How will we do against the upcoming gauntlet of Miami, IU, OSU, SHU and WF?

[RU848789]

Unfortunately, I have no clue, given that we don't know if we'll have Paul back, and given that we've played all cupcakes, except Temple, which was a loss, but without both Paul and Caleb - and at least Caleb is back (looking close to 100%, albeit a little rusty on offense - not on defense).

Making it even harder to predict is that Miam, IU and WF have also played almost all cupcakes (the exceptions were Miami lost to MD, IU beat Xavier, and WF beat GA), so hard to get a read on them, while only OSU and SHU have played a tough schedule so far (3 strong teams each).

My fear is we're not battle tested well enough and will also miss our floor general greatly, assuming Paul is out. However, I do like how unselfish this team is on offense and how good our team defense usually is - especially with Caleb back and with Paul and Caleb out, we've gotten many more quality minutes from guys that wouldn't have played much so far, which is good, building our depth. Good defense should keep us in most games and if we can get some timely threes and hit some FTs to go with that, we'll do ok in this stretch (i.e., 2-3 wins with Caleb and w/o Paul and maybe 3-4 with Paul and Caleb at 100%).

The season really begins on Wednesday...

 

[Jersey07712]

I am going with 2-3 during this stretch which put us at most likely 9-4 entering the new year.

 

[Mr Magoo]

I also put us at 2-3 with wins in the last two, vs. Seton Hall and Wake. I expect deer in the headlights vs. an underwhelming Miami team in our first real road game, a competitive loss vs. Indiana at home and a 10-12 point loss at OSU.

 

[rufeelinit]

I share your view of not having a clue about how we will do and I can't get flush the first half of the Temple game from my mind when thinking about it. It is time to find out. Until proven otherwise, I think we are limited offensively even at full strength so if Paul is out, I would say we will struggle to be competitive against the likes of Miami, IU and OSU. Looking to see Cliff raise his game against better comp on both ends of the floor. Time for Pike to earn his salary in this stretch by finding a way to keep us competitive in these games.

 

[fatsam98]

I think we go 3-2... Beating SHU and Wake and taking 1 of the other 3.

Kind of funny this is being referred to as a gauntlet though. Is it really that different from any 5 game stretch in conference play?

Miami hasn't looked that great despite being an Elite 8 team last year... SHU really isn't that good (just ask their own fans) ... and Wake is an average ACC team.

 

[toby83]

Hopefully today's Miami UCF game is on espn+, interested in checking out that replay tonight. UCF is a good team - well coached with a stud freshman projected to get drafted.

 

[fatsam98]

Hopefully today's Miami UCF game is on espn+, interested in checking out that replay tonight. UCF is a good team - well coached with a stud freshman projected to get drafted.

It's on ESPNU (and therefore replay should be available on ESPN+ as well)

Hoping Indiana beats UNC Wednesday and comes into the RAC undefeated and overconfident Saturday. Place will be jumping...

 

[gregkoko]

Paul has been cleared for non contact practice which leads me to believe we don't see him for at least this week and probably next week too. Honestly we'll be lucky to get to 2-3. If we had a fully healthy squad I'd say 3-2 or 4-1

 

[RUHouston]

I’d say the X factors are how well Cam plays with Paul and Caleb, and how well Derek and Woolf hold up as Frosh; I‘m less worried about Cam and actually more curious about our Frosh. The Frosh have really played well thus far…

 

[bac2therac]

Miami wasnt all that great last year until their NCAA tourney run

 

[Scarlet Shack]

As a reminder , we were 4-4 coming back off a 30 point trouncing by Illinois last year …as without geo baker …and we beat nunber 1 Purdue at the RAC ….

Point is …as fans we can and certainly should speculate what we can do here ….and likely odds suggest that 2 of 5 or 3 of 5 is the most likely outcome

But …that’s why we play the games

My take …if we were fully healthy All season and a little bit more well oiled together …we wound be 6-0 and thinking 3-2 with a good chance for 4-1

What we will be is a different story

I think we must get ONE next week

 

[ScarletR30]

I’ll put my balls on the table and say 4-1 (if Paul comes back healthy as reported).

Miami - Win
Indiana - our son. Win
Ohio St - toughest one of the stretch imo. Loss
Seton hall - win
Wake - probably the only must win of this stretch. The acc is weak this year. Need to beat a bottom half team in wake.

