I think this team will be better than last year

[mugrat86]

We won @Mary, @Neb, @Wisc and @IU last season. How many B1G teams had more than 4 road wins? 2? 3?

He has no idea what he is talking about

 

[mugrat86]

I really don't think this team is better than last year. Don't get me wrong they will still be super competitive and give teams absolute Hell on defense, but that being said on paper last year's team is better. You never really replaced the scoring of Ron and Geo - don't fool yourself that is huge. You can argue that Simpson is a replacement for Geo, but I don't think anybody here is taking Freshman Simpson vs 5th Year Geo. And Ron, our main Go To was not at all replaced. The only thing you can point to is that all the players from last year are 1 more year seasoned with a couple of promising freshman and Cam. I think Cam will be a solid role player and contribute when all is said and done, but not a go to guy. Bottom line we lost our two big Go To guys last year and never came close to replacing them.

This team has looked so much better against bad teams than last year.

 

[socaldave]

I really don't think this team is better than last year. Don't get me wrong they will still be super competitive and give teams absolute Hell on defense, but that being said on paper last year's team is better. You never really replaced the scoring of Ron and Geo - don't fool yourself that is huge. You can argue that Simpson is a replacement for Geo, but I don't think anybody here is taking Freshman Simpson vs 5th Year Geo. And Ron, our main Go To was not at all replaced. The only thing you can point to is that all the players from last year are 1 more year seasoned with a couple of promising freshman and Cam. I think Cam will be a solid role player and contribute when all is said and done, but not a go to guy. Bottom line we lost our two big Go To guys last year and never came close to replacing them.

Everyone else on the team last year vs this year is a better version of themselves, how does that factor into to your equation? including your big three who I think are significantly better! How about team chemistry? How about team leadership? I think both are better.
This is college, players mature and can take significant leaps in their abilities as the grow and mature.
Btw, not a knock on Geo or Ron, I need to make an amends, to Geo in particular, I have been unfairly harsh to Geo. I was wrong! Rutgers BB owes a lot of where we are today to him, He continues to show himself as a good ambassador for Rutgers
Sorry Geo. Thanks for all the Big shots made! You helped make RU Bball fun.

 

[cubuffsdoug]

This was a outstanding win but lets not forget Rutgers only scored 63 points in front of a highly supportive crowd.The 3 point scoring must improve even at RAC games.Mulcahy and Simpson are key players moving forward.Spencer performance the last two games were very disappointing because his outside scoring is needed.Attending games at the RAC are always a exhilarating experience because of the crowd noise and its impact on opponent performance.

Like the post just after your post stated, IU is a good defensive team. Scoring 63 points is like scoring 70+ against average defenses. Shots weren't falling for either side. The difference is Rutgers hustled more by hitting the boards. Most team's don't play with that level of drive. That has been Rutgers' calling card and its blueprint to success.

 

[Saint Puppy]

This team has looked so much better against bad teams than last year.

Everyone else on the team last year vs this year is a better version of themselves, how does that factor into to your equation? including your big three who I think are significantly better! How about team chemistry? How about team leadership? I think both are better.
This is college, players mature and can take significant leaps in their abilities as the grow and mature.
Btw, not a knock on Geo or Ron, I need to make an amends, to Geo in particular, I have been unfairly harsh to Geo. I was wrong! Rutgers BB owes a lot of where we are today to him, He continues to show himself as a good ambassador for Rutgers
Sorry Geo. Thanks for all the Big shots made! You helped make RU Bball fun.

I think we are all feeling amazing after the Indiana win (myself included) and realize this team has potential to make some noise. That being said I'm not sure how you lose your 5th year PG who could take over a game and a guy who is now playing on 2 way in the NBA now and replace them and their scoring with a freshman PG in Simpson and what is looking like more of a role player in Cam and say that this team is better. I would agree this team is better defensively and love the leadership of Paul and Caleb. However you lost BIG on offense from last year to this year - last year you had 2 Go To guys and this year you have none that I can see.

