Geo’s Post-Game Comment Provides More Insight to Team Woes

[RUsojo]

and the struggle we face against good opponents. Something to the effect of “we didn’t want to get into a shootout and that’s what happened”. Unfortunately, another clear indicator that Pike simply refuses to acknowledge the importance of scoring points for this teams success.

Last night we played against the worst AdjD in the conference, by a sizeable margin, and we went into the game with a strategy on offense to slow the game down. I don’t get it. Previous history would even tell you against Iowa we play out best when the offense is playing FAST.

You can look at our biggest wins this year and draw similar comparisons.

Cuse 79-66
Maryland 74-60
Illinois 91-88
Purdue 81-76
Iowa 77-75 (loss)

Our best games of the season were when we pushed the ballin transition and we’re willing to take shots early in the shot clock.

Now a lot of this is because we played with a faster and better scoring lineup. A huge part of Ron “looking slower” is he’s now playing in a lineup the majority of his minutes who’s intent is to play slow and doesn’t move the defense. Ron is never catching the ball going down hill, never has a defender out of position when he gets the ball, and he’s just not quick enough to get separation - nor are a lot of the guys on the team with the ball...

We need this team to play fast on offense if we want to consistently beat quality opponents.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Well - Tampa’s defense didn’t give up a TD in the SB so maybe defense still wins championships...

 

[bac2therac]

Rutgers won't win shootouts vs Iowa

 

[RUsojo]

Rutgers won't win shootouts vs Iowa

We are 2-4 in our last six against Iowa. Guess the result of the three games we score 80 or more... guess how close the games were in losses when we scored 75+.

This is a problem with not just your comment but this baseless narrative of playing against Iowa. Literally our best performances against Iowa are in games where our offense tries to win a shootout type game.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Lol we lost because at one point they were 7-14 from 3 and we were 1-21 and getting outbounded. Pretty simple.

 

[RUsojo]

Well - Tampa’s defense didn’t give up a TD in the SB so maybe defense still wins championships...

Did you watch Tampa on offense LOL

 

[JerseyShoreKnight]

We are 2-4 in our last six against Iowa. Guess the result of the three games we score 80 or more... guess how close the games were in losses when we scored 75+.

This is a problem with not just your comment but this baseless narrative of playing against Iowa. Literally our best performances against Iowa are in games where our offense tries to win a shootout type game.

The games they won weren’t shootouts. They were double digit blowouts on nights when Iowa couldn’t do anything right. A shootout is going basket for basket with them. That’s something you don’t want to do against the #1 offense in the nation. We needed to get more stops and take higher percentage shots to stay in the game last night and it didn’t happen.

 

[bac2therac]

We are 2-4 in our last six against Iowa. Guess the result of the three games we score 80 or more... guess how close the games were in losses when we scored 75+.

This is a problem with not just your comment but this baseless narrative of playing against Iowa. Literally our best performances against Iowa are in games where our offense tries to win a shootout type game.

Yes we tried matching them basket for basket in 2nd half..how did that work out?

 

[Yeah Baby]

Did you watch Tampa on offense LOL

Yeah they played very conservative on Offense. Their longeat gains were penalties on KC. Brady threw for 200 yards. You just made his point stronger.

 

[RUJMM78]

Fans can discuss playing fast or slow on offense but that doesn't address the fundamental problem of being a abysmal 3 point shooting team.This game was decided in the first five minutes when both teams were shooting bricks.Then Iowa started making 3 pointers and Rutgers was in catch up mode for the last 35 minutes of the game without the shooters to be successful.Without any semblance of consistent high double digit scoring from Harper and Baker Rutgers margin for error are very slim against any opponent with a pulse on offense.Yes,Rutgers can win grind out games when the score is in the 55- 70 point range and that is what will be needed in the six remaining games except for Michigan.which has too much talent.

 

[RUsojo]

Yeah they played very conservative on Offense. Their longeat gains were penalties on KC. Brady threw for 200 yards. You just made his point stronger.

