First of I will start by saying, welcome back real college basketball and a real college atmosphere to Piscataway. Its been far too long. Last year we got a taste but it was still tough for the fans to come in with a mindset that RU could actually win a game. Tonight was different, one could see the strides that have been made and believe that RU could come out with a victory. And even if they did not win, we know things have changed Pikiell is a real coach and we are showing real improvement and he is giving us a puncher chance right now as we emerge from the death spiral of the last 3 RU coaches.
Tonight's game pretty confirmed some of the fears and affirmed some of the positives we have seen so far. Have I told you before, I hated that schedule to start the year....I thought it was too easy. RU finally got the test tonight, the measuring stick game where we could legitimately see how we stack up and how some of the younger players react and how far they have to go. Starting with Baker and Doucore. It was obvious that they had a litle catching up to do with the pace and awareness of the game playing FSU compared to playing a Bryant. For Doucoure a hard lesson as he picked up two quick fouls in the first half and then again at the start of the 2nd half. One can debate if one or more of those fouls was legitimate but the fact is he struggled to get untracked and to even get on the court. One of those fears I had about him to just coming in and replacing Gettys right away. Its going to take time. Tonight is a big learning lesson. I am sure he is going to get a big lesson as well in the next two games against top 15 opponents. No shame and he deserves a pass tonight. Ditto for Geo who showed a few signs but generally struggled tonight with his shot and his defense and got himself into foul trouble very early. Going up against longer athletic players made a difference. He has never faced this kind of competition before. It wil take him a while to adjust. Unfortunately for these two guys they have been thrust into a role of having to produce since the rest of the team has such a hard time scoring. We can hope that they can become more comfortable sooner than later but I have a feeling we will be dealing with ups and down and growing pains from them much of the year given what they are being forced to contribute. Baptism by fire.
Another concern that jumped out from me tonight was the offense....It is quite a struggle to score...and guys like Freeman and Corey did have times where they look really good on offense but its the consistency thing again, see they go through stretches were they tend to be a little wild and out of control.especially Corey. Trying to force this issue because they have to. This underscores that Pike is just not playing with a full team yet. RU is probably two players away, one being a legit 3 pt threat from being able to be expected to pull games like this out. Toward the end of the game as RU clawed back to down only 3, time and time again we would see either a turnover or a bad shot thrown up. Mike Williams for all his warriorness out there is most of the times against this kind of competition going to be overmatched. He struggled tonight, got limited minutes with foul trouble. So when your three leading players all upperclassmen are finding it tough sledding and seemingly getting worn down by games end you get the final result we got tonight. Certainly I cannot say Corey or Desaun played poorly tonight. Corey had 20, Freeman and 15 pts and 16 boards, its just that the margin of error is so slim for this team right now.
Getting to that last comment, that RU was in this game despite its offensive woes and turnovers, is a credit to how hard this team works and the values of work ethic that Pikiell instills in this team. Thats a big positive from tonight. We know this team will show up and work hard. They came out with energy right from the get go. Most impressive was how they handled adversity in the 2nd half when a few times FSU builit an 8 point lead and it looked like the game was on the brink, RU regained their composure and battled back by getting to their bread and butter which was defense. See Pike is doing a superlative job using defense to mask the defeciencies of this team on offense. However as we saw tonight it can only take you so far. Hitting buckets count, hitting 3s count. I thought RU played excellent D in the first half but in the 2nd half it became much more spotty. The missed shots took its toll on the D which was pourous at times. Now Walker simply took over for FSU in the 2nd half. RU held Mann in check and got him into foul trouble but no answer for Walker as he was often just strolling to the hoop.
Another huge..and this is huge....Eugene's game tonight, he was pretty unstoppable in the second half...9-11 for 22 points, 4-5 ft..we have seen glimpses of it this season but tonight...this was against Florida State, that is what makes his game so monumental for him. He brought it to the next level and took the next step against a very good team with a bunch of gazelles. IF and its a big IF, if he can start being consistent with these games, its really will take the pressure off some of the other guys to have to come up big every night. I think Eugene is flying past Thiam tonight who struggled and seemed lost in the offense. Not sure we should start Eugene yet but I do think his playing time is going to really start increasing as he finds himself.