As far as beating the cupcakes this year - yes we did look better. However also remember Cam was able to dominate against them and his athleticism wasn't an issue like it's looking like it will be against B1G competition.

Again I'm not saying this team will not be a fun team to watch and root for, but at the end of the day we lost some major parts that there was no Next Man Up for. I think we will dominate on defense, but struggle on offense because of it.

 

[jonS]

I feel like everyone on team deferred to Geo and Harper, therefore there was a lot of indecision and standing around watching.

There is no question that Paul is this year’s leader and his unselfish play leads to games like yesterday where everyone got involved in rebounding, shooting, passing and defending. Paul is going to make Cliff such a better player than we have seen thus far. Guys like Caleb, Simpson, and Mag IMO are also going to flourish as a result of no longer relying on RHJ and Geo.

If we could limit Mag and Hyatt’s three point shooting and instead have them concentrate on blocks then sky’s the limit for this team. We need to maintain intensity on defense and rebounding.

It's worth noting this game was won with Cliff and Spencer contributing very little to the win., It speaks well for the team. What's amazing to me is how little advanced hoopla was given to Simpson and Woolfolk and how much they've already contributed.

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Road schedule this season:

Ohio State
Purdue
Northwestern
Michigan State
Iowa
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Penn State
Minnesota

If we stay healthy, I like our chances of winning at least 3 on the road. We play the three worst-projected teams and should be competitive against almost anyone else if we play our A game.

 

[RUPete]

I think we are all feeling amazing after the Indiana win (myself included) and realize this team has potential to make some noise. That being said I'm not sure how you lose your 5th year PG who could take over a game and a guy who is now playing on 2 way in the NBA now and replace them and their scoring with a freshman PG in Simpson and what is looking like more of a role player in Cam and say that this team is better. I would agree this team is better defensively and love the leadership of Paul and Caleb. However you lost BIG on offense from last year to this year - last year you had 2 Go To guys and this year you have none that I can see.

As far as beating the cupcakes this year - yes we did look better. However also remember Cam was able to dominate against them and his athleticism wasn't an issue like it's looking like it will be against B1G competition.

Again I'm not saying this team will not be a fun team to watch and root for, but at the end of the day we lost some major parts that there was no Next Man Up for. I think we will dominate on defense, but struggle on offense because of it.

I think this is one of best and most measured takes on this topic. I agree that it's hard to argue this team is or could be better when you lose two guys like that. However, what I do see is the potential for growth among the majority of this roster during the season. It will be frustrating and fun to watch at times and the team has the potential to have a successful season.

 

[RU-ROCS]

What a ridiculous point about yesterday ‘s game. We held 75 point scoring Indiana to 48. We scored 63 without Cliff or Cam’s normal 32 point contribution. I know ideally your point which you mention over and over again is we have to score 70 to win but you couldn’t be more lost or off point here. Try understanding what you watched yesterday , a defensive beat down.

Actually, RU's D was even more impressive. IU was averaging more than 85 points per game!

 

[Degaz-RU]

Ah, the fallacy of having to "replace" departed stars rears its ugly head again.

• What will we do to replace Corey Sanders?
• What will we do to replace Eugene Omoruyi?
• What will we do to replace Myles Johnson and Jacob Young?

You don't "replace" stars unless you have a steady pipeline of ready-made college players, but we're not that type of program. Instead, you build a PROGRAM that keeps players for four years and develops them over that time. Then, when senior leaders depart, you have junior leaders step up into the breach.

We are a different team this year without Ron and Geo, no doubt. But "different" does not automatically equate to "worse" just because we lost them. We have one of the best big men in the conference (Cliff). We have one of the best PGs and leaders in the conference (Paul). We have THE best defender in the country (Caleb) who is stepping up his offensive game. We have one of THE best defenses in all of college basketball when you combine Caleb and Cliff with Mag plus really smart defenders like Paul and Cam, not to mention Simpson.