You have no idea what you watched.

Anyway, basketball thread.

 

[RUsojo]

Yes we tried matching them basket for basket in 2nd half..how did that work out?

We lost the first half by 9 and the 2nd half by 4 how do you think??????????

 

[RUsojo]

Fans can discuss playing fast or slow on offense but that doesn't address the fundamental problem of being a abysmal 3 point shooting team.This game was decided in the first five minutes when both teams were shooting bricks.Then Iowa started making 3 pointers and Rutgers was in catch up mode for the last 35 minutes of the game without the shooters to be successful.Without any semblance of consistent high double digit scoring from Harper and Baker Rutgers margin for error are very slim against any opponent with a pulse on offense.Yes,Rutgers can win grind out games when the score is in the 55- 70 point range and that is what will be needed in the six remaining games except for Michigan.which has too much talent.

It does address the fundamental problem which is a very below average half court offense.

It addresses Ron “looking slow” and not being able to give offense.

We win 70-55 games against the weaker teams on our schedule.

 

[RUsojo]

In Iowa’s 6 losses this year their opponent scored:

99
102
81
80
89
67

86.3 opp ppg

In their 6 losses this year Iowa scored:

89
95
69
75
85
65

79.6 ppg in losses

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I didn’t think our defense was bad in last night’s game. Wiescamp hit a bunch of contested 3s. He just couldn’t miss. It didn’t help that our bigs were in foul trouble and guarding Garza became even harder than normal. Under the circumstances I thought the defense persevered the whole game.

The problem that keeps resurfacing is an inability to adjust on offense when the go to plan stops working. Feeding the post was taken away as the game plan with the early MJ fouls. We needed another game plan and didnt have one. Feeding RHJ was a turnover disaster. Caleb isn’t a good 3 point shooter but he has that soft mid-range jumper that he hits with consistency. Geo makes that shot too. It made no sense that the two of them continued mostly perimeter based rotations until almost midway through the second half. Caleb’s late second half shot selection is what was needed much earlier. He needs to get the ball in space inside the arc where his shot is money. If he hits those shots early in the first half rather than in the second half it changes the whole dynamic of how they have to defend us. Geo hits those types of shots too at a high percentage. That promotes good ball rotation and their confidence builds when they start making shots. It’s not a coincidence that Caleb finally hit a 3 once he finally knocked down his first basket.

 

[mildone]

It was one loss after a 4 game winning streak. A loss to a higher ranked, very good basketball team who was scoring threes that were often contested as well as any coach could hope for as time was running out on the shot clock. Compounding the problem, the calls didn't go our way, which is going to happen sometimes.

So... yeah. I think people might be overreacting to the loss a bit and overstating the negatives. And I hope that the team doesn't overthink the loss and slide into another multigame funk.

We're a good enough team to be ranked as high as 11, lose a bunch and fall out of the rankings, but then win a bunch and claw our way back up into the top 25. The ranking doesn't matter, and we'll drop out again for now. But if we keep winning games, we might climb back up. Because we're a pretty good team. Not final-four good. But still better than a ton of teams out there.

There are a lot of areas the team could improve upon, especially in the performance last night. But teams that don't have a lot of areas to work on are very rare.

The sky isn't falling.

 

[fluoxetine]

We are 2-4 in our last six against Iowa. Guess the result of the three games we score 80 or more... guess how close the games were in losses when we scored 75+.

This is a problem with not just your comment but this baseless narrative of playing against Iowa. Literally our best performances against Iowa are in games where our offense tries to win a shootout type game.

We did better in games where we scored more points? I’m intrigued, tell me more.

 

[fluoxetine]

I mean we were 6-28 from three and they were 11-23. We just aren’t winning like that against a team that good with any strategy.
If both teams had average 3 point shooting nights we would’ve won (all else equal of course, it’s not like this is 100%). Strategy not the problem.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Lol we lost because at one point they were 7-14 from 3 and we were 1-21 and getting outbounded. Pretty simple.

