First of all, I would like to wish the Rutgers family, posters, players, coaches a Happy Thanksgiving. Special thoughts go out to all the fans who travelled out to Vegas and wish safe travels back later in the weekend. You have represented RU incredibly well and your support was definitely heard on the broadcasts. Its been quite a ride the past two days with the late nights and bright lights. FINALLY, the Rutgers program is relevant on the national scene. No shitty game against St Bumblebee at 8pm Thanksgiving Eve at the RAC with a Sunday game at noon looming vs Stonebird U as part of some stupid bottom feeder classic that does not matter. Big time programs play big time tourneys and you see it all over the country. Pike has been adverse to this previously and the excuse of kids wanting to be home for the holidays vs a tourney in Vegas or Maui or Puerto Rico has been shattered. This is how you do it. It is clear that players rise to the occasion once those bright lights are shining.
Lots of different thoughts swirling. For starters what a rollcoaster in just 5 days. Just a stupid bad loss at Kennesaw where RU was outscored an unfathomable 40-15 at one point A true low point of the season. Team running on hype alone thinking all they had to do is show up on the court and they would win. I almost knew it was coming based on signs from the RAC games. I wish it did not happen but its likely for this teams development it just had to happen. I think most preseason expectations of Vegas was beat Notre Dame and then probably 2 losses vs Bama and Houston. That would change with the scheduling switch. Meant no Houston and perhaps a winnable 3 game. After the KSU loss, I think the possibility of 0-3 was real and perhaps extending to a 4-5 start. The Notre Dame game was certainly exciting but more importantly it showed Dylan Harper leaping from freshmen phenom to NBA ready player. We saw some great things from Dylan previously but never quite at the level of Tuesday game. That was the moment it became Dylan's team as I explained in the recap yesterday. Big difference maker and just a huge exponential needed growth to set the season on the right path. Reality is Notre Dame is not that good but it was the best team RU beat all year. RU showed some resiliency and grit in learning how to win. Not pretty and hairy at the end but finally some toughness and teamwork. The Alabama game became house money. Bama looked like a Final 4 team vs Houston the night before and there was potential this game could have got ugly. Conventional wisdom would say RU would hang a bit and then get worned down and the Tide would win going away. Yet that did not happen.
If you felt green around the gills after the Kennesaw State debacle, you should be feel highly encouraged from what you saw last night (I WILL CAVEAT THIS THOUGH LATER). Rutgers came to play and were not intimidated by facing Alabama so far starters having a belief you can beat a prohibitive favorite is important for a young team. The talent of Dylan and also Ace gives this team the confidence to feel they can beat any team any time. Rutgers would play Alabama toe to toe. Tough opponent for RU because of how explosive Bama is in gathering points and they still play D. Not a team you want to get into a track meet with. I think Pike did a fine job of managing the team throughout and they were able to hold sway through some rougher patches without the Tide being able to get seperation and blow it open. I do agree with Seth Davis somewhat. Bama just faced a physical overtime battle with top 10 Houston and left alot on the table there. RU had overtime but against a weaker Notre Dame. I think Bama was somewhat overlooking RU and not as focused and you can see that in their silly turnover number especially in the first half. By the time Bama buckled down, it was too late, it was a death match slugfest. Dylan was clown shoes as @Degaz-RU said. Degaz...that has to be the post of the year. Such an apt description of Dylan last night. If we thought the Notre Dame performance was something, last night he was sublime. Bama just had enough to hold on. RU certainly had a chance to win but the last couple minutes was a microcosm of what had plagued them all game......failure to rebound and inability to hit a 3 plus the inability of anyone besides Dylan or Ace to make a big time bucket. Stepping back and looking at it, wow Rutgers just played a SEC title fave and Final 4 contender to the wire. A team who had beaten Houston and put up 100 on Illinois with just a loss to Purdue. Pretty good company eh. I do not think any Rutgers have should have a concern that RU will not be able to compete with any team on the schedule. Dylan on another level and now we all know what that means. Obviously he is not going to putting up 35 points every night. That would wear the kid down pretty quickly. Yet do not forget about Ace who took a big step forward last night. All Rutgers fans should feel alot better about the seasons prognosis then they did at any point this season. The devil is in the details though and that is the CAVEAT.
