JMike

[fluoxetine]

Davis clearly has the ability to be a good defender but I don’t think he’s nearly good enough to make up for his offense which is, I am sorry, horrific. When he goes to the hoop he looks like a high schooler trying to score in the NBA and he can barely shoot a free throw let alone a three pointer. He doesn’t rebound, he has a <1 assist to turnover ratio.

I honestly hate to be this negative about a kid but I do not see how him playing at all outside of extremely specific circumstances that call for defense only is a path to success for RU.

I understand that there are defensive contributions that do not show up in the box score, and we played very good team defense against PSU, so maybe that game was one of those circumstances. But we were not good defensively against SHU relative to how absurdly bad they are offensively.

The kid has played 161 minutes and scored 25 total points. 19 of those came against St Peters/Wagner/Monmouth. It’s completely 4 on 5 when he is out there on the offensive end.

I think Pike is petrified of being even worse on defense but to me Hayes, Derkack, and Acuff need to be the ones playing and we need to just get them playing the best defense we can.

 

[RRRRUUUU]

Unless someone else wants to step up and play defense, he will be playing meaningful minutes. Acuff could take that role by Feb, but you can clearly tell he’s a step slow from recovering from his leg injury.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Pike could be indirectly saying what we don't want to hear.........

Hayes and Acuff's D is so bad they don't make up for the added offense they give over Davis.
Or said differently....their D is so bad I would rather play offense 4 on 5 than have them in the game.

I do think part of it is a tone setting thing, but I do think he made enormous defensive contributions vs PSU and to a lesser extent 2nd half vs PSU

 

[RRRRUUUU]

i think Acuff’s defensewill improve as his leg gets stronger.

Hayes is doing the best he can. Just a low ceiling on defense for him.

I wish Dylan grant would realize he has the opportunity to get minutes if he puts in the effort on defense and concentrates on that. Instead he’ll Jack up a bad shot as soon as he gets the ball.

 

[FerrisBuellerrrrr]

We don’t have enough two way players (those who are at least average on defense and offense), so, would you rather play 5 on 4 on offense or defense? The answer likely depends on opponent, in game opponent line ups, and game score. So you will see a patch work strategy to try and minimize our Inability to put 5 complete players on the floor

 

[Saint Puppy]

Derkack has forced shots but in general Derkack’s aggressive mistakes have had a lot more good than Davis’s imo. Derkack did a bunch of stuff that was just a *little bit* too ambitious and it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to get him to rein it in slightly. A lot of that stuff might have worked in his previous spot.

A lot of Davis plays look like they have no hope and he’s been doing the same thing since he got here against the same competition.

Both Derkack and JMike need to have better basketball IQ. Both are not prototypical B1G guards, and therefore need to make up for it by being smarter than the other guy - neither does this. They both seem to close their eyes and drive in - this seems to almost never work out for JMike and sometimes work out for Derkack by drawing a foul or somehow scoring....however Derkack can just as easily get a turnover. JMike reminds me of a better version of Jalen Miller. I never understood Jalen Miller - zero offense and I felt he gave average D, though we kept being told how good a defender he was. JMike is terrible at finishing, but seems to get better shots than Miller and is also quick on D, though undersized.

Put JMike and Derkack together and you almost have a 7th guy off the bench on this level. Separately? Well they have a home on the '24-'25 Rutgers team - and one of them is going to start. That one or the other keeps starting is a microcosm of who we are as a team. Not good.

 

[RUDivision]

Davis was awful defensively against Alabama for sure - and maybe A&M also. It mystified me because he was so good as an on-ball defender last season. He has not been good this season, defensively - and he has to be good defensively or there is no rationale for any playing time for him.

To RUDivision: You're simply completely wrong about the Penn State game (well, yes, Bailey was determined to rebound in that game and it was important - I am talking about Davis), and I am pretty sure wrong about the SHU game also.

There is absolutely no question that Davis starting and defending against Ace Baldwin was one of the keys to the game. Davis 100% disrupted Baldwin, PSU's leading scorer, and along with Harper (the other primary defender of Baldwin when Davis was not in the game), was a BIG reason Baldwin was harassed and hurried into 3-14 FG , with 3 turnovers. Davis completely set the tome for RU's entire defensive attitude in that game.

Against SHU he may not have been as visibly good, but he was particularly good defensively in the 2nd half vs SHU, particularly when he defended Jenkins in the 2nd half ... Jenkins was SHU's leading scorer, and was only able to even attempt 4 shots in the game, and just 1 shot in the entire 2nd half - and 4 turnovers, 3 in the 2nd half. Which made an important difference in the game.

Penn state he offered nothing! 3 positive defensive plays and down the stretch Dercack guarded Baldwin more then JMike. The last shot by Baldwin was wide open and JMike while there: was late and too small to contest.

Our best half of the year was the first half against PSU and had ZERO to do with JMike. We were moving the ball inside and out and finding the open shooters. Then Pike went into his shell and PSU came all the way back with JMike playing that “great D”.

JMike is a avg defender who can not play offense at all. Can’t play D1 . Sorry

 

[RUBlackout]

What I don’t understand from the coaching aspect….

You have JMike in the game which is all about defending a playmaking guard. Why not press full court with him and Jwill/Jordan in the game together at all times. We take teams out of setting up half court offenses which we know we are bad at defending. Turn up the tempo which this team thrives on and tune your liabilities into assets. I’m also not referring to 1:1 on call defending full court but our 2:2:1 press.

Use these players for what they could potentially totally excel doing.

 

[CERU00]

Simpson saying hold my beer.
Many of you wanted JMike over Simpson.
Many of you were wrong.

Others felt we'd be fine parting with both.

 

[RutgersChow]

I'd take a neutered Simpson that meshed with the team over JaMike with ZERO hesitation.

I don't get the sense Simpson would want to be told to not shoot and not take it to the basket and I don't know about the 2nd part.

As if Pike sets such demands on players - LOL.

 

[Arizona Knight]

Montez had an outside shot. Had a very nice game against Clemson

Montez was a terrible shooter.

 

[lion1983]

Penn state he offered nothing! 3 positive defensive plays and down the stretch Dercack guarded Baldwin more then JMike. The last shot by Baldwin was wide open and JMike while there: was late and too small to contest.

Our best half of the year was the first half against PSU and had ZERO to do with JMike. We were moving the ball inside and out and finding the open shooters. Then Pike went into his shell and PSU came all the way back with JMike playing that “great D”.

JMike is a avg defender who can not play offense at all. Can’t play D1 . Sorry

Well, you are just totally wrong.

So be it.