Tempo schelmko. This is it.

it is as simple as making open 3s. Miss them players are slow, they are fat, coach is too nice, tempo too slow.

make them we are an Elite 8 or better team.

shooting is so important.

take away shooting I think we played pretty good. Good enough to beat #15 on their court.

 

[bac2therac]

we were outplayed in EVERY facet of the game, there was not one thing we did better than them last night except miss shots

we did nothing to make Iowa feel uncomfortable which is the way to beat them.

 

[Knight Ed]

Did you watch Tampa on offense LOL

I had a friend who did an analysis of every Super Bowl winning team ever and where they ranked versus the league in offense versus defense rankings. The "defense wins championships" line we have all heard for years, although always sounding like a cool thing to say, doesn't add up when you actually look at the numbers.
The actual statistics say there are all kinds of ways to win a championship. You can have a great offense or a great defense. Or maybe you are pretty good at both. Basically, each team needs to find a way to win based on what it can do well.

 

[fluoxetine]

Also the last 6 games against Iowa:

1/17/2018 - win - tempo 67
2/16/2019 - loss - tempo 65
3/2/2019 - win - tempo 72
1/22/2020 - loss - tempo 71
1/2/2021 - loss - tempo 71
2/10/2021 - loss - tempo 65

Will grant you the average tempo of the 2 wins is very slightly higher than the 4 losses but I'm skeptical it's significant in a 6 game sample. Ordered from fastest to slowest tempo...

W,L,L,W,L,L

 

[fluoxetine]

we were outplayed in EVERY facet of the game, there was not one thing we did better than them last night except miss shots

we did nothing to make Iowa feel uncomfortable which is the way to beat them.

Much better 2P% !

 

[bwrlaw]

Tempo schelmko. This is it.

it is as simple as making open 3s. Miss them players are slow, they are fat, coach is too nice, tempo too slow.

make them we are an Elite 8 or better team.

shooting is so important.

take away shooting I think we played pretty good. Good enough to beat #15 on their court.

So you are saying put the ball through the basket and the team can win. As simple as that sounds, I agree 100 %.

Last night was a product of early fouls changed the tone of the game and then just a boatloads of bricks.

 

[ImBadRU]

3 fouls in 5 minutes was game, set, and match. MJ was abused by the officials in that game. Garza can do wutever the f he wants and the refs just luv him.

 

[JerseyShoreKnight]

Yeah they played very conservative on Offense. Their longeat gains were penalties on KC. Brady threw for 200 yards. You just made his point stronger.

A lot of runs and screen passes lol

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

and the struggle we face against good opponents. Something to the effect of “we didn’t want to get into a shootout and that’s what happened”. Unfortunately, another clear indicator that Pike simply refuses to acknowledge the importance of scoring points for this teams success.

Last night we played against the worst AdjD in the conference, by a sizeable margin, and we went into the game with a strategy on offense to slow the game down. I don’t get it. Previous history would even tell you against Iowa we play out best when the offense is playing FAST.

You can look at our biggest wins this year and draw similar comparisons.

Cuse 79-66
Maryland 74-60
Illinois 91-88
Purdue 81-76
Iowa 77-75 (loss)

Our best games of the season were when we pushed the ballin transition and we’re willing to take shots early in the shot clock.

Now a lot of this is because we played with a faster and better scoring lineup. A huge part of Ron “looking slower” is he’s now playing in a lineup the majority of his minutes who’s intent is to play slow and doesn’t move the defense. Ron is never catching the ball going down hill, never has a defender out of position when he gets the ball, and he’s just not quick enough to get separation - nor are a lot of the guys on the team with the ball...

We need this team to play fast on offense if we want to consistently beat quality opponents.

Is RHJ shooting the ball well...??
If you're answer is yes, then you're correct.