In the 3 games against real team, actually 4 if you include KSU as a real team and even throw the St Johns exhibition in there. All the games right down to the wire. All seeing big time play from Dylan and middling offensive contributions from the supporting cast. Defense for sure has improved since St Johns and despite giving up 90 last night, I thought it was one of the better defensive performance, actually both Vegas games. Yet my concern is will it be groundhog day for RU every night. Will it be the Dylan/Ace show putting up 45-50 points doing enough to keep RU in the game but the lack of supporting cast and lack of rebounding just resulting in the same type of close win or loss night in and out. Its just a fear and its small sample size as we are only 7 games in. I think the next 2 games will tell ALOT to answer my questions. Pike is an excellent coach. Rebounding is the #1 issue facing the program. Pike has to identify the players he wants to put in there to specifically fill a role as a scrappy rebounder. It could be Acuff. It could be Derkack. Ultimately if it is not fixed, I fear the same type of back and forth game game every night no matter if RU is playing Minnesota or Illinois.
The younger players have reason every reason to get better. J Will hampered by injury is looking like he is coming back to his form. Him being the third contributor makes a huge difference. A defensive leader, his foul trouble last night was a big factor in the loss. I would have loved to see what would have happened if he could have stayed on the court because he is that guy who can hit the big shot besides Dylan and his defensive prowess was missed at that point. Dylan has not had a bad night all year. He will have one by the end of the year, it happens. When that does, RU will need multiple players confident enough to step in to make up for it. Last night in a big spot, Derkack whiffed on a dunk and a couple of open 3s and that is a killer. Hayes has shown flashes to hit the 3 but his defensive so behind its kept him off the court. Acuff another one who had a great game vs Notre Dame but looked slow on a consecutive night game vs Bama. Martini has yet to show anything IMO yet. Ogbole becoming servicable on D but cannot be counted for consistent production. Lathan is finding out things are not the same when the competition is tougher. J Mike seems like he has regressed. Grant and Dortsch are hopelessly riding pine.
Now circling back to last night to touch on some stats. I know many in the game thread were on the officiating...predictably (who knew) yet while I think they were a bit inconsistent, I do not think they are biased in any direction. There were a whopping 55 fouls called and 29 were called on Alabama. Have we ever seen a RU team making a living at the foul line. I do not recall this.....30-35 is just incredible..is that a record, someone look that up. Harper was sick going 15-16. Harper is going to get fouled alot. He took 16 against a very good team so whats going to happen against your average Big 10 team who cannot defend him. Going to be a big strategy for this team to put up needed points and if Ogbole who went 5-6 can keep it up that is just gravy.
2-13 on 3s is dreadful. Bama was 10-25. It seemed like more because when they did hit, they were timely. Like the one after the missed Derkack dunk that put Bama up 56-53 and I dont think they trailed after that. Tough to beat a volume scoring team like Bama by only hitting 2 threes. Amazing that RU was able to be just a layup and a stop away from doing just that.
Rebounding just ugly. Bama won the battle 43-31 and 16-12 on the offensive boards. Does someone know the 2nd or third chance points because it appeared Bama feasted on them.
RU actually looked dead at 88-80 and there was every reason to think he game had slipped away with just under 4 to go. Harper did his stuff and Ace nailed a giant 3 and then I thought our D was playing tough forcing a turnover. Then Harper down the lane for a layup and its down to 88-87. RU was right there. In the heat of battle, RU was actually grabbing some offensive rebounds. Down 90-87, RU had 3 chances to put a bucket in. JD missed a layup but RU retained possession, JD would miss a wide open 3 to tie the game but RU still retained possession on the out of bounds and then Acuff hit 1 of 2. Bama then turned it over after a miss and rebound. Dylan just could not covert at 90-88 drawing a double team. There were just some missed opportunities for rebounds late including the missed free throw where RU could have had a shot at tying the game if they boarded. Lathan not able to come up with the board and Bama up 5.
So from that perspective just no quit in this team. Dylan will always be the best player on the court and Ace not far behind. That is an immense advantage in a close game. Long term though it looks like Pike is going to have to do another THREAD THE NEEDLE coaching job this year. In the past, he did it with defense and squeezing every last bit out of them to hide for the lacking of scoring ability. This year its going to be about threading the needle getting just enough out of the supporting cast whether its through rebounding or setting someone up on the wing for a 3 to be able to squeak wins out. Another possible strategy is to continue to take care of the ball like they did vs Bama only 9 while pressuring other teams into coughing it up. RU is at the top of the Big 10 with just 9 a game. I think last night points off turnovers was 23-8 so those kind of things can make up for the poor overall defense and rebounding. These game will not be played in the 60s that is for sure. The defense is getting better little by little you see the signs but this is never going to be a lock down defensive team. Ace and Dylan are getting better defensively but it will never be fair to them to ask they become lock down defenders. That isnt their role. Get J Will healthy and get him 10-12 ppg and Pike gets closer to threading that needle.
