Izzo on RU and feeling bad for Pike

[zappaa]

Michigan State's Tom Izzo on the state of Rutgers basketball: I feel for Steve Pikiell

Michigan State head coach Tim Izzo talks about Rutgers basketball

rutgerswire.usatoday.com

I think Paul was half expected and not really a blindside… Spencer on the other hand was an enormous loss.
The complete inability of our current guards to get the ball to Cliff in a useful position was also something Pike thought would somehow work itself out, but it has not.

 

[djrc89]

Zap
Seems like there are some people in the know about paul. Strikes me that pike is a straight shooter. Both of them had the right to do what they did but both left after the portal closed. I doubt pike expected that. I do wonder how schiano has managed to prevent defections while pike has struggled in this regard. Young, Eugene,mulcahy and Spencer

 

[zappaa]

Izzo, like all coaches do, see opposing players as how he would use them and how they’d fit in on his team.
He’s just one of a thousand coaches who see Hyatt, Cliff and Mag and say to themselves…. I’d take any one of them or all 3 of them.

 

[G- RUnit]

Michigan State's Tom Izzo on the state of Rutgers basketball: I feel for Steve Pikiell

Michigan State head coach Tim Izzo talks about Rutgers basketball

rutgerswire.usatoday.com

I think Paul was half expected and not really a blindside… Spencer on the other hand was an enormous loss.
The complete inability of our current guards to get the ball to Cliff in a useful position was also something Pike thought would somehow work itself out, but it has not.

I think Pike also underestimated how much Paul helped Cliff.

 

[Scarlet Blind]

This is Tom Izzo, 30+ years of coaching, voicing his opinions of our team based off video prep for the game and playing the game on Sunday. He sees the struggles of our guards playing together for 40 minutes and the difficulties of getting the ball to the post and to Cliff in the positions he wants. Why can't our own fan base understand and be a little bit more compassionate to our team and coach than an opposing coach?

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Cause they are paying admission

 

[BillyC80]

I think Pike also underestimated how much Paul helped Cliff.

That may be true, but Pike thought Paul was coming back, especially after the portal closed.

Also, couldn’t you say the same about Paul, that he underestimated how much Cliff made him look good? Those pick n roll feeds were a work of art, with a guy like Cliff who was dunking them from a 7-foot perimeter.

 

[rubjk]

Izzo, like all coaches do, see opposing players as how he would use them and how they’d fit in on his team.
He’s just one of a thousand coaches who see Hyatt, Cliff and Mag and say to themselves…. I’d take any one of them or all 3 of them.

In reality he uses the portal less than most coaches. Walker was one of his rare transfers in.

 

[ruinac]

Paul made it clear once last season ended that his first choice was to go pro and I’m sure that wasn’t news to Pike. Pike had plenty of notice and time to recruit a PG. Who he recruited hasn’t worked out. But he can’t blame it on Paul’s later decision to transfer.

 

[RUChoppin]

I think Pike also underestimated how much Paul helped Cliff.

Spencer, too. Mulcahy had 147 assists last year, but Spencer also chipped in 105. Right now, we're on pace for no player to hit 100 this season.

 

[Scarlet Blind]

Cause they are paying admission

On this message board?

The only player that you can fault not being here was Ndongo, as a result of the Coach Hobbs move, who would probably be our 3rd forward right now.

You can not blame the inefficiencies of our guards on Pike, when our two starting guards made conscious decisions to wait until after the portal closed and the talent dried up before announcing, leaving this team not many options to turn to. The last time we had this kind of inexperience at guards returning was 2018-19 with Geo, 1 year of experience, and RHJ, Mathis, Caleb and Peter Kiss in their first year here. They weren't as good defensively in 18-19 as this year's team is but got better offensively towards this time in the season but that team started 1-5 in the B1G, won 6-6, and lost their last 2 after the Issa Thiam incident.

Through December,
2018-19 Started 5-1, 7-5(0-2)
2023-24 Started 5-1, 8-4(0-1)

After 16, 18-19 8-8(1-4), 23-24 9-7(1-4)
18-19 Lost home NW, 23-24 home vs Nebraska ?

Next 12 in 18-19, 6-6, lost last 2
Don't be surprised if our record will resemble 18-19 or better the last 14 games.

Pike was genuinely caught off guard, and didn't think he would have to deal with a season like this again in year 8 having three experienced guards leaving in one year Jalen Miller was a possibility but the other two unexpected.