If the answer is NO and RHJ is 0 for his last 16 from 3 (or 1 for his last 21) ,then you would be obviously 100% wrong

It has nothing to do with Pike....RHJ is not nearly the same player pre-injury (where most of your stats show RU scoring a lot) and since (RU not as effective).

At some point, the coaching staffs of any program can only do so much with 18/19 to 22/23 year olds with injuries, distractions, school work and other stuff like a good opponent. It's not as easy as fans would like to believe it to be from a coaching perspective.

It comes down to last year, this team had 1 more 10PPG scoring threat in Yeboah to make up some of the difference when Mathis or Harper or someone has an off game. The best RU version is RHJ hitting shots and RU with 5 players in double figures. That's the formula for most good teams, not a 2 or 3 man show.

 

[RUsojo]

Is RHJ shooting the ball well...??
If you're answer is yes, then you're correct.

If the answer is NO and RHJ is 0 for his last 16 from 3 (or 1 for his last 21) ,then you would be obviously 100% wrong

It has nothing to do with Pike....RHJ is not nearly the same player pre-injury (where most of your stats show RU scoring a lot) and since (RU not as effective).

At some point, the coaching staffs of any program can only do so much with 18/19 to 22/23 year olds with injuries, distractions, school work and other stuff like a good opponent. It's not as easy as fans would like to believe it to be from a coaching perspective.

It comes down to last year, this team had 1 more 10PPG scoring threat in Yeboah to make up some of the difference when Mathis or Harper or someone has an off game. The best RU version is RHJ hitting shots and RU with 5 players in double figures. That's the formula for most good teams, not a 2 or 3 man show.

Ron’s offensive inconsistency has nothing to do with pre injury or post injury and everything to do with the offense playing with tempo and playing the majority of his minutes early in the year with Young and Mathis.

 

[RUsojo]

It was one loss after a 4 game winning streak. A loss to a higher ranked, very good basketball team who was scoring threes that were often contested as well as any coach could hope for as time was running out on the shot clock. Compounding the problem, the calls didn't go our way, which is going to happen sometimes.

So... yeah. I think people might be overreacting to the loss a bit and overstating the negatives. And I hope that the team doesn't overthink the loss and slide into another multigame funk.

We're a good enough team to be ranked as high as 11, lose a bunch and fall out of the rankings, but then win a bunch and claw our way back up into the top 25. The ranking doesn't matter, and we'll drop out again for now. But if we keep winning games, we might climb back up. Because we're a pretty good team. Not final-four good. But still better than a ton of teams out there.

There are a lot of areas the team could improve upon, especially in the performance last night. But teams that don't have a lot of areas to work on are very rare.

The sky isn't falling.

There hasn’t been one “the sky is falling” post in the last 24 hours.

 

[RUsojo]

Also the last 6 games against Iowa:

1/17/2018 - win - tempo 67
2/16/2019 - loss - tempo 65
3/2/2019 - win - tempo 72
1/22/2020 - loss - tempo 71
1/2/2021 - loss - tempo 71
2/10/2021 - loss - tempo 65

Will grant you the average tempo of the 2 wins is very slightly higher than the 4 losses but I'm skeptical it's significant in a 6 game sample. Ordered from fastest to slowest tempo...

W,L,L,W,L,L

Basketball is a game of small margins.

 

[RUsojo]

A lot of runs and screen passes lol

Tampa did the opposite of everything they were doing the previous play off games. Threw the ball and ran more play action on 1st down more by a mile and ran the ball on 2nd down and third down way more than they normally do.

As such Tom was 10-13 for 135 yards and 3TDs on play action.

They adjusted the offense significantly instead of ignoring it and just trying to win by playing good defense and see what happens on offense as we do our normal thing. Very opposite of our basketball teams philosophy.

But anyway, basketball thread.

