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I've lost all faith in Pike

Don't over analyze it-----it's a limited roster playing without their best player.

Be fair to the guy--------good solid coach undertaking an extremely difficult job in a league that this year is loaded.
I would say the B1G has parity rather than being loaded.Michigan and Michigan State have shown the ability to win on the road consistently while other teams achieve upset wins at home.In Rutgers case the offensive woes put the team at a disadvantage wherever the game is played.The absence of 3 point shooters makes Rutgers easy to defend by clogging the driving lanes to the basket.The inconsistent foul shooting is another sign of offensive woes that winning teams don't have.

Bottom line too many complementary players getting extended minutes because there is a absence of go to scorers.
 
The jury is still out as to whether Pike is a good coach. He seems like an amiable fellow, a good guy.

But what has he shown in three years to justify a belief that he knows how to coach? Today it was obvious that the NW coach outcoached Mr. Pike.

Where is the evidence of good coaching?
+1000
 
Don't over analyze it-----it's a limited roster playing without their best player.

Be fair to the guy--------good solid coach undertaking an extremely difficult job in a league that this year is loaded.

He should get 5 years. But if year 5 resembles anything like years 1-3 he should be canned
 
There is plenty of evidence the past three years that show he's a good coach. His line-ups and switches worked to get Rutgers going in the Big Ten Tournament. I could go through and post the articles complimenting him last year, but that will take me too long and no one will read them anyway. A lot of people said this would be a step back year--Rutgers three best players left this year and we were essentially starting over. Missing Jose Alvarado really hurt. Development is not linear.

No one will want to listen to me and everyone is just upset about all the losing, which is fine, but all the pieces aren't here yet and the injuries hurt.
 
There is plenty of evidence the past three years that show he's a good coach. His line-ups and switches worked to get Rutgers going in the Big Ten Tournament. I could go through and post the articles complimenting him last year, but that will take me too long and no one will read them anyway. A lot of people said this would be a step back year--Rutgers three best players left this year and we were essentially starting over. Missing Jose Alvarado really hurt. Development is not linear.

No one will want to listen to me and everyone is just upset about all the losing, which is fine, but all the pieces aren't here yet and the injuries hurt.

Yes, that’s why I am willing to give pike to year 5. But if not in the NIT by then he needs to go.
 
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Why does geo always lead the team in shots every game? He is a terrible shooter game after game.
He needs to be taking far fewer shots if he's playing pg. McConnell should be getting more time at pg if only to make Geo more effective.
 
The jury is still out as to whether Pike is a good coach. He seems like an amiable fellow, a good guy.

But what has he shown in three years to justify a belief that he knows how to coach? Today it was obvious that the NW coach outcoached Mr. Pike.

Where is the evidence of good coaching?
He did take a team of Jordan castoffs and turn them into one the best rebounding teams in the nation. That's good coaching.

What we need is good recruiting at a faster pace. Less misses and more hits. I'm sure he knew this when he signed on. Some of you guys act like he's a grade A moron who stumbles around like babbling idiot on the court. He wasn't hired to be Rick Pitino with lots of flash. Pike deserves a chance to recruit with the new facility in place. He deserves our support. Judge him after the season when it's appropriate, support the team now.
 
Why can't it be a freshman shooter. People also conveniently forget Coleman was a disaster in his 2nd year.

Even that "disaster" season would have landed him as one of our best 2-3 players this year.

As a senior, Coleman was 30.5 min, 16.0 ppg (.420 2P%, .295 3P%, .743 FT%), 3.6 rb, 1.8 ast, 1.9 stl, 2.1 tov.
 
Even that "disaster" season would have landed him as one of our best 2-3 players this year.

As a senior, Coleman was 30.5 min, 16.0 ppg (.420 2P%, .295 3P%, .743 FT%), 3.6 rb, 1.8 ast, 1.9 stl, 2.1 tov.

what was the win-loss stats? intangibles?
 
I still think he'll be OK, but throwing up bad shots in key situations is on him. We didn't get great shots tonight, and half of our points were the result of forced shots. I've said this before - the offense is to predictable and as a result not difficult to defend. Teams with less talent need to run something more structured to compensate for lesser talent.

While stating things in general basketball terms, we all watch various levels of basketball....most fans here understand the game, but a good number speak in general terms without context....

A) We need shooters.....well, we actually have better shooters than years past, but the concepts of "better shooters", requires the player being able to do something other than "just shoot"...If you leave Peter Kiss and Issa Thiam, they can make shots, but in 80% of the competition we face over a 30 game schedule, it's rare that a shooter gets left wide open.