 

[RUChoppin]

My guess/assumption is that Pike felt confident Spencer was returning and didn't even see him as a risk of leaving when he put his name in the portal. I think he was holding a spot open for Mulcahy rather than forcing him out - but Mulcahy took a really long time to make his decision, which put Pike and the team in a bad spot.

My guess is he was pretty confident that we'd be able to field a starting unit of Simpson, Spencer, Hyatt, Mag, Omoruyi if Mulcahy decided to leave college... have to think transferring was a bit of a surprise though, rather than looking to go pro overseas or go the coaching route.

 

[zappaa]

In reality he uses the portal less than most coaches. Walker was one of his rare transfers in.

I’m not talking about his coveting them.

He sees them as good players he could coach.

 

[mildone]

Izzo, like all coaches do, see opposing players as how he would use them and how they’d fit in on his team. He’s just one of a thousand coaches who see Hyatt, Cliff and Mag and say to themselves…. I’d take any one of them or all 3 of them.

I think there's a lot of truth to that.

People, here on our forum, get frustrated at bad play and start bashing individual players or Pike. But I think the issue this season isn't that the players are bad. It's that the overall composition of the team wasn't expected early enough and then the resulting chemistry is not yet figured out. When people say "we don't have a clear leader", I think that's closer to the truth (and it's one of the issues w/team chemistry).

People complain about Pike playing a lot of players and want him to shorten the bench and reduce bench minutes. But I think Pike and his staff are still trying to figure out how to find the right combination(s) that produce(s) the best chemistry. Good team chemistry makes all the players better. Bad team chemistry makes all the players worse. Right now, this team has bad chemistry. So Pike continues to play a lot of players. And he'll probably continue doing so until he feels he's found the best solution.

I've coached enough to understand the difficulties here and to understand how this can sometimes take a long time. To people with little or no coaching experience, it looks simple to get really good team chemistry. And sometimes, it is simple.

But for people who've coached enough to experience teams that are easy to find chemistry, and teams that aren't, we know how hard it can be. There's often no quick fix and it's not something easy to predict until a team is playing challenging opponents. Coaches aren't magicians and cannot conjure up something that isn't there, despite fans wishing that were so.

 

[Rhuarc]

People on this board have a tendency to blame the coaches too much for every little thing.

Bad free throw shooting? Coaches don't do enough drills.
Poor rebounding? Not enough practice or focus.
Bad guard play? Coach can't recruit or didn't use the portal enough.

Meanwhile, the reality is somewhere in between. Players should make free throws and put themselves in a good position for rebounding. Our 2 best guards left when there was nobody good to replace them with. It doesn't help when you have little to no NIL money. Last year, not making the tournament? Blame the OSU screwjob and the MSG game being a home game for not letting us get in.

You can blame Pike 100 percent for Noah though. That's a huge whiff that came earlier in the process. Poor offensive sets, once again blame the coaches.

Anyway, I won't participate in tearing down a coach in a down year with so many factors being involved. Not worth it and not fair.

 

[Plum Street]

I think there's a lot of truth to that.

People, here on our forum, get frustrated at bad play and start bashing individual players or Pike. But I think the issue this season isn't that the players are bad. It's that the overall composition of the team wasn't expected early enough and then the resulting chemistry is not yet figured out. When people say "we don't have a clear leader", I think that's closer to the truth (and it's one of the issues w/team chemistry).

People complain about Pike playing a lot of players and want him to shorten the bench and reduce bench minutes. But I think Pike and his staff are still trying to figure out how to find the right combination(s) that produce(s) the best chemistry. Good team chemistry makes all the players better. Bad team chemistry makes all the players worse. Right now, this team has bad chemistry. So Pike continues to play a lot of players. And he'll probably continue doing so until he feels he's found the best solution.

I've coached enough to understand the difficulties here and to understand how this can sometimes take a long time. To people with little or no coaching experience, it looks simple to get really good team chemistry. And sometimes, it is simple.

But for people who've coached enough to experience teams that are easy to find chemistry, and teams that aren't, we know how hard it can be. There's often no quick fix and it's not something easy to predict until a team is playing challenging opponents. Coaches aren't magicians and cannot conjure up something that isn't there, despite fans wishing that were so.

I guess it’s a lost cause . Not like this team hasn’t had time with the overseas trip this past summer . Just looks like this team is gonna stink