We can OFFSET the departures of Ron and Geo with everyone else improving their offensive games, plus stepping up the rebounding and defense (both of which appear better than last year).

 

[ru66]

jumping to conclusions after a win is "almost" as bad as doing it after a loss or one play. Our fake experts are especially guilty of this.

 

[RUPete]

Ah, the fallacy of having to "replace" departed stars rears its ugly head again.

• What will we do to replace Corey Sanders?
• What will we do to replace Eugene Omoruyi?
• What will we do to replace Myles Johnson and Jacob Young?

You don't "replace" stars unless you have a steady pipeline of ready-made college players, but we're not that type of program. Instead, you build a PROGRAM that keeps players for four years and develops them over that time. Then, when senior leaders depart, you have junior leaders step up into the breach.

We are a different team this year without Ron and Geo, no doubt. But "different" does not automatically equate to "worse" just because we lost them. We have one of the best big men in the conference (Cliff). We have one of the best PGs and leaders in the conference (Paul). We have THE best defender in the country (Caleb) who is stepping up his offensive game. We have one of THE best defenses in all of college basketball when you combine Caleb and Cliff with Mag plus really smart defenders like Paul and Cam, not to mention Simpson.

We can OFFSET the departures of Ron and Geo with everyone else improving their offensive games, plus stepping up the rebounding and defense (both of which appear better than last year).

Great post! After watching this team early, it feels like success will be dependent on a collective effort with different guys stepping up on different nights and even simply during parts of games. E.g.- Hyatt had a very good first half Saturday, then sat a bunch in the second, Derek takes over out of nowhere in the second half and Cliff, who basically sat and struggled for most of the day, comes up with huge blocks, rebounds and FTs to help seal the win.

 

[goru7]

Road schedule this season:

Ohio State
Purdue
Northwestern
Michigan State
Iowa
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Penn State
Minnesota

If we stay healthy, I like our chances of winning at least 3 on the road. We play the three worst-projected teams and should be competitive against almost anyone else if we play our A game.

When you look at how you posted the Order that is a daunting road schedule. We have won at Purdue at Indiana and at Wisconsin and at Minnesota but the first 3 are really tough road environments . We have played well at Michigan State and Northwestern and have not won at Michigan State but come close. I cannot remember if we have beaten Notthwestern but think we have and it is not a tough road venue. Penn State is always our house of horrors and we hardly ever play a decent game there. Illinois has not been kind lately although some of those early Harper and Geo teams had some great games including our OT loss there. Just remembered we did beat Iowa as well when Issa hit like 5 threes. If we play defense and rebound , we can be competitive and get 3-5 of these games no matter how daunting it looks on paper.

 

[BillyC80]

Ah, the fallacy of having to "replace" departed stars rears its ugly head again.

• What will we do to replace Corey Sanders?
• What will we do to replace Eugene Omoruyi?
• What will we do to replace Myles Johnson and Jacob Young?

You don't "replace" stars unless you have a steady pipeline of ready-made college players, but we're not that type of program. Instead, you build a PROGRAM that keeps players for four years and develops them over that time. Then, when senior leaders depart, you have junior leaders step up into the breach.

We are a different team this year without Ron and Geo, no doubt. But "different" does not automatically equate to "worse" just because we lost them. We have one of the best big men in the conference (Cliff). We have one of the best PGs and leaders in the conference (Paul). We have THE best defender in the country (Caleb) who is stepping up his offensive game. We have one of THE best defenses in all of college basketball when you combine Caleb and Cliff with Mag plus really smart defenders like Paul and Cam, not to mention Simpson.

We can OFFSET the departures of Ron and Geo with everyone else improving their offensive games, plus stepping up the rebounding and defense (both of which appear better than last year).

Good post. Something else to consider with regard to “replacing” players is that it only matters in relation to games we won with those guys the previous year.

The question now is, can we win AT LEAST 12 of the remaining 23 games this year, including wins over enough ranked teams to put us back in the dance?

Most likely we’ll need to win 20 games if we don’t have those highly ranked victories from last year, including knocking off the #1 team.