 

[goru7]

Let’s stop with push the tempo crap as we had become a turnover machine with some of Jacob ‘s pushes.. . The elephant in the room is simple. His name is Ron Harper . The minute he was named to the Wooden Award list , was the biggest curse as he has mentally lost it. Every commentator talks Ron first and when he doesn’t do it, we have a hard time. If he would have matched and scored 26 points last night, we overcome Weiscamp ‘s unconscious shooting night , Garza, and the refs taking Myles out of the game early. He was 0-4 from 3 with a number of them wide open. But it is one thing if your shot is not falling but go do something else to help your team other than playing lazy hanging out at the 3 point line . Go to the block , cut to the lane , go get 2-3 offensive rebound put back baskets . He is mentally shot as early in the year , he was decisive and would get the ball shoot if open, or immediately drive and either stop for a pull up or go to the hole hard. Now he gets the ball, he delays for a second, deciding what to do and that seems to be where he is lost. He was one of the more instinctive players, knowing where to be but not now. He cut only 2 times last night against the zone and it ended with baskets and a and one . He was an excellent rebounder. He doesn’t even attempt to box out , which cost us a few extra fouls on the offensive rebound and an extra 6-8 points against us. He was the best defender , as he regularly held Lamar Stevens down , and he is not playing hard on the defensive end . Like I said he was one of our smartest players. So Weiscamp is on Fire, so instead of working real hard to maybe deny him the ball and make Iowa go elsewhere, he let him catch it not once but twice in a row with space and Weiscamp hit 2 threes in a row. He started muttering to himself going back up court. He has so much potential and it takes only a few small adjustments, but mentally he is lost and Pike needs to sit him down and show him film and point it out. Because we know what he is capable of and he is playing to 25% capacity.

It also appears we are hesitating when shooting from 3 and that has made it worse . We get a lot of wide open early looks and turn them down. It would be one thing if they pounded the ball into Myles and played inside out, as I have Ben advocating for months, but we don’t and the guards are guilty of not feeding the post enough to Myles and to Ron if he ever were to be put there by Pike.

One way our offense can pick up is for Geo to take over. There has been a pattern where he hits 2 shots in a row , and then stops shooting or misses the next one and stops shooting . I want Geo shooting 15-20 shots a game. He can hit his mid range 13-16 footer all day over smaller guards. If he hits 6-8 of those that is 12-16 points without him hitting a 3 or going to the line , which can be done when they crowd him and he can drive and hit off the glass. 12-14 points a game is not enough and we need 20 points a game and I do not think it would be that hard. The handcuffs have to come off and he has to become more selfish . When that happens his assists will go up as well and teams try to double him. He along with all the guards have to stop hesitating when they have an open look and let it fly. The 1/2 second hesitancy I believe has cost us to not shoot in rhythm and miss wide wide open shots.

 

[Kbee3]

Last night was a product of early fouls changed the tone of the game and then just a boatloads of bricks.

The best game summary I've seen thus far.

 

[mildone]

Ron’s offensive inconsistency has nothing to do with pre injury or post injury and everything to do with the offense playing with tempo and playing the majority of his minutes early in the year with Young and Mathis.

Ron's inconsistency has to do with him overthinking all his shots. He's in a shooting slump and that's affecting his energy.

It's like any other sports slump (think baseball batting slumps). It gets into a player's head and becomes a vicious feedback loop.

He needs to stop thinking about it so much, in practice, in games, anytime. He's thinking about it so much that his entire shooting form, which was great at the start of the season, has gone completely to hell now.

If he can somehow stop thinking about shooting entirely, especially during practice and games, he'll break the slump. But that's easier said than done.

 

[mildone]

There hasn’t been one “the sky is falling” post in the last 24 hours.

I'm a mind-reader and don't need people to post to know what they're thinking. 😉

 

[S_Janowski]

OP is stretching.

You can’t just look at the final score and judge the tempo of a game. By this logic, if we made a few more 3 pointers last night (only shot 21%) then we would have been right in the mid to upper 70’s, just like a few games listed in the OP.

When we play fast or push the tempo it’s usually driven by our rebounding, defense and forced turnovers.