B) Running plays that are predictable....well, that comes down to what your players can or can't do. Everyone scouts each other and I don't think there's a coaching staff in the league that doesn't know what you want to run. What does "Structured mean".....??

Does it mean feeding the low post.....??? Well, if you do, there's an immediate double team coming from the weakside and if your big man cannot face the basket, dribble/shoot from 15 feet over the defender or pass crisply out of a double team, your post up offense is eliminated from the offense.

Does it mean running players off screens.....very easily defended, especially if you have better athletes as your opponent, who has better quickness to overcome your play calling.

"Teams with less talent have to compensate"....how does that happen, when your opponent scouts and breaks down your players strengths and weaknesses?? There is no mystery involved when you have players that are young OR have players that are not complete basketball players.

At this level of play, in this conference, no team symbolizes having less talent and more structure than Northwestern over the years.....whether it was Chris Collins or Carmody before him....they ran excellent offensive sets, screened, shot 3s well, but eventually, everyone catches up to what you run, what works and it becomes a "Jimmy's and the Joes', more than the X's and O's".

Fans need to acknowledge that before we can remotely discuss coaching, you have some good upsets (Miami and Ohio State) and some losses we'd like to have back (Fordham and Northwestern).

I can breakdown sets, but the bottom line is, you have to have athletes to generate a play, when your opponents know what you're running and the players have to improvise and make plays. Right now, Harper, Mathis and Baker are the players that are capable of generating their own offense, when teams stop what you are running.

Mathis in particular, went completely into attack mode, taking what the defense has provided and stopping runs, by literally breaking down his defender and getting into the paint....his upside is tremendous, but there is no "coaching" involved there, it's "getting into the paint, drawing contact and trying to score".

There aren't a lot of options for a lot of teams in this league....every game I watch, regardless of whether it's RU playing or not, ultimately comes down to that teams worst defender or offensive player, getting exposed...either by allowing baskets OR by not being able to score.....This is an elite league of staffs, I don't see many lapses night in and night out this year.

The teams that limit the number of lost possessions, by having as many complete players on the court on defense and offense, usually improves the fastest......but it requires talent and players to get there and we are another recruiting class or two (2019- and 2020) away from revamping this roster completely.

Right now, RU has played last year 3 on 5 at times last year or at best 4 on 5 offensively.....there were times it was just 2 on 5 offensively last year with Sanders and Baker and literally no threats of offense on the court with them, whether it was Doorson, Candido, a non-shooting threat in Eugene, Souf Mensah, Matt Bullock, Jake Dadkia or limited Thiam.

We are improved this year but the offensive gaps are closed much better this year. We are a year away from having a threat on offense at all 5 positions BUT, we are definitely without a capable front court mobile defender (especially without Eugene) and need another complimentary defensive stopper who can also attack and score, to stop an opponent's guard or wing player.

I was hopeful that Kiss really dug in defensively and used his ability to be a reasonable defender to help Mathis, but it appears he's not willing to sacrifice his body and offense to be a Mike Williams type of grinder....Mathis is willing and able to stop people, someone else has to be recruited or groomed, with athleticism to slow down a Ryan Taylor, an Isaiah Roby (Nebraska) or a Lamar Stevens (Penn State).....the list of players that can score from the SF position in the B1G does not end....RU has to have Harper plus another wing, truly develop to compete.

Eugene is that guy for now that can defend, but he's not here....so we either ride Thiam, watch him get exposed inside, outside and try and mask him on the court, but this league will find your gaps....and usually the SF position is the best offensive player on the court, going against the thinnest and weakest physical defender, without leaping ability or lateral quickness to stop that player. It has to be Harper and Kiss asked to do that, but I just don't see how fans ask for improvements, when you can't hide a Thiam on either end of the court.
 
Purdue doubled our bigs and it worked. I doubt NW would have doubled our bigs if Purdue didn't.

We have players that can make a wide open shot. Can they come off screens and penalize you for being a half second late defending the screen...A RESOUNDING NO!

I think that in a nutshell explains a lot of our woes.
 
Pike can continue to improve this program. It could be he will reach a plateau that he can no longer do that... but we are not there yet. Then it will be time to see if we can hire someone to get us to the next level. Of course, that hire could fail and go the other way. There is no reason to make such a risky move today.
 
We have players that can make a wide open shot.

Did you mean "CANNOT make a wide open shot"?

That would make more sense to me. And that shows the coaching is good.. we are getting those looks.. defense has been well coached.. mostly. We just need better shooters.. and some are coming.
 
Patience.

Yesterday I thought Kiss gave a better effort on defense. Message received? Hope so, we could use him if he is a willing defender.
 
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There is plenty of evidence the past three years that show he's a good coach. His line-ups and switches worked to get Rutgers going in the Big Ten Tournament. I could go through and post the articles complimenting him last year, but that will take me too long and no one will read them anyway. A lot of people said this would be a step back year--Rutgers three best players left this year and we were essentially starting over. Missing Jose Alvarado really hurt. Development is not linear.

No one will want to listen to me and everyone is just upset about all the losing, which is fine, but all the pieces aren't here yet and the injuries hurt.
Finally, someone with some sense. Some of the posters think we should easily beat a team whose 3 best players are a grad transfer, a redshirt senior and a senior, when our best player is out, our 2nd best a sophomore and 2 other starters freshmen.
We certainly have problems - having games where we can't hit the ocean from the beach, having a couple of players who are giving us nothing on offense, getting little or no respect from officials and having very little luck. How come other teams have bad shots that miraculously bank in and we have shots, especially in the 2nd half last night, the go up, sit on the rim for awhile, and then roll off? Give us a freakin' break once in awhile!!
 
I would say the B1G has parity rather than being loaded.Michigan and Michigan State have shown the ability to win on the road consistently while other teams achieve upset wins at home.In Rutgers case the offensive woes put the team at a disadvantage wherever the game is played.The absence of 3 point shooters makes Rutgers easy to defend by clogging the driving lanes to the basket.The inconsistent foul shooting is another sign of offensive woes that winning teams don't have.

Bottom line too many complementary players getting extended minutes because there is a absence of go to scorers.

Legit chance as a 9 bid league makes you a loaded league IMO.
 
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I keep reading things like this, I really don't understand what some of you were expecting this year.

We lost our best player (by a large margin) from last years team. In case you didn't notice our shooting last year was absolutely abysmal. And then you take off our leading scorer (who should still be here btw but thats a different topic). When Corey declared it pretty much guaranteed a sub .500 season and a last or near last place B1G finish

We added transfers and freshman--

Kiss so far not as good as I hoped
Myles Johnson better than I hoped
Harper about what I expected for this year but I think his ceiling is higher than I hoped
Mathis about what I expected and his D is superior for a frosh
McConnell better than we what I hoped
Carter about what I expected

We weren't lighting the world on fire before Eugene's injury but when you take your leader and likely best player off the team we are going to stuggle mightily

How many times in the last decade have I said we need better shooting. it's so obvious but freshman don't come in and shoot >33% from 3 in general. We need young to be a shooter BADLY that is obvious.

Thiam--what can you say he regressed but you have to play him. We don't have a lot of other options and regardless of how he is shooting he at least has the potential to make shots. You gotta let him play out of this. Its not like we have surefire replacment for him

We aren't going to win many games this year guys. We all knew this, and if you didn't you weren't watching closely. Throw in the fact that the B1G is in an up year too.
 
Purdue doubled our bigs and it worked. I doubt NW would have doubled our bigs if Purdue didn't.

We have players that can make a wide open shot. Can they come off screens and penalize you for being a half second late defending the screen...A RESOUNDING NO!

I think that in a nutshell explains a lot of our woes.


Our last 2 opponents double-teamed our bigs every time because they know that we don't kick it out quick enough to get open shots(which we should) and are not a good outside shooting team.

In general, we don't pass the ball around fast enough like most teams do.

As it is turning out, our most effective game is in transition with Mathis and Harper leading the charge. We simply are not a good half court offense, as has been the case for many years.

We have to tailor our team to the players we have, rather than have them play a "coaches" system, because our players don't shoot well consistently enough in the half court.

Best of Luck,
Groz
 
While stating things in general basketball terms, we all watch various levels of basketball....most fans here understand the game, but a good number speak in general terms without context....

A) We need shooters.....well, we actually have better shooters than years past, but the concepts of "better shooters", requires the player being able to do something other than "just shoot"...If you leave Peter Kiss and Issa Thiam, they can make shots, but in 80% of the competition we face over a 30 game schedule, it's rare that a shooter gets left wide open.

B) Running plays that are predictable....well, that comes down to what your players can or can't do. Everyone scouts each other and I don't think there's a coaching staff in the league that doesn't know what you want to run. What does "Structured mean".....??

Does it mean feeding the low post.....??? Well, if you do, there's an immediate double team coming from the weakside and if your big man cannot face the basket, dribble/shoot from 15 feet over the defender or pass crisply out of a double team, your post up offense is eliminated from the offense.

Does it mean running players off screens.....very easily defended, especially if you have better athletes as your opponent, who has better quickness to overcome your play calling.

"Teams with less talent have to compensate"....how does that happen, when your opponent scouts and breaks down your players strengths and weaknesses?? There is no mystery involved when you have players that are young OR have players that are not complete basketball players.

At this level of play, in this conference, no team symbolizes having less talent and more structure than Northwestern over the years.....whether it was Chris Collins or Carmody before him....they ran excellent offensive sets, screened, shot 3s well, but eventually, everyone catches up to what you run, what works and it becomes a "Jimmy's and the Joes', more than the X's and O's".

Fans need to acknowledge that before we can remotely discuss coaching, you have some good upsets (Miami and Ohio State) and some losses we'd like to have back (Fordham and Northwestern).

I can breakdown sets, but the bottom line is, you have to have athletes to generate a play, when your opponents know what you're running and the players have to improvise and make plays. Right now, Harper, Mathis and Baker are the players that are capable of generating their own offense, when teams stop what you are running.

Mathis in particular, went completely into attack mode, taking what the defense has provided and stopping runs, by literally breaking down his defender and getting into the paint....his upside is tremendous, but there is no "coaching" involved there, it's "getting into the paint, drawing contact and trying to score".

There aren't a lot of options for a lot of teams in this league....every game I watch, regardless of whether it's RU playing or not, ultimately comes down to that teams worst defender or offensive player, getting exposed...either by allowing baskets OR by not being able to score.....This is an elite league of staffs, I don't see many lapses night in and night out this year.

The teams that limit the number of lost possessions, by having as many complete players on the court on defense and offense, usually improves the fastest......but it requires talent and players to get there and we are another recruiting class or two (2019- and 2020) away from revamping this roster completely.

Right now, RU has played last year 3 on 5 at times last year or at best 4 on 5 offensively.....there were times it was just 2 on 5 offensively last year with Sanders and Baker and literally no threats of offense on the court with them, whether it was Doorson, Candido, a non-shooting threat in Eugene, Souf Mensah, Matt Bullock, Jake Dadkia or limited Thiam.

We are improved this year but the offensive gaps are closed much better this year. We are a year away from having a threat on offense at all 5 positions BUT, we are definitely without a capable front court mobile defender (especially without Eugene) and need another complimentary defensive stopper who can also attack and score, to stop an opponent's guard or wing player.

I was hopeful that Kiss really dug in defensively and used his ability to be a reasonable defender to help Mathis, but it appears he's not willing to sacrifice his body and offense to be a Mike Williams type of grinder....Mathis is willing and able to stop people, someone else has to be recruited or groomed, with athleticism to slow down a Ryan Taylor, an Isaiah Roby (Nebraska) or a Lamar Stevens (Penn State).....the list of players that can score from the SF position in the B1G does not end....RU has to have Harper plus another wing, truly develop to compete.

Eugene is that guy for now that can defend, but he's not here....so we either ride Thiam, watch him get exposed inside, outside and try and mask him on the court, but this league will find your gaps....and usually the SF position is the best offensive player on the court, going against the thinnest and weakest physical defender, without leaping ability or lateral quickness to stop that player. It has to be Harper and Kiss asked to do that, but I just don't see how fans ask for improvements, when you can't hide a Thiam on either end of the court.
It means more precise with less one on one out of control play against better players - much like Fordham or BU's offense against us. They both had far less talent than we do yet got the shots they wanted. More continuity on offense.
 
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This is year 3. We all expected better this year. 1-6 in the B1G is all on Pike. Watched this game then the Iowa wrestling debacle. Why can't Rutgers win ANYTHING?
 
what was the win-loss stats? intangibles?

We were 12-16 (4-12) against the 63rd SOS, with a 2-4 record against ranked teams, after losing all of our beef in the frontcourt from the prior season (Kent and Dabney). We had next to no interior scoring threat that year, after Kent had been a double-double machine the prior season.

Did he drop off productivity? Definitely - but it was far from a disaster. If our last open roster spot this year was that senior year Jerome Coleman, I have a feeling he'd be seeing 25+ min per game right now, with a primary guard rotation of Baker/Mathis/Coleman.
 
This is year 3. We all expected better this year. 1-6 in the B1G is all on Pike. Watched this game then the Iowa wrestling debacle. Why can't Rutgers win ANYTHING?

Rutgers seems immune to all laws of college sports.

It's hard to win on the road... Except at Rutgers.

Somehow there are enough competent QBs and shooters to fill out 98% of power-5 rosters... Somehow Rutgers is always in that 2%.
 
We didn’t give EJ 5 years. I would give him next year given the recruits he has coming in.

That's because EJ was freaking The Worst Coach we've had since Littlepage and we have been head coach challenged for decades. Pike looks to have a good nucleus of 4 year type of players. Let them develop and let's see the improvement next year and year 5. And as others have stated, the 2020 class is huge. He needs to bring in a couple difference makers to get us over the hump.
 
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McConnel didn't have a great game bringing the ball up either. Mulcahy and Young will help next year, but I'm not convinced these two alone will cure Geo's scoring woes. His shot has been off early in the games too.
Mulcahy and Young will be huge for us next year. Both are true PG's. Yes, McConnell didn't have a good game last night either, but having him bring up the ball will save a lot of energy in the entire game for Geo. And yes, I agree with you Geo had an off game from the start, but I'm talking long term in the remaining games of the season. We need Geo to be more of a scoring threat and right now, he's off and when we needed him in the 2nd half, he was dead tired and he wasn't using his legs to springboard his jump shot, which is why the majority of his shots were coming up short.

But with that said above, Mulchay and Young will be a tremendous help next season.
 
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Young is not a true point guard. He will definitely give us a change of pace with his speed and scoring potential.
 
This is Pikiell's record at Stony Brook. The man can coach. Stony Brook was a down and out program. Now, I realize the American East conference is not the B1G, but it shows the progression of rebuilding a program from the lowest depths and making them a winning and consistent program that competes night in and night out. Pike can flat out coach. He needs to keep recruiting better and better players. We have pieces now, but not an entire team that can get us out of the basement of arguably the best BB conference in the country and take us to the tournament.

2005–06 Stony Brook 4–24 2–14 9th
2006–07 Stony Brook 9–20 4–12 9th
2007–08 Stony Brook 7–23 3–13 8th
2008–09 Stony Brook 16–14 8–8 5th
2009–10 Stony Brook 22–10 13–3 1st NIT First Round
2010–11 Stony Brook 15–17 8–8 5th
2011–12 Stony Brook 22–10 14–2 1st NIT First Round
2012–13 Stony Brook 25–8 14–2 1st NIT Second Round
2013–14 Stony Brook 23–11 13–3 2nd CBI First Round
2014–15 Stony Brook 23–12 12–4 T–2nd CBI First Round
2015–16 Stony Brook 26–7 14–2 1st NCAA Division I First Round
 
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Yeah, Pikiell's had some bad beats but his teams compete. He didn't get beat by 61 on national TV, and didn't get blown out by 50 at home. Pikiell's teams actually look like a college basketball team.
Honest questions. Who took over a worst situation? Who recruited the best player to date? People are giving Pike a pass on the last game with EO out but no one cared EJ lost the entire front court for the season. I want to be clear here. I don’t think EJ was a good coach, I just don’t get all the trust Pike fans.
 
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That's because EJ was freaking The Worst Coach we've had since Littlepage and we have been head coach challenged for decades. Pike looks to have a good nucleus of 4 year type of players. Let them develop and let's see the improvement next year and year 5. And as others have stated, the 2020 class is huge. He needs to bring in a couple difference makers to get us over the hump.
Is that an accomplishment? He really just need to not finish last this year and I will have more faith.
 
Rutgers seems immune to all laws of college sports.

It's hard to win on the road... Except at Rutgers.

Somehow there are enough competent QBs and shooters to fill out 98% of power-5 rosters... Somehow Rutgers is always in that 2%.

It was 2006 when RU had a guy who could fill it up as a shooter consistently. It’s been pretty much dry gulch since then for RU shooters.
 
Is that an accomplishment? He really just need to not finish last this year and I will have more faith.

If he keeps the good players together it's an accomplishment. Every coach at RU over the last decade plus who had good players eventually lost some to transfer. Pike usually coaches pretty well and is slowly building up the roster it looks like we are positioned to have our first winning season in forever next year which gives me hope. Believe me, I usually have little patience for rebuilds but I think Pike has the program on the right path.
 
I don't know...IMHO if the sophs/frosh were Srs/Jrs we are sitting at, likely, no worse than 12-5 right now. Kinda has us set up for a tourney run, no?
 
Honest questions. Who took over a worst situation? Who recruited the best player to date? People are giving Pike a pass on the last game with EO out but no one cared EJ lost the entire front court for the season. I want to be clear here. I don’t think EJ was a good coach, I just don’t get all the trust Pike fans.


because he had a horrible assistant staff...O Koren....lmfao.....his recruiting besides Sanders a risk was awful. His energy for recruiting was never going to get it done here...very evident...he could have 14 players or 7..he wasnt winning here
 
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because he had a horrible assistant staff...O Koren....lmfao.....his recruiting besides Sanders a risk was awful. His energy for recruiting was never going to get it done here...very evident...he could have 14 players or 7..he wasnt winning here
I guess I wasn’t clear enough.
 
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