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.