Texas A&M up next. Team and staff some time off to rest and reflect. Aggies are a challenge and likely NCAA team but a rung down from Alabama. Expect a battle but another test to see where we currently are and how much do we have to go. With that loss to Kennesaw, Rutgers would do themselves well to notch a win here to give them a quality win on the resume. Want to get them sooner than later and unfortunately this is the last chance to pick up a meaningful OOC win. Yes not a must win but big opportunity game.
Lots of different thoughts swirling. For starters what a rollcoaster in just 5 days. Just a stupid bad loss at Kennesaw where RU was outscored an unfathomable 40-15 at one point A true low point of the season. Team running on hype alone thinking all they had to do is show up on the court and they would win. I almost knew it was coming based on signs from the RAC games. I wish it did not happen but its likely for this teams development it just had to happen. I think most preseason expectations of Vegas was beat Notre Dame and then probably 2 losses vs Bama and Houston. That would change with the scheduling switch. Meant no Houston and perhaps a winnable 3 game. After the KSU loss, I think the possibility of 0-3 was real and perhaps extending to a 4-5 start. The Notre Dame game was certainly exciting but more importantly it showed Dylan Harper leaping from freshmen phenom to NBA ready player. We saw some great things from Dylan previously but never quite at the level of Tuesday game. That was the moment it became Dylan's team as I explained in the recap yesterday. Big difference maker and just a huge exponential needed growth to set the season on the right path. Reality is Notre Dame is not that good but it was the best team RU beat all year. RU showed some resiliency and grit in learning how to win. Not pretty and hairy at the end but finally some toughness and teamwork. The Alabama game became house money. Bama looked like a Final 4 team vs Houston the night before and there was potential this game could have got ugly. Conventional wisdom would say RU would hang a bit and then get worned down and the Tide would win going away. Yet that did not happen.
If you felt green around the gills after the Kennesaw State debacle, you should be feel highly encouraged from what you saw last night (I WILL CAVEAT THIS THOUGH LATER). Rutgers came to play and were not intimidated by facing Alabama so far starters having a belief you can beat a prohibitive favorite is important for a young team. The talent of Dylan and also Ace gives this team the confidence to feel they can beat any team any time. Rutgers would play Alabama toe to toe. Tough opponent for RU because of how explosive Bama is in gathering points and they still play D. Not a team you want to get into a track meet with. I think Pike did a fine job of managing the team throughout and they were able to hold sway through some rougher patches without the Tide being able to get seperation and blow it open. I do agree with Seth Davis somewhat. Bama just faced a physical overtime battle with top 10 Houston and left alot on the table there. RU had overtime but against a weaker Notre Dame. I think Bama was somewhat overlooking RU and not as focused and you can see that in their silly turnover number especially in the first half. By the time Bama buckled down, it was too late, it was a death match slugfest. Dylan was clown shoes as @Degaz-RU said. Degaz...that has to be the post of the year. Such an apt description of Dylan last night. If we thought the Notre Dame performance was something, last night he was sublime. Bama just had enough to hold on. RU certainly had a chance to win but the last couple minutes was a microcosm of what had plagued them all game......failure to rebound and inability to hit a 3 plus the inability of anyone besides Dylan or Ace to make a big time bucket. Stepping back and looking at it, wow Rutgers just played a SEC title fave and Final 4 contender to the wire. A team who had beaten Houston and put up 100 on Illinois with just a loss to Purdue. Pretty good company eh. I do not think any Rutgers have should have a concern that RU will not be able to compete with any team on the schedule. Dylan on another level and now we all know what that means. Obviously he is not going to putting up 35 points every night. That would wear the kid down pretty quickly. Yet do not forget about Ace who took a big step forward last night. All Rutgers fans should feel alot better about the seasons prognosis then they did at any point this season. The devil is in the details though and that is the CAVEAT.
In the 3 games against real team, actually 4 if you include KSU as a real team and even throw the St Johns exhibition in there. All the games right down to the wire. All seeing big time play from Dylan and middling offensive contributions from the supporting cast. Defense for sure has improved since St Johns and despite giving up 90 last night, I thought it was one of the better defensive performance, actually both Vegas games. Yet my concern is will it be groundhog day for RU every night. Will it be the Dylan/Ace show putting up 45-50 points doing enough to keep RU in the game but the lack of supporting cast and lack of rebounding just resulting in the same type of close win or loss night in and out. Its just a fear and its small sample size as we are only 7 games in. I think the next 2 games will tell ALOT to answer my questions. Pike is an excellent coach. Rebounding is the #1 issue facing the program. Pike has to identify the players he wants to put in there to specifically fill a role as a scrappy rebounder. It could be Acuff. It could be Derkack. Ultimately if it is not fixed, I fear the same type of back and forth game game every night no matter if RU is playing Minnesota or Illinois.