For the record I was impressed by FSU...better than I thought they would be. I see this team being like a 5th place type team in the Big 10 so I expect RU to be able to compete with most of its league schedule save for Minn, MSU, and Purdue. So if you are still reading after this long winded post, what we have is a team that will give its all and needs to give its all but perhaps maybe we need to accept it is what it is right now and that is desperately needed another player or two. I would say expectations of a 500 season and maytbe 5-6 wins in league are on target but anything more than that might be pushing it. I could very well see this type of movie playing out alot this season. Close hard fought effort but no cigar. But that is okay. Program is taking steps of improvement, it may not be ready to take the giant steps that give everyone the warm fuzzies and land them in post season but at the very least its make watching hoops at the RAC enjoyable again and have relit the flame of hope in the fanbase
Tonight's game pretty confirmed some of the fears and affirmed some of the positives we have seen so far. Have I told you before, I hated that schedule to start the year....I thought it was too easy. RU finally got the test tonight, the measuring stick game where we could legitimately see how we stack up and how some of the younger players react and how far they have to go. Starting with Baker and Doucore. It was obvious that they had a litle catching up to do with the pace and awareness of the game playing FSU compared to playing a Bryant. For Doucoure a hard lesson as he picked up two quick fouls in the first half and then again at the start of the 2nd half. One can debate if one or more of those fouls was legitimate but the fact is he struggled to get untracked and to even get on the court. One of those fears I had about him to just coming in and replacing Gettys right away. Its going to take time. Tonight is a big learning lesson. I am sure he is going to get a big lesson as well in the next two games against top 15 opponents. No shame and he deserves a pass tonight. Ditto for Geo who showed a few signs but generally struggled tonight with his shot and his defense and got himself into foul trouble very early. Going up against longer athletic players made a difference. He has never faced this kind of competition before. It wil take him a while to adjust. Unfortunately for these two guys they have been thrust into a role of having to produce since the rest of the team has such a hard time scoring. We can hope that they can become more comfortable sooner than later but I have a feeling we will be dealing with ups and down and growing pains from them much of the year given what they are being forced to contribute. Baptism by fire.
Another concern that jumped out from me tonight was the offense....It is quite a struggle to score...and guys like Freeman and Corey did have times where they look really good on offense but its the consistency thing again, see they go through stretches were they tend to be a little wild and out of control.especially Corey. Trying to force this issue because they have to. This underscores that Pike is just not playing with a full team yet. RU is probably two players away, one being a legit 3 pt threat from being able to be expected to pull games like this out. Toward the end of the game as RU clawed back to down only 3, time and time again we would see either a turnover or a bad shot thrown up. Mike Williams for all his warriorness out there is most of the times against this kind of competition going to be overmatched. He struggled tonight, got limited minutes with foul trouble. So when your three leading players all upperclassmen are finding it tough sledding and seemingly getting worn down by games end you get the final result we got tonight. Certainly I cannot say Corey or Desaun played poorly tonight. Corey had 20, Freeman and 15 pts and 16 boards, its just that the margin of error is so slim for this team right now.
Getting to that last comment, that RU was in this game despite its offensive woes and turnovers, is a credit to how hard this team works and the values of work ethic that Pikiell instills in this team. Thats a big positive from tonight. We know this team will show up and work hard. They came out with energy right from the get go. Most impressive was how they handled adversity in the 2nd half when a few times FSU builit an 8 point lead and it looked like the game was on the brink, RU regained their composure and battled back by getting to their bread and butter which was defense. See Pike is doing a superlative job using defense to mask the defeciencies of this team on offense. However as we saw tonight it can only take you so far. Hitting buckets count, hitting 3s count. I thought RU played excellent D in the first half but in the 2nd half it became much more spotty. The missed shots took its toll on the D which was pourous at times. Now Walker simply took over for FSU in the 2nd half. RU held Mann in check and got him into foul trouble but no answer for Walker as he was often just strolling to the hoop.
Another huge..and this is huge....Eugene's game tonight, he was pretty unstoppable in the second half...9-11 for 22 points, 4-5 ft..we have seen glimpses of it this season but tonight...this was against Florida State, that is what makes his game so monumental for him. He brought it to the next level and took the next step against a very good team with a bunch of gazelles. IF and its a big IF, if he can start being consistent with these games, its really will take the pressure off some of the other guys to have to come up big every night. I think Eugene is flying past Thiam tonight who struggled and seemed lost in the offense. Not sure we should start Eugene yet but I do think his playing time is going to really start increasing as he finds himself.
For the record I was impressed by FSU...better than I thought they would be. I see this team being like a 5th place type team in the Big 10 so I expect RU to be able to compete with most of its league schedule save for Minn, MSU, and Purdue. So if you are still reading after this long winded post, what we have is a team that will give its all and needs to give its all but perhaps maybe we need to accept it is what it is right now and that is desperately needed another player or two. I would say expectations of a 500 season and maytbe 5-6 wins in league are on target but anything more than that might be pushing it. I could very well see this type of movie playing out alot this season. Close hard fought effort but no cigar. But that is okay. Program is taking steps of improvement, it may not be ready to take the giant steps that give everyone the warm fuzzies and land them in post season but at the very least its make watching hoops at the RAC enjoyable again and have relit the flame of hope in the fanbase