GAME 3: Meh

[RUinFla]

At this point, we don't know if Mulcahy will develop into a scorer, but he had another fine floor game. Say the numbers again--9 rebounds, 7 assists, a block and a steal. That is contributing even if he doesn't score. Meanwhile. JY had one assist today after getting 6 in the first half against FDU. The announcers again said that Rutgers looked disorganized. We need Geo back. Think the team was more mentally tired than physically tired. These games seem too much like scrimmages without the fans.

 

[RU-ROCS]

Zones will continue to confound this team because of the lack of 3-point shooters. Geo is sorely missed for his leadership ability to run the offense and absolute clutch shooting when the game is on the line. But he only shot 28% from 3 last year, as did McConnell and JY. In fact, Montez has the second best shooting % of last yea’s returning players at 30%. Harper is tops with 35% last year. By comparison, most teams in the Big 10 last year had at least one guy shooting 40% or better from 3, and some teams had more than one.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

If RU makes half of it's missed layups, this is a 25 point game.

The Yeboah/Caleb gap on shooting is offset by Harper/Mathis/Geo and 40 minutes of rebounding and defense from the 5 position.

Is it asking too much to have 7 players carry a roster?? I am watching teams like Nova with a 6 to 7 player rotation and others who have or are going to ride their best players and find spots for their bench to contribute.

Let's rewind a year and it was Bryant, loss at Pitt, loss in Toronto to a hot shooting Bona and somehow rallying to a 20 win season.....all of this happened while Yeboah didn't start the handful of first games, allowing Pike to experiment with playing Caleb more minutes and force feeding Myles Johnson.

Now we are developing expanded roles for Harper, Mathis and Jacob Young is forcing the action into the team getting easy baskets.

The beginning of last year, Young was defending but was a turnover machine.....this year, he is better and more confident.

I think each roster is different and yes, it needs a shooting threat from 3 beyond Baker, Young and Harper. A 4th person like Mathis or Caleb or Palmquist will emerge from that group....and maybe some surprise contributions are not yet in the equation just yet.

This is a program based on rebounding and defense. That said, it is a NCAA caliber team and is a NCAA team, now 2 years in a row. Hofstra beat FDU by 15 for whatever that is worth for the nervous Nellie's out there.

The 1st 6 games of the B1G are difficult

At Maryland
Illinois
At Ohio State
Purdue
Iowa
At Michigan State

Add Wisconsin a couple of weeks after that and you have teams to look forward to watching and seeing how we match up. It will be fun to watch.

 

[Shell21]

If RU makes half of it's missed layups, this is a 25 point game.

The Yeboah/Caleb gap on shooting is offset by Harper/Mathis/Geo and 40 minutes of rebounding and defense from the 5 position.

Is it asking too much to have 7 players carry a roster?? I am watching teams like Nova with a 6 to 7 player rotation and others who have or are going to ride their best players and find spots for their bench to contribute.

Let's rewind a year and it was Bryant, loss at Pitt, loss in Toronto to a hot shooting Bona and somehow rallying to a 20 win season.....all of this happened while Yeboah didn't start the handful of first games, allowing Pike to experiment with playing Caleb more minutes and force feeding Myles Johnson.

Now we are developing expanded roles for Harper, Mathis and Jacob Young is forcing the action into the team getting easy baskets.

The beginning of last year, Young was defending but was a turnover machine.....this year, he is better and more confident.

I think each roster is different and yes, it needs a shooting threat from 3 beyond Baker, Young and Harper. A 4th person like Mathis or Caleb or Palmquist will emerge from that group....and maybe some surprise contributions are not yet in the equation just yet.

This is a program based on rebounding and defense. That said, it is a NCAA caliber team and is a NCAA team, now 2 years in a row. Hofstra beat FDU by 15 for whatever that is worth for the nervous Nellie's out there.

The 1st 6 games of the B1G are difficult

At Maryland
Illinois
At Ohio State
Purdue
Iowa
At Michigan State

Add Wisconsin a couple of weeks after that and you have teams to look forward to watching and seeing how we match up. It will be fun to watch.

Speaking of Nova, whats up with Bryan Antoine? Is he hurt again? He's gettin no run at all. I watched there first few games and didn't see him in there once.

 

[seels2662]

We are a bubble team without Geo

With Geo we are at least a sweet 16 team depending on matchups. Geo, Young, Mathis, Harper plus a good distributor in Mulcahy and the two headed center monster makes us simply more talented than most of the nation. After the sweet 16 then we start playing teams of equal talent and that's when the issues like FT shooting come into play