The younger players have reason every reason to get better. J Will hampered by injury is looking like he is coming back to his form. Him being the third contributor makes a huge difference. A defensive leader, his foul trouble last night was a big factor in the loss. I would have loved to see what would have happened if he could have stayed on the court because he is that guy who can hit the big shot besides Dylan and his defensive prowess was missed at that point. Dylan has not had a bad night all year. He will have one by the end of the year, it happens. When that does, RU will need multiple players confident enough to step in to make up for it. Last night in a big spot, Derkack whiffed on a dunk and a couple of open 3s and that is a killer. Hayes has shown flashes to hit the 3 but his defensive so behind its kept him off the court. Acuff another one who had a great game vs Notre Dame but looked slow on a consecutive night game vs Bama. Martini has yet to show anything IMO yet. Ogbole becoming servicable on D but cannot be counted for consistent production. Lathan is finding out things are not the same when the competition is tougher. J Mike seems like he has regressed. Grant and Dortsch are hopelessly riding pine.
Now circling back to last night to touch on some stats. I know many in the game thread were on the officiating...predictably (who knew) yet while I think they were a bit inconsistent, I do not think they are biased in any direction. There were a whopping 55 fouls called and 29 were called on Alabama. Have we ever seen a RU team making a living at the foul line. I do not recall this.....30-35 is just incredible..is that a record, someone look that up. Harper was sick going 15-16. Harper is going to get fouled alot. He took 16 against a very good team so whats going to happen against your average Big 10 team who cannot defend him. Going to be a big strategy for this team to put up needed points and if Ogbole who went 5-6 can keep it up that is just gravy.
2-13 on 3s is dreadful. Bama was 10-25. It seemed like more because when they did hit, they were timely. Like the one after the missed Derkack dunk that put Bama up 56-53 and I dont think they trailed after that. Tough to beat a volume scoring team like Bama by only hitting 2 threes. Amazing that RU was able to be just a layup and a stop away from doing just that.
Rebounding just ugly. Bama won the battle 43-31 and 16-12 on the offensive boards. Does someone know the 2nd or third chance points because it appeared Bama feasted on them.
RU actually looked dead at 88-80 and there was every reason to think he game had slipped away with just under 4 to go. Harper did his stuff and Ace nailed a giant 3 and then I thought our D was playing tough forcing a turnover. Then Harper down the lane for a layup and its down to 88-87. RU was right there. In the heat of battle, RU was actually grabbing some offensive rebounds. Down 90-87, RU had 3 chances to put a bucket in. JD missed a layup but RU retained possession, JD would miss a wide open 3 to tie the game but RU still retained possession on the out of bounds and then Acuff hit 1 of 2. Bama then turned it over after a miss and rebound. Dylan just could not covert at 90-88 drawing a double team. There were just some missed opportunities for rebounds late including the missed free throw where RU could have had a shot at tying the game if they boarded. Lathan not able to come up with the board and Bama up 5.
So from that perspective just no quit in this team. Dylan will always be the best player on the court and Ace not far behind. That is an immense advantage in a close game. Long term though it looks like Pike is going to have to do another THREAD THE NEEDLE coaching job this year. In the past, he did it with defense and squeezing every last bit out of them to hide for the lacking of scoring ability. This year its going to be about threading the needle getting just enough out of the supporting cast whether its through rebounding or setting someone up on the wing for a 3 to be able to squeak wins out. Another possible strategy is to continue to take care of the ball like they did vs Bama only 9 while pressuring other teams into coughing it up. RU is at the top of the Big 10 with just 9 a game. I think last night points off turnovers was 23-8 so those kind of things can make up for the poor overall defense and rebounding. These game will not be played in the 60s that is for sure. The defense is getting better little by little you see the signs but this is never going to be a lock down defensive team. Ace and Dylan are getting better defensively but it will never be fair to them to ask they become lock down defenders. That isnt their role. Get J Will healthy and get him 10-12 ppg and Pike gets closer to threading that needle.
Texas A&M up next. Team and staff some time off to rest and reflect. Aggies are a challenge and likely NCAA team but a rung down from Alabama. Expect a battle but another test to see where we currently are and how much do we have to go. With that loss to Kennesaw, Rutgers would do themselves well to notch a win here to give them a quality win on the resume. Want to get them sooner than later and unfortunately this is the last chance to pick up a meaningful OOC win. Yes not a must win but big opportunity game.
