Who would you give those minutes to, honestly? With Eugene down, there aren't any better options.
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.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.
+1000The 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?
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.
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.
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.Why does geo always lead the team in shots every game? He is a terrible shooter game after game.
He did take a team of Jordan castoffs and turn them into one the best rebounding teams in the nation. That's good coaching.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?
McConnell was brutal yesterday or he would have likely seen more time at PG.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.
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.
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.
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.
We didn’t give EJ 5 years. I would give him next year given the recruits he has coming in.He should get 5 years. But if year 5 resembles anything like years 1-3 he should be canned
We have players that can make a wide open shot.
We didn’t give EJ 5 years. I would give him next year given the recruits he has coming in.
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.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.
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.
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.
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.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.
what was the win-loss stats? intangibles?
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?
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?
We didn’t give EJ 5 years. I would give him next year given the recruits he has coming in.
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.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.
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.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.
Is that an accomplishment? He really just need to not finish last this year and I will have more faith.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.
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%.
Is that an accomplishment? He really just need to not finish last this year and I will have more faith.
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.
I guess I wasn’t clear enough.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