Obviously this is optimistic and 3-2 is more likely. Anything less than 2-3 would be a big disappointment imo

 

[RUBlackout]

MIami/SHU/Wake - Wins
Indiana/OSU - 1-1
Would be amazing to get 5 in a row here---would legit put us on the map and something we need in a big way

 

[RU848789]

I think we go 3-2... Beating SHU and Wake and taking 1 of the other 3.

Kind of funny this is being referred to as a gauntlet though. Is it really that different from any 5 game stretch in conference play?

Miami hasn't looked that great despite being an Elite 8 team last year... SHU really isn't that good (just ask their own fans) ... and Wake is an average ACC team.

I only think of it as a gauntlet because it's mostly OOC and it's followed by 2 more cupcakes before the full grind of the B1G schedule kicks in. And Zagoria called it a gauntlet, so that makes it so, lol...

 

[Plum Street]

2 or 3 wins

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

2.48 wins is my guess

For the record. The Indiana game concerns me the most.

 

[bac2therac]

2-3 or 3-2

1-4 is more likely than 4-1

5-0: 2%
4-1: 15%
3-2: 30%
2-3: 30%
1-4: 20%
0-5: 3%

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I only think of it as a gauntlet because it's mostly OOC and it's followed by 2 more cupcakes before the full grind of the B1G schedule kicks in. And Zagoria called it a gauntlet, so that makes it so, lol...

View embedded media

I just actually read the title of the article

This is ridiculous

Ridiculous

Five games will not help determine our ncaa fate in December . Even if we won All five

. If anything last year showed us , after losing to DePaul , Lafayette and umass in November …and being down to northwestern by 23 in late January with 16 minutes to go ….and beating four ranked teams in a row , is it is a long season with highs and lows and your final resume isn’t complete until your are complete with your league tournament.

What these December five games is …is a mid term exam for the this basketball season

Short of going 0-5 …(which if we go 0-5, it means we should not have been thinking ncaa in the first place ….) what it is 5 of 23 games against power 6 confeence teams thar is a good barometer for how we may play ib confrence play in January and February

I am super jacked up for the next 3 weeks of hoops …but in now way it this season defining or will “help us determine our ncaa fate”

Sorry zags …your off here

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I think the 3-2 or 2-3 scenarios don’t move the NCAA needle.

4 or bettter or 1 or worse really does.

We will play 25+ games that matter. This will represent 20% of those.

I think it is super important stretch

 

[bac2therac]

Exactly...2-3 or 3-2 keeps everything in play.

The other scenerios give a good feel of what we have. 4-1 likely means we won all the ooc games...1-4 means we did poorly ooc and need to do very well in league play

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Put a different way. The 25+ games (20+4+B1GT).

.500 gets you 20 and in. We are a -1 now because we lost to Temple.

1-4 we are -4 and we have a major uphill battle. We did it last year, but that is a tough ask.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

If you are -2 thru 18 games the last 4 are an expected +2, but the rest of the schedule looks pretty balanced.

 

[RutgersClassof2004]

4-1. Lose to OSU.

 

[Nycrusupporter]

I have a feeling Paul will be back, so I will go 3-2. Wins against Miami, SHU and Wake. If we had Paul and Caleb back A couple weeks earlier, I think we would have taken one of either Indiana or OSU, but don’t think we will be in sync yet when we play them.

 

[zebnatto]

5-0. 5%
4-1 15%
3-2 20%
2-3 30%
1-4 20%
0-5 10%

 

[BillyC80]

2.48 wins is my guess

For the record. The Indiana game concerns me the most.

What will your guess be for the 5 games if we start out by winning at Miami?

 

[RUPsyched]

Rutgers can beat Miami and probably would if the game were scheduled late in the season. Cliff will have his hands full with Miami's beefy front court. Time for Spencer to show that he is not a mid major dressed in B1G major clothing. For Rutgers to win, he will need to be on his game and the team needs to get over their poor road mentality. Won't happen this game.

In typical Rutgers fashion, they will:
Lose to Miami;
Beat Indiana;
Lose to Ohio State;
Beat Seton Hall;
Crap the bed against Wake Forest after the emotional victory against Seton Hall.

2-3.

What is Rutgers MBB without making their fans bang their heads against the wall from time to time?

 

[RUHouston]

I say we go 5-0 and become December Darlings….

 

[billgumpper]

Unfortunately, I have no clue, given that we don't know if we'll have Paul back, and given that we've played all cupcakes, except Temple, which was a loss, but without both Paul and Caleb - and at least Caleb is back (looking close to 100%, albeit a little rusty on offense - not on defense).

Making it even harder to predict is that Miam, IU and WF have also played almost all cupcakes (the exceptions were Miami lost to MD, IU beat Xavier, and WF beat GA), so hard to get a read on them, while only OSU and SHU have played a tough schedule so far (3 strong teams each).

My fear is we're not battle tested well enough and will also miss our floor general greatly, assuming Paul is out. However, I do like how unselfish this team is on offense and how good our team defense usually is - especially with Caleb back and with Paul and Caleb out, we've gotten many more quality minutes from guys that wouldn't have played much so far, which is good, building our depth. Good defense should keep us in most games and if we can get some timely threes and hit some FTs to go with that, we'll do ok in this stretch (i.e., 2-3 wins with Caleb and w/o Paul and maybe 3-4 with Paul and Caleb at 100%).

The season really begins on Wednesday...

We cant have any off shooting nights and Cliff is going to need to play better defense and make a decent percentage of his foul shots. The fact that Hyatt's shooting has fallen off a cliff the last 3 games is concerning.

 

[RUONTHERISE]

4 and 1

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

What will your guess be for the 5 games if we start out by winning at Miami?

3.16. May bump that to a 3.25 as it would be more data showing we are better than thought today

 

[BillyC80]

3.16. May bump that to a 3.25 as it would be more data showing we are better than thought today

Sounds about right. I’m thinking the outcome at Miami will determine whether we go 3-2 or 2-3 over the next 5, but a win gives us a legit shot at 4-1.

 

[Scangg]

I would have wanted 4-1 if we were healthy all year. 3-2 now would be good. 2-3 disappointing 1-4 tears

 

[goru7]

Highly doubt we lose at home , so can we go on the road and beat Miami who is 6-1 , got boat raced with 3’s against Maryland and played just good enough but really not great to get their 6 wins and beat Ohio State , who also are 6-1 and played okay and not great to get their 6 wins. Ohio State is relying on a ton of newcomers and transfers , a good freshman Sensabaugh , and Justin Sueing their Swiss Army knife. Neither team is a top 20 team nor do they have any one player that is a matchup nightmare. I was extremely disappointed in the first half and frankly most of the Temple game , since if we make our foul shots in the second half , we likely comeback to win , playing a real shitty game , which would have been a tremendous positive sign . But we didn’t thus the concern for the road games once again this year. Hopeful that Temple game taught some lessons that will be put to use in these road tilts and we do not make the same mistakes again. Cliff will have the advantage in every game except Indiana and getting from him another 20 point , 10-12 rebound game will go a long way to getting us wins.

 

[RUJMM78]

Highly doubt we lose at home , so can we go on the road and beat Miami who is 6-1 , got boat raced with 3’s against Maryland and played just good enough but really not great to get their 6 wins and beat Ohio State , who also are 6-1 and played okay and not great to get their 6 wins. Ohio State is relying on a ton of newcomers and transfers , a good freshman Sensabaugh , and Justin Sueing their Swiss Army knife. Neither team is a top 20 team nor do they have any one player that is a matchup nightmare. I was extremely disappointed in the first half and frankly most of the Temple game , since if we make our foul shots in the second half , we likely comeback to win , playing a real shitty game , which would have been a tremendous positive sign . But we didn’t thus the concern for the road games once again this year. Hopeful that Temple game taught some lessons that will be put to use in these road tilts and we do not make the same mistakes again. Cliff will have the advantage in every game except Indiana and getting from him another 20 point , 10-12 rebound game will go a long way to getting us wins.

Cliff won't have the advantage over Eddy and Dickinson.

 

[richthedentist]

Cliff won't have the advantage over Eddy and Dickinson.

Cliff has not been good on defense at all this season against weaker competition so not too excited about how he will do in the big against the better centers

 

[goru7]

Cliff won't have the advantage over Eddy and Dickinson.

Was talking about these next 5 games but Edey and Dickinson against Cliff will be wars.

 

[billgumpper]

Cliff won't have the advantage over Eddy and Dickinson.

Or Jackson-Davis

 

[Joey Bacala]

I'm going with 3 if Paul comes back to set a full healthy roster.
How I'll feel:

4-5 wins - beyond thrilled
3 wins - great, I'll sign for it now
2 wins - disappointed
1 win - sound the alarm

 

[toby83]

I'm assuming we will be 2 or 3 point dogs on wed