1.) Maybe Mike Williams will contribute more than I thought (from watching him last year). With a PG like Corey, he'll get a LOT more open shots this year. I like it.
2.) Freeman is incredible to watch, despite being a bit undersized. When you only have one guy doing much up front, it's hard to open things up for him.
3.) I'd say Rutgers wins this game if they hit their FTs, but the same could be said about St. John's. They couldn't hit them either. Absolutely the most disappointing part of the game. I'll never in my life understand how decent basketball players can't hit a free throw to save their lives. I'm not in shape, nothing more than 6', and not much of a basketball player, but even I would get pissed if I had 10 FTs and couldn't make 7-8 of them. We couldn't even get near 50%! This will sting.
4.) Diallo couldn't be more lost right now. I'm hoping he eventually turns into a Hamady-light type of player. We're definitely missing that type of shot blocker on D.
5.) This team needs a scorer. They need a Douby. A Wooten. A Carter. Somebody who's not afraid to shoot and take some pressure off of Williams. They need somebody who's stone cold and not afraid of the pressure.
6.) Absolute screw job. Somebody needs to post the gif of those 4 seconds. Maybe I'd be able to let it go if it wasn't a continuous thing the entire game. St. John got almost every call. Yes, Rutgers should have still won. This isn't an excuse for not winning, but it's a damn true one in the sense that we should have been on the line shooting 2 (probably missing 2, but still) with a chance to pull ahead. These were some terrible refs.
7.) Laurent has a couple of flashes, but he's not there yet either. I wish we had enough depth that a guy like him could just redshirt his frosh year and develop some more game. I'd like to see a little more Dane Miller in his game, but it could come over time.
8.) I'm not much of a fan of the game that Daniels or Foreman play, so yeah, I'll try to be as nice as possible. Here's hoping those guys can get over their brain farts at some point this year. Daniels in particular was responsible for the big lead, and he was just as responsible for losing that lead.
9.) I actually liked some of the time outs Eddie had called when St. John's was making runs, but coming out of those time outs, I would have liked to see Goode in the game. These are the times you put him in ... when you don't have to worry about the D right away. But anyway, twice you saw Rutgers stop runs and bring the lead back up to double digits. Late in the game, they let it slip away, though. Eddie failed to make the right changes to hold them off, and the players didn't pick it up when they needed to.
10.) I'm not seeing the hate for Greg Lewis that some have here. He is what he is, but he's by far our best option at the 5 at this point in time.
11.) I liked the effort on D, but there are a LOT of little things, like playing straight up, that this team needs to get better at. I liked the pressure on the perimeter.
12.) While FT shooting is an obvious hole tonight, we also got severely outworked on the boards. Foreman, Freeman, and Lewis are rebounders. Why couldn't they do so tonight with regularity?
13.) We should have won. We should have won. We should have won. It may not make the difference in making the NIT vs. not making it, but still, we should have won.
14.) That being said, this team is so much better than last year's. It's not even close. The games may be heart breaking, but they're worth watching now.
2.) Freeman is incredible to watch, despite being a bit undersized. When you only have one guy doing much up front, it's hard to open things up for him.
3.) I'd say Rutgers wins this game if they hit their FTs, but the same could be said about St. John's. They couldn't hit them either. Absolutely the most disappointing part of the game. I'll never in my life understand how decent basketball players can't hit a free throw to save their lives. I'm not in shape, nothing more than 6', and not much of a basketball player, but even I would get pissed if I had 10 FTs and couldn't make 7-8 of them. We couldn't even get near 50%! This will sting.
4.) Diallo couldn't be more lost right now. I'm hoping he eventually turns into a Hamady-light type of player. We're definitely missing that type of shot blocker on D.
5.) This team needs a scorer. They need a Douby. A Wooten. A Carter. Somebody who's not afraid to shoot and take some pressure off of Williams. They need somebody who's stone cold and not afraid of the pressure.
6.) Absolute screw job. Somebody needs to post the gif of those 4 seconds. Maybe I'd be able to let it go if it wasn't a continuous thing the entire game. St. John got almost every call. Yes, Rutgers should have still won. This isn't an excuse for not winning, but it's a damn true one in the sense that we should have been on the line shooting 2 (probably missing 2, but still) with a chance to pull ahead. These were some terrible refs.
7.) Laurent has a couple of flashes, but he's not there yet either. I wish we had enough depth that a guy like him could just redshirt his frosh year and develop some more game. I'd like to see a little more Dane Miller in his game, but it could come over time.
8.) I'm not much of a fan of the game that Daniels or Foreman play, so yeah, I'll try to be as nice as possible. Here's hoping those guys can get over their brain farts at some point this year. Daniels in particular was responsible for the big lead, and he was just as responsible for losing that lead.
9.) I actually liked some of the time outs Eddie had called when St. John's was making runs, but coming out of those time outs, I would have liked to see Goode in the game. These are the times you put him in ... when you don't have to worry about the D right away. But anyway, twice you saw Rutgers stop runs and bring the lead back up to double digits. Late in the game, they let it slip away, though. Eddie failed to make the right changes to hold them off, and the players didn't pick it up when they needed to.
10.) I'm not seeing the hate for Greg Lewis that some have here. He is what he is, but he's by far our best option at the 5 at this point in time.
11.) I liked the effort on D, but there are a LOT of little things, like playing straight up, that this team needs to get better at. I liked the pressure on the perimeter.
12.) While FT shooting is an obvious hole tonight, we also got severely outworked on the boards. Foreman, Freeman, and Lewis are rebounders. Why couldn't they do so tonight with regularity?
13.) We should have won. We should have won. We should have won. It may not make the difference in making the NIT vs. not making it, but still, we should have won.
14.) That being said, this team is so much better than last year's. It's not even close. The games may be heart breaking, but they're worth watching now.