If we can win our remaining OOC games and 9 more conference games plus 1 in the B1G tourney, we would have to conclude that we succeeded in “replacing” our top guys from last year.

 

[nyurutgers]

I think this team will be better than last years team if we can take our defense, toughness, rebounding, and distribute the ball like we have been this year and bring it on the road. We can throw so many good defensive players at another team that we can take more than one scorer away. The trouble for other teams is we can now get scoring from more players than an average defensive team can defend. For example against Indiana only two players really did the bulk of the scoring. They had two starters who did not score but did some rebounding. However not enough since we handily outrebounded them. I think the intensity of Mag, and energy from Simpson, along with the scoring from Cliff and the more offensive mindset of Caleb, and the Hyatt offset the scoring from Gio and RHJ. If this team can take this on the road we will be a better team. Not to mention the scoring that Cam can provide once he settles against tougher teams. None of this is a slight against Gio and RHJ but I think that we are progressing to a more team concept and there is less deferring to certain players. Hope I am right, it could be a fun season.

 

[Queztastic]

We won @Mary, @Neb, @Wisc and @IU last season. How many B1G teams had more than 4 road wins?

8 - Wisconsin
7 - Illinois
5 - Purdue, Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan
4 - Rutgers, Michigan State
3 - Indiana, Maryland, Northwestern, Nebraska
1 - Penn State, Minnesota

So 6 had more than 4 conference wins on the road, but most of them just had one more.

 

[mr_wizard_65]

Road schedule this season:

Ohio State
Purdue
Northwestern
Michigan State
Iowa
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Penn State
Minnesota

If we stay healthy, I like our chances of winning at least 3 on the road. We play the three worst-projected teams and should be competitive against almost anyone else if we play our A game.

 

[mr_wizard_65]

Best chances OSU, NW and PSU imho

 

[Scangg]

Everyone else on the team last year vs this year is a better version of themselves, how does that factor into to your equation? including your big three who I think are significantly better! How about team chemistry? How about team leadership? I think both are better.
This is college, players mature and can take significant leaps in their abilities as the grow and mature.
Btw, not a knock on Geo or Ron, I need to make an amends, to Geo in particular, I have been unfairly harsh to Geo. I was wrong! Rutgers BB owes a lot of where we are today to him, He continues to show himself as a good ambassador for Rutgers
Sorry Geo. Thanks for all the Big shots made! You helped make RU Bball fun.

Consistent trend on the boards is people factoring in who left and who joined the roster without giving enough weight to player development of the returning roster

 

[Scangg]

Ah, the fallacy of having to "replace" departed stars rears its ugly head again.

• What will we do to replace Corey Sanders?
• What will we do to replace Eugene Omoruyi?
• What will we do to replace Myles Johnson and Jacob Young?

You don't "replace" stars unless you have a steady pipeline of ready-made college players, but we're not that type of program. Instead, you build a PROGRAM that keeps players for four years and develops them over that time. Then, when senior leaders depart, you have junior leaders step up into the breach.

We are a different team this year without Ron and Geo, no doubt. But "different" does not automatically equate to "worse" just because we lost them. We have one of the best big men in the conference (Cliff). We have one of the best PGs and leaders in the conference (Paul). We have THE best defender in the country (Caleb) who is stepping up his offensive game. We have one of THE best defenses in all of college basketball when you combine Caleb and Cliff with Mag plus really smart defenders like Paul and Cam, not to mention Simpson.

We can OFFSET the departures of Ron and Geo with everyone else improving their offensive games, plus stepping up the rebounding and defense (both of which appear better than last year).

Post of the thread 👏

Degaz always has really quality takes

 

[Degaz-RU]

Post of the thread 👏

Degaz always has really quality takes

😊

 

[rubjk]

This team is quite a bit better defensively. They seem to hustle for 40 mins every game. They all are unselfish. We are more balanced, but will like average less ppg. If the defense remains stellar, I think we end up better.