Acuff needs to take his minutes. Period. It’s obvious. The guy can shoot, JWill is out of control most of the time.
At least he had 5 rebounds.
At least he had 5 rebounds.
JWill: 4 points and has the ball way too much!
- Thread starter SBP
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Yep Acuff should have majority of his minutes. I don’t understand how he can’t stay on his feet. Always looks out of control every game.
I like his enthusiasm but it’s not enough.
Similar to Jordan where I like his hustle but he drives me crazy with his head down drives without thought.
Acuff and Grant need more minutes. I really also want to see Dortch at this point too. If he is worse than martini wtf did we even recruit him?
At this point I’d play Acuff, Davis, Ace, Dylan and Somerville
Grant first off the bench.
Grant first off the bench.
No. Grant starts. We need his rebounding. Either JMike or Acuff starts. If Dylan runs the point, as he should, then Acuff is your 2. He’s spot up shooter.
Acuff
Dylan
Ace
Grant
Ogbole/Lathan …
Increase Shooting, Scoring, Rebounding and added size.
Dylan
Ace
Grant
Ogbole/Lathan …
Increase Shooting, Scoring, Rebounding and added size.
It feels like the whole discussion is like shuffling the deck chairs on the deck of Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Not sure if any lineup combo or rotation mix really matters at this point. We just are not a very good team. Maybe that changes, but we have played 15 games and we are 8-7. We have played 9 real teams (3 Vegas games, a bad SHU team, Princeton, and 4 big 10 games) and we are 3-6. At a certain point, to quote Bill Parcells, you are what your record says you are.
Need to stop the dribbling around the 3 point arc and ending up in iso crap no matter who is on the floor. On offense everyone should be in constant motion with quick passes and driving or driving and kicking out for 3.
I watched Jwill for shoot around 30 minutes before tip off and right before the game, not attempt one shot. Not from the FT line not from 3 not even a lay up. Every time he got the ball he threw the ball up in the air and tried crazy Harlem Globetrotter style dunks. After missing he giggled with PJ Hayes. Then I looked at the Wisconsin side, and what ya know. Everyone was taking turns shooting FTs. RU 5-13 from the line. Wisconsin 6-6. But hey, if there’s ever a need for a between the legs windmill dunk in a competitive game Jwills your guy!!!
exactly..man you are reading my thoughts about everything..it seems like after every game fans are calling for increasing a different players minutes and reducing anothers and then the next week doing the same but just the opposite.
I will say J Will has been a huge bust this year
JWill is a ball stopper. He occasionally shows a flash of what he did at times last year, but he's far too often forcing and pressing it out of control flailing around
He has been a big disappointment, along with the defense, the rebounding, the lack of rim protection, the lack of ball movement and a functioning offense, etc.. JWill is nowhere near being a #3 guy after Dylan and Ace that was envisioned and talked about for him. Acuff looked better in that role with just this game today. This roster has issues and Pike does not have anyone else to play, but if we were playing Grant more from the start and Acuff was given the #3 role and started earlier, it makes you realize that Pