Improving in years to come

[darkcheck]

Some of us have been sounding the alarm for a couple years. Some are just now starting to realize. Some are still in denial. Speaking to the first two, we all want to see RU back in the ncaas. But our program has a lot of flaws. We obviously can’t fix them overnight. Of the following what are your top 3 things, in order, to fix asap:
(These are in no order from me)
Plays out of timeouts
Player development
Player retention
Using the portal
Offensive sets and schemes
Changing the assistants
Accountability
Recruiting
Strength and conditioning
Scheduling
Player rotations
Tightening the rotation
Three point shooting
FT shooting
Getting a GM
Getting an AD
Getting a president
Fundraising
Other (if you choose this list a specific item)

Please let’s try to have a constructive, insult free discussion. Thanks.

 

[kt124]

1. Using the portal - we have enough funding to bring in quality players, need a GM to help Pikiell assign value to targets and use our NIL pool as efficiently as possible

2. Scheduling - I don’t think our resume has benefitted even one time from our non-conference play during Pikiell’s tenure, it’s almost always a net negative

3. Fundraising - Fanbase is somewhat accountable here, but Steve needs to do a better job of channeling his Schiano and getting some additional NIL from outside sources (local and NYC businesses, large one-time donors looking for charitable deductions, etc.) I believe we already have enough funds to be able to field an NCAA worthy roster, but more money obviously couldn’t hurt.

Honorable mention - optimizing the rotations. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the subs sometimes.

 

[darkcheck]

1. Using the portal - we have enough funding to bring in quality players, need a GM to help Pikiell assign value to targets and use our NIL pool as efficiently as possible

2. Scheduling - I don’t think our resume has benefitted even one time from our non-conference play during Pikiell’s tenure, it’s almost always a net negative

3. Fundraising - Fanbase is somewhat accountable here, but Steve needs to do a better job of channeling his Schiano and getting some additional NIL from outside sources (local and NYC businesses, large one-time donors looking for charitable deductions, etc.) I believe we already have enough funds to be able to field an NCAA worthy roster, but more money obviously couldn’t hurt.

Honorable mention - optimizing the rotations. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the subs sometimes.

Snuck in a HM, love it. How would you change the scheduling?

 

[RUSCFORMERLYRULOU]

Clarification- it seems that changing the head coach is not part of this equation here (although you and I agree on this). So I'm assuming this is IF Pike "has" to stay because of contract crap, correct?

1. CONSISTENT Three point shooting would seem to be the most pressing one. Other than Cam Spencer and RHJ in his last year, we haven't really had dead on reliable three point shooting. Moreover, Pike has mostly failed (in his portal and freshman recruiting) to identify such shooters. He's HYPED people who are three point shooters - Antonio Chol, Oskar Palmquist come to mind. Yes, Geo could make 3's but he wasn't consistent. Same for Jacob Young.
2. Assistants. Every one of them need to go, except for Jay Young.
3. Anything dealing with portal and recruiting.

Really, these are all intertwined. Honestly, as you well know, all of these things need to be fixed. What we could really use is a new head coach that doesn't come from a low major school. I would take a top assistant at a major program is he has the proven ability to recruit, use the portal, raise money for NIL, etc.

 

[darkcheck]

Clarification- it seems that changing the head coach is not part of this equation here (although you and I agree on this). So I'm assuming this is IF Pike "has" to stay because of contract crap, correct?

1. CONSISTENT Three point shooting would seem to be the most pressing one. Other than Cam Spencer and RHJ in his last year, we haven't really had dead on reliable three point shooting. Moreover, Pike has mostly failed (in his portal and freshman recruiting) to identify such shooters. He's HYPED people who are three point shooters - Antonio Chol, Oskar Palmquist come to mind. Yes, Geo could make 3's but he wasn't consistent. Same for Jacob Young.
2. Assistants. Every one of them need to go, except for Jay Young.
3. Anything dealing with portal and recruiting.

Really, these are all intertwined. Honestly, as you well know, all of these things need to be fixed. What we could really use is a new head coach that doesn't come from a low major school. I would take a top assistant at a major program is he has the proven ability to recruit, use the portal, raise money for NIL, etc.

Yes they are all intertwined, but we’re near the bottom again and I’m trying to ID the most glaring consensus needs to improve. Sadly the program has to be rebuilt again imo

 

[kt124]

Snuck in a HM, love it. How would you change the scheduling?

always try to be in one of the feast week tournaments as long as the MTE rules allow it (players era tournament was good we just didn’t fully capitalize)

never schedule an away game like kennesaw state just to give a personal homecoming game to a recruit you’ve already signed

when scheduling cupcake games, try to avoid the NJ teams who are more likely to have added motivation against us

never give up a conference home game to play at MSG

overall, I’m a proponent of scheduling the hardest non-conference possible outside of 5-6 cupcake games which should come mostly in the first month of the season as tune-ups

 

[bethlehemfan]

Lol.

 

[RUsojo]

1. Assistant Coaches/Staff - Need big shakeup. I know football hires are top of mind and getting beat up by staff but if we are being honest this staff has been woefully inadequate and hires like Thompson and Hayn were provided fluffy coverage when there was real reason to believe these were awful hires. Knights star once shined but if he’s in charge if offense and rotations, that stars lights are out.

2. GM - obvious change in college athletics makes this necessary and pike hasn’t thrived in recent cycles.

3. Fundraising - money is always paramount. Moreso than many want to concede.

@darkcheck great OP

 

[RUJMM78]

1.Offensive sets and schemes.Need changes in coaching staff
2.Three point shooting.Cam Spencer type using number one offense
3,Accountability .Winning matters and many of the choices listed are needed to have a winning program that is ranked in the top 25 and gets NCAA bids on a regular basis.

 

[darkcheck]

1. Assistant Coaches/Staff - Need big shakeup. I know football hires are top of mind and getting beat up by staff but if we are being honest this staff has been woefully inadequate and hires like Thompson and Hayn were provided fluffy coverage when there was real reason to believe these were awful hires. Knights star once shined but if he’s in charge if offense and rotations, that stars lights are out.

2. GM - obvious change in college athletics makes this necessary and pike hasn’t thrived in recent cycles.

3. Fundraising - money is always paramount. Moreso than many want to concede.

@darkcheck great OP

Loving #2, did you see the UNC news?

 

[Mr_Twister]

Add not giving up home games to play at MSG to the list.

 

[darkcheck]

Add not giving up home games to play at MSG to the list.

I’d consider that scheduling but by all means be specific

 

[RUDivision]

Some of us have been sounding the alarm for a couple years. Some are just now starting to realize. Some are still in denial. Speaking to the first two, we all want to see RU back in the ncaas. But our program has a lot of flaws. We obviously can’t fix them overnight. Of the following what are your top 3 things, in order, to fix asap:
(These are in no order from me)
Plays out of timeouts
Player development
Player retention
Using the portal
Offensive sets and schemes
Changing the assistants
Accountability
Recruiting
Strength and conditioning
Scheduling
Player rotations
Tightening the rotation
Three point shooting
FT shooting
Getting a GM
Getting an AD
Getting a president
Fundraising
Other (if you choose this list a specific item)

Please let’s try to have a constructive, insult free discussion. Thanks.

1. New Head Coach

You provided 19 legitimate items that need to be addressed all of which have been a problem for multiple years.

If we are taking the time to list the top 5 of the 19 things that are wrong isn’t simply the head coach?

 

[darkcheck]

1. New Head Coach

You provided 19 legitimate items that need to be addressed all of which have been a problem for multiple years.

If we are taking the time to list the top 5 of the 19 things that are wrong isn’t simply the head coach?

I think the lack of leadership and the Hobbs contract buyouts make that unlikely. But I hear you. Watch out though many like the slide back to the bottom and are just happy it’s not Jordan coaching. It’s ok to be bad as long as we’re not that bad.

 

[RUSCFORMERLYRULOU]

I think the lack of leadership and the Hobbs contract buyouts make that unlikely. But I hear you. Watch out though many like the slide back to the bottom and are just happy it’s not Jordan coaching. It’s ok to be bad as long as we’re not that bad.

Notice that @ancienthooper has nothing to say on your thoughtful post. For him, all is well!

 

[robjknight]

After 3 point shooting, you have to have foul shooting. There were a few games where better foul shooting would have won the game. we can't be intentionally recruiting people with poor foul shooting. Almost everyone we play is better at foul shooting. It's been a negative at RU for a long time. Hire someone who can work on foul shooting style and what to practice.

 

[RUSJ73]

Foul shooting under Pikel has been horrible! Also 3 point shooting, and you can add 2 point shooting.

 

[RAC93]

Some of us have been sounding the alarm for a couple years. Some are just now starting to realize. Some are still in denial. Speaking to the first two, we all want to see RU back in the ncaas. But our program has a lot of flaws. We obviously can’t fix them overnight. Of the following what are your top 3 things, in order, to fix asap:
(These are in no order from me)
Plays out of timeouts
Player development
Player retention
Using the portal
Offensive sets and schemes
Changing the assistants
Accountability
Recruiting
Strength and conditioning
Scheduling
Player rotations
Tightening the rotation
Three point shooting
FT shooting
Getting a GM
Getting an AD
Getting a president
Fundraising
Other (if you choose this list a specific item)

Please let’s try to have a constructive, insult free discussion. Thanks.

1. Using the portal
2. Fundraising
3. Getting a GM

 

[ancienthooper]

Notice that @ancienthooper has nothing to say on your thoughtful post. For him, all is well!

I was actually trying to respect the OP’s request to “Please let’s try to have a constructive, insult free discussion.” That’s impossible with InsufferableLou as a participant, so I recused myself.

 

[Mr_Twister]

After 3 point shooting, you have to have foul shooting. There were a few games where better foul shooting would have won the game. we can't be intentionally recruiting people with poor foul shooting. Almost everyone we play is better at foul shooting. It's been a negative at RU for a long time. Hire someone who can work on foul shooting style and what to practice.

So we are not using John Beilein’s instructional shooting videos?

 

[darkcheck]

So we are not using John Beilein’s instructional shooting videos?

Should be using some of his two guard offense, some nice action in there.

 

[NickRU714]

Unless HC Pike is adverse to change, then he's not really a problem.
You can say he isn't a match or has the skills for fundraising but I don't see that as the highest priority.

It's just will he be open to the necessary changes that are within his control.
Such as:

1. Increased focus on 3pt shooting ability
2. Implementing a different offensive approach (see #1)
3. Changing the staff (if necessary to assist with #1 and #2).

As we are seeing this year, better players doesn't help with a bad system.
You can't just talent your way to success.

Everyone focuses on "Jimmy and joes" and ignores "Xs and Os" because it's convenient to blame the fans or entities outside the program than blame internally.

 

[stribucher]

On a lesser note, stop the centers from flashing up on pick and rolls and replace with drop coverage. We have been burned time and time again on basic pick and roll offense.

Unless Pike does not adapt his ways to the new college basketball landscape, he cannot remain as head coach. Of course, there are no sugar daddies like Indiana has to erase coaching mistakes.

 

[fluoxetine]

As we are seeing this year, better players doesn't help with a bad system.
You can't just talent your way to success.

Everyone focuses on "Jimmy and joes" and ignores "Xs and Os" because it's convenient to blame the fans or entities outside the program than blame internally.

That.. is not what we are seeing. If we define talent as current playing ability and not potential for the future we have not put a "talented" team on the floor this season. In the first couple months of the season we had one of the best players in the country + nothing else. Now we have developed a second very good player but the first one has been hurt and/or sick and has basically not played effectively at all in 2025 except for maybe one game so we are back to one great player + nothing else.

At full strength, right now, you could probably argue we have good talent but if we were at full strength right now we'd also be winning more games.

A team like Illinois effectively has an entire rotation of players that is better than our 2nd best player at any given time this year considering that we have basically never had good Ace and Dylan at the same time.

I'm not going to sit here and argue that Pike is the best Xs and Os coach ever or anything, but this idea that there was this super talented team that was squandered with X/O problems is, quite frankly, complete bullshit. The major problem is the roster.

 

[darkcheck]

That.. is not what we are seeing. If we define talent as current playing ability and not potential for the future we have not put a "talented" team on the floor this season. In the first couple months of the season we had one of the best players in the country + nothing else. Now we have developed a second very good player but the first one has been hurt and/or sick and has basically not played effectively at all in 2025 except for maybe one game so we are back to one great player + nothing else.

At full strength, right now, you could probably argue we have good talent but if we were at full strength right now we'd also be winning more games.

A team like Illinois effectively has an entire rotation of players that is better than our 2nd best player at any given time this year considering that we have basically never had good Ace and Dylan at the same time.

I'm not going to sit here and argue that Pike is the best Xs and Os coach ever or anything, but this idea that there was this super talented team that was squandered with X/O problems is, quite frankly, complete bullshit. The major problem is the roster.

Valid, the way I understood that post is that all we heard was sniper here, scorer there and they can all shoot FTs finally. I’m not sure why the FTs but having little to no quality Xs and Os certainly isn’t helping the players we do have. It’s a blend of, as you say, little talent but the poor schemes is making it even worse.

 

[fluoxetine]

Valid, the way I understood that post is that all we heard was sniper here, scorer there and they can all shoot FTs finally. I’m not sure why the FTs but having

Quite frankly we hear a lot of total BS every preseason and Hayes/Martini probably are actually good 3 point shooters if nothing else.

FTs are interesting. Mostly the transfers have been okay at the line, if at small sample sizes
Derkack 61/83 73.5%
Acuff 13/16 81.3%
Martini 8/13 61.5% <= no bueno but also tiny sample
Hayes 6/7 85.7%

Really Ace/Dylan are the ones performing way below expectations here.

little to no quality Xs and Os certainly isn’t helping the players we do have. It’s a blend of, as you say, little talent but the poor schemes is making it even worse.

Pike should probably hire an offensive X/O guy, but I would classify the schemes more as mediocre than poor. All you have to do is look at what people inevitably say whenever we actually execute well and make shots: "Wow, we finally ran a play!" and stuff to that effect. The schemes are there. They are not amazing, but they are there; the whole "we don't run an offense" stuff is way overblown.

Pike will remain a guy who can win with a defense first, grind it out style if he gets and keeps the right players. The guy hasn't become a worse coach since 2020-2022, but he's done much worse at putting a roster together.

 

[darkcheck]

Quite frankly we hear a lot of total BS every preseason and Hayes/Martini probably are actually good 3 point shooters if nothing else.

FTs are interesting. Mostly the transfers have been okay at the line, if at small sample sizes
Derkack 61/83 73.5%
Acuff 13/16 81.3%
Martini 8/13 61.5% <= no bueno but also tiny sample
Hayes 6/7 85.7%

Really Ace/Dylan are the ones performing way below expectations here.


Pike should probably hire an offensive X/O guy, but I would classify the schemes more as mediocre than poor. All you have to do is look at what people inevitably say whenever we actually execute well and make shots: "Wow, we finally ran a play!" and stuff to that effect. The schemes are there. They are not amazing, but they are there; the whole "we don't run an offense" stuff is way overblown.

Pike will remain a guy who can win with a defense first, grind it out style if he gets and keeps the right players. The guy hasn't become a worse coach since 2020-2022, but he's done much worse at putting a roster together.

So we have to embrace the rock fights again? Fine by me, makes for an exciting RAC experience. I like the OC idea though.

 

[Simce91]

Pike will remain a guy who can win with a defense first, grind it out style if he gets and keeps the right players. The guy hasn't become a worse coach since 2020-2022, but he's done much worse at putting a roster together.

Bingo !

Recruits from the last 3 years that were not B1G quality players - Jones, Miller, Stephens, Simpson. Wolfolk, Choi, and Griffiths

Its imperative that he returns the 2024 recruiting class

 

[NickRU714]

That.. is not what we are seeing. If we define talent as current playing ability and not potential for the future we have not put a "talented" team on the floor this season. In the first couple months of the season we had one of the best players in the country + nothing else. Now we have developed a second very good player but the first one has been hurt and/or sick and has basically not played effectively at all in 2025 except for maybe one game so we are back to one great player + nothing else.

At full strength, right now, you could probably argue we have good talent but if we were at full strength right now we'd also be winning more games.

A team like Illinois effectively has an entire rotation of players that is better than our 2nd best player at any given time this year considering that we have basically never had good Ace and Dylan at the same time.

I'm not going to sit here and argue that Pike is the best Xs and Os coach ever or anything, but this idea that there was this super talented team that was squandered with X/O problems is, quite frankly, complete bullshit. The major problem is the roster.

1. Same roster but better X/O - does that produce more wins?
2. Same X/O but better talent - does that produce more wins?

Obviously better talent AND better X/O is the ideal.
I would propose #1 is a more likely path to success than #2.

Is part of the "regression" of players our system not utilizing them for the meager talent they do have?
I'm not saying we have a Final 4 roster if not for the coaching.

But is the premise that we have had progressivly worse talent year over year for the past 3-4 years?
Instead of the team getting better, HC Pike has them going backwards?

 

[fluoxetine]

1. Same roster but better X/O - does that produce more wins?
2. Same X/O but better talent - does that produce more wins?

Obviously better talent AND better X/O is the ideal.
I would propose #1 is a more likely path to success than #2.

Is part of the "regression" of players our system not utilizing them for the meager talent they do have?
I'm not saying we have a Final 4 roster if not for the coaching.
But is the premise that we have had progressivly worse talent year over year?
Instead of the team getting better, HC Pike has them going backwards?

Not sure about progressively worse, we are better this year than last year, but yes we have had worse talent the last 2 years than we did from 2020-2023.

Obviously both #1 and #2 produce more wins, but I definitely disagree and which is a more likely path to success. The incremental improvement possible in X/Os is way less than you think imo.

 

[bethlehemfan]

1. Same roster but better X/O - does that produce more wins?
2. Same X/O but better talent - does that produce more wins?

Obviously better talent AND better X/O is the ideal.
I would propose #1 is a more likely path to success than #2.

Is part of the "regression" of players our system not utilizing them for the meager talent they do have?
I'm not saying we have a Final 4 roster if not for the coaching.

But is the premise that we have had progressivly worse talent year over year for the past 3-4 years?
Instead of the team getting better, HC Pike has them going backwards?

It’s really just the past two years and yes it’s the roster. The year before last we were better than the year before that. Significantly better and probably a top 40 type team. The year before that we probably should not have danced but that year we probably should have. Last year was bad due to Cam and Paul leaving late (not an excuse just a fact). If Dylan was healthy we would have been a lot better this year than last year. We’ve been hit by late nil defections last year and a critical injury this year. Again not an excuse but the drop off is clearly the roster. I don’t see how this is even debatable tbh.