We got out rebounded by 11 and only forced 10 turnovers last night. Couple that with our lousy 3 point shooting and you have a good chance at losing.

This team will go as far as our defense and rebounding will take us. We’re just not a talented shooting team. We will never out shoot a team like Iowa, but we can out rebound and out defend a team like them.

 

[blueoyster]

Let’s stop with push the tempo crap as we had become a turnover machine with some of Jacob ‘s pushes.. . The elephant in the room is simple. His name is Ron Harper . The minute he was named to the Wooden Award list , was the biggest curse as he has mentally lost it. Every commentator talks Ron first and when he doesn’t do it, we have a hard time. If he would have matched and scored 26 points last night, we overcome Weiscamp ‘s unconscious shooting night , Garza, and the refs taking Myles out of the game early. He was 0-4 from 3 with a number of them wide open. But it is one thing if your shot is not falling but go do something else to help your team other than playing lazy hanging out at the 3 point line . Go to the block , cut to the lane , go get 2-3 offensive rebound put back baskets . He is mentally shot as early in the year , he was decisive and would get the ball shoot if open, or immediately drive and either stop for a pull up or go to the hole hard. Now he gets the ball, he delays for a second, deciding what to do and that seems to be where he is lost. He was one of the more instinctive players, knowing where to be but not now. He cut only 2 times last night against the zone and it ended with baskets and a and one . He was an excellent rebounder. He doesn’t even attempt to box out , which cost us a few extra fouls on the offensive rebound and an extra 6-8 points against us. He was the best defender , as he regularly held Lamar Stevens down , and he is not playing hard on the defensive end . Like I said he was one of our smartest players. So Weiscamp is on Fire, so instead of working real hard to maybe deny him the ball and make Iowa go elsewhere, he let him catch it not once but twice in a row with space and Weiscamp hit 2 threes in a row. He started muttering to himself going back up court. He has so much potential and it takes only a few small adjustments, but mentally he is lost and Pike needs to sit him down and show him film and point it out. Because we know what he is capable of and he is playing to 25% capacity.

It also appears we are hesitating when shooting from 3 and that has made it worse . We get a lot of wide open early looks and turn them down. It would be one thing if they pounded the ball into Myles and played inside out, as I have Ben advocating for months, but we don’t and the guards are guilty of not feeding the post enough to Myles and to Ron if he ever were to be put there by Pike.

One way our offense can pick up is for Geo to take over. There has been a pattern where he hits 2 shots in a row , and then stops shooting or misses the next one and stops shooting . I want Geo shooting 15-20 shots a game. He can hit his mid range 13-16 footer all day over smaller guards. If he hits 6-8 of those that is 12-16 points without him hitting a 3 or going to the line , which can be done when they crowd him and he can drive and hit off the glass. 12-14 points a game is not enough and we need 20 points a game and I do not think it would be that hard. The handcuffs have to come off and he has to become more selfish . When that happens his assists will go up as well and teams try to double him. He along with all the guards have to stop hesitating when they have an open look and let it fly. The 1/2 second hesitancy I believe has cost us to not shoot in rhythm and miss wide wide open shots.

*THIS*
It also appears we are hesitating when shooting from 3 and that has made it worse . We get a lot of wide open early looks and turn them down.

 

[mildone]

Let’s stop with push the tempo crap as we had become a turnover machine with some of Jacob ‘s pushes.. . The elephant in the room is simple. His name is Ron Harper . The minute he was named to the Wooden Award list , was the biggest curse as he has mentally lost it. Every commentator talks Ron first and when he doesn’t do it, we have a hard time. If he would have matched and scored 26 points last night, we overcome Weiscamp ‘s unconscious shooting night , Garza, and the refs taking Myles out of the game early. He was 0-4 from 3 with a number of them wide open. But it is one thing if your shot is not falling but go do something else to help your team other than playing lazy hanging out at the 3 point line . Go to the block , cut to the lane , go get 2-3 offensive rebound put back baskets . He is mentally shot as early in the year , he was decisive and would get the ball shoot if open, or immediately drive and either stop for a pull up or go to the hole hard. Now he gets the ball, he delays for a second, deciding what to do and that seems to be where he is lost. He was one of the more instinctive players, knowing where to be but not now. He cut only 2 times last night against the zone and it ended with baskets and a and one . He was an excellent rebounder. He doesn’t even attempt to box out , which cost us a few extra fouls on the offensive rebound and an extra 6-8 points against us. He was the best defender , as he regularly held Lamar Stevens down , and he is not playing hard on the defensive end . Like I said he was one of our smartest players. So Weiscamp is on Fire, so instead of working real hard to maybe deny him the ball and make Iowa go elsewhere, he let him catch it not once but twice in a row with space and Weiscamp hit 2 threes in a row. He started muttering to himself going back up court. He has so much potential and it takes only a few small adjustments, but mentally he is lost and Pike needs to sit him down and show him film and point it out. Because we know what he is capable of and he is playing to 25% capacity.

It also appears we are hesitating when shooting from 3 and that has made it worse . We get a lot of wide open early looks and turn them down. It would be one thing if they pounded the ball into Myles and played inside out, as I have Ben advocating for months, but we don’t and the guards are guilty of not feeding the post enough to Myles and to Ron if he ever were to be put there by Pike.

One way our offense can pick up is for Geo to take over. There has been a pattern where he hits 2 shots in a row , and then stops shooting or misses the next one and stops shooting . I want Geo shooting 15-20 shots a game. He can hit his mid range 13-16 footer all day over smaller guards. If he hits 6-8 of those that is 12-16 points without him hitting a 3 or going to the line , which can be done when they crowd him and he can drive and hit off the glass. 12-14 points a game is not enough and we need 20 points a game and I do not think it would be that hard. The handcuffs have to come off and he has to become more selfish . When that happens his assists will go up as well and teams try to double him. He along with all the guards have to stop hesitating when they have an open look and let it fly. The 1/2 second hesitancy I believe has cost us to not shoot in rhythm and miss wide wide open shots.

Having Harper exit his slump would surely help a lot. Feeding Geo and Geo getting big numbers could help in a couple ways. There's the obvious, we'd score more. But it might also take defensive pressure off Harper and that, combined with Harper figuring out how to stop thinking about his shot entirely, could reignite Harper's game.

I think Pike probably thinks we don't go anywhere without Harper, and also that sitting Harper too much will be counter-productive to helping Harper overcome his shooting slump. Maybe sitting him for an extended time could help, but it's not a sure thing.

 

[zappaa]

Harper making 0 3s, but playing above the rim, rebounding and getting out on the fast break for Alley oops would make us a different team immediately

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

and the struggle we face against good opponents. Something to the effect of “we didn’t want to get into a shootout and that’s what happened”. Unfortunately, another clear indicator that Pike simply refuses to acknowledge the importance of scoring points for this teams success.

Last night we played against the worst AdjD in the conference, by a sizeable margin, and we went into the game with a strategy on offense to slow the game down. I don’t get it. Previous history would even tell you against Iowa we play out best when the offense is playing FAST.

You can look at our biggest wins this year and draw similar comparisons.

Cuse 79-66
Maryland 74-60
Illinois 91-88
Purdue 81-76
Iowa 77-75 (loss)

Our best games of the season were when we pushed the ballin transition and we’re willing to take shots early in the shot clock.

Now a lot of this is because we played with a faster and better scoring lineup. A huge part of Ron “looking slower” is he’s now playing in a lineup the majority of his minutes who’s intent is to play slow and doesn’t move the defense. Ron is never catching the ball going down hill, never has a defender out of position when he gets the ball, and he’s just not quick enough to get separation - nor are a lot of the guys on the team with the ball...

We need this team to play fast on offense if we want to consistently beat quality opponents.

Pike is stuck in the 90’s