One of the biggest indicators of our offensive weakness is that Pike feels we need to keep feeding Cliff in the post. This is SO ineffective too often leading to a bad (embarrassing?) shot attempt or a turnover out of the double.
GAME 31 NORTHWESTERN: Sinking
- Thread starter bac2therac
- Start date
One of my biggest hopes for next year is that we get away from this. It's hard to watch.
Disagree with the two year transfer over one year transfer preference. You can just get another one year transfer the next season.
My thoughts:
Before the season began, most probably thought this was a transition year with an NCAA berth unlikely due to the fact that Geo and Ron had graduated and took with them a lot of the offense and leadership. And then as the season progressed we were surprised at how good the team played and the defense looked even better than any of Pike's past teams. We not only looked good but dare I say dominant in our wins. But then we lose Mag and everything changed. For the worse. The defense suffered . Our half court offense was awful. Our bench has been exposed. Rotations were awful. Last night as soon as Pike did his initial substitutions Northwestern went on a 9-0 run and physically beat us from that point on.....It's easy to question how one player ( Mag) getting hurt could have such an impact but it has. We miss his aggressive and energetic play on defense. He keyed our press and transition offense. But we also miss greatly his rebounding and play around the basket. No one replaced Mag's rebounding. No one. Hyatt doesn't rebound and Reiber and Palmquist can't. Mulcahy has been getting a lot of criticism here. Yes his play recently has been bad --but he's been dealt a bad hand by Pike. He is not a point guard--he lacks quickness, the ability to create offense for others, and his outside shot is not great. He'd be better as a point forward with Simpson the starting PG. If Rutgers is to win on Thursday, they need to shake things up and move Hyatt to the bench. One note : Cliff's offensive shortcomings have been exposed. Move him far enough from the basket and he's a liability--wild forced shots or turnovers. He needs to return next year and improve his ball handling around the hoop, his passing and shot from 10-12 feet away. Most disappointing thing from last night--the look of defeat on their faces.
Before the season began, most probably thought this was a transition year with an NCAA berth unlikely due to the fact that Geo and Ron had graduated and took with them a lot of the offense and leadership. And then as the season progressed we were surprised at how good the team played and the defense looked even better than any of Pike's past teams. We not only looked good but dare I say dominant in our wins. But then we lose Mag and everything changed. For the worse. The defense suffered . Our half court offense was awful. Our bench has been exposed. Rotations were awful. Last night as soon as Pike did his initial substitutions Northwestern went on a 9-0 run and physically beat us from that point on.....It's easy to question how one player ( Mag) getting hurt could have such an impact but it has. We miss his aggressive and energetic play on defense. He keyed our press and transition offense. But we also miss greatly his rebounding and play around the basket. No one replaced Mag's rebounding. No one. Hyatt doesn't rebound and Reiber and Palmquist can't. Mulcahy has been getting a lot of criticism here. Yes his play recently has been bad --but he's been dealt a bad hand by Pike. He is not a point guard--he lacks quickness, the ability to create offense for others, and his outside shot is not great. He'd be better as a point forward with Simpson the starting PG. If Rutgers is to win on Thursday, they need to shake things up and move Hyatt to the bench. One note : Cliff's offensive shortcomings have been exposed. Move him far enough from the basket and he's a liability--wild forced shots or turnovers. He needs to return next year and improve his ball handling around the hoop, his passing and shot from 10-12 feet away. Most disappointing thing from last night--the look of defeat on their faces.
We played so badly that it overshadowed the silly pre-determined substitutions that didn’t even matter this time.
I cringed when I saw Palm, Wolf and SImpson going in at the same time.
It’s clear that pike needs to slightly adjust his “my guys are my guys” mindset. It’s great from a culture perspective, but it makes us susceptible to the boat sinking with 1 injury.
I’m excited for the upcoming months. I think Spencer, cliff, mag, and Griffiths is a great nucleus. I love Simpson off the bench. Can pike snag a true starting point guard? Can he find a net positive 7th man? The roster will be open….
I’m excited for the upcoming months. I think Spencer, cliff, mag, and Griffiths is a great nucleus. I love Simpson off the bench. Can pike snag a true starting point guard? Can he find a net positive 7th man? The roster will be open….
Agreed - a starting point guard and a mature shooting wing? A couple of one-year guys would be nice (I expect 5-6 guys won't be back).
I actually thought they might win this evening. NW was struggling as well coming into this game but they just wanted it more. They certainly did not play great and that made the game even more difficult to watch. I don't even think our defense was that great. How many times did Cliff get burnt by helping out others leaving Nicholson for easy dunks?
I took this one much better than the Minnesota since like others, I had accepted that we are just not good enough. At this point, we may be the worst performing team other than Minnesota.
Will be interesting off season. I expect Pike will publicly cover for his guys and play up the injuries. How he really feels will be determined by who is back and who is not. Just remember Gavin will be a freshman next year, let's not think he will cure all our offensive woes.
I took this one much better than the Minnesota since like others, I had accepted that we are just not good enough. At this point, we may be the worst performing team other than Minnesota.
Will be interesting off season. I expect Pike will publicly cover for his guys and play up the injuries. How he really feels will be determined by who is back and who is not. Just remember Gavin will be a freshman next year, let's not think he will cure all our offensive woes.
Well it's not like anyone can penetrate so the other option is to pass the ball around the perimeter for 20 seconds before settling for a long jumper.
We didn’t even get long jumpers off. Every shot was well defended.
The euphoria of great wins made all of us giddy and some of us prematurely confident. Truthfully, we did play great and you can't deny we beat good teams. Unfortunately , let's face it the team had to bust its ass to win and there was a thin line to success or failure. So many obstacles confronted this team-- OSU screw, Mag loss, other injuries, etc---I think and feared we were exhausted from it all and wouldn't get off the canvas . Unfortunately we didn't without an offensive player to lift us up. Hey maybe we'll be shocked later this week.
Agree. That’s why I said it was “one of the biggest indicators of our offensive weakness.”
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