSU we never got enough out of him offensively.
Acuff’s foot injury screwed up any chance he was going to be a dominant scorer. His defense is atrocious but to give him the benefit of the doubt , his injury might have something to do with it. Pike got unlucky here as we have seen some games that Acuff could have consistently helped offensively.
Martini was terrible early and I would argue his minutes in the Alabama and TexasA& M games and missing shots , fumbling passes, missing foul shots , getting no rebounds at all , cost us those 2 games. Then his shooting slump took over and only recently , last 5-6 games since Nebraska has he at least knocked down a three but on the other hand missed 2-3 others wide open. He really wasn’t the experienced senior and shooter Pike thought he was.
PJ has failed as a 3 point specialist. When wide open he has only made like 1 of 4or 5. If closed out on , he hasn’t pumped faked , moved his puppies a few feet either direction and let it fly. He has let Pike down in a huge way.
Cliff hardly plays the key parts of Alabama games and he shoots almost never . Alabama plays 2 other centers besides him just as many minutes if not more. He is not part of their offense only their defense , rim protection and rebounding. Mentioning his offensive efficiency is a joke.
Mag was not playing early and again is not a part of BYU ‘s explosive offense and mostly plays to guard the other team’s best scorer . Citing his offensive efficiency number again is a joke. Go watch a game and then tell me his offensive impact on that team.
So it is not all Pike’s fault. Transfers have underachieved or been atrocious at times. His recruited shooters who didn’t hit open shots when we needed them to hit them consistently. You can make an argument that Pike could run more screens and pin downs for PJ , but after watching him shoot after 26 games , I have concluded he is a great practice shooter or pregame shooter not so great during the game. Pike has mismanaged the rotations. Pike ‘s loyalty to Martini and JMike and Jeremiah over getting Dylan Grant in the starting lineup sooner and not using Dorsch sooner was also his blunder. Presently , he has been terrible at his rotations and seems to be making them just for the sake of subbing. So yes he has some fault. No explaining the last 2 game performances by Dylan and ACE after the Illinois great game , and the good fight against Maryland. Almost hard to believe. Again maybe just some bad luck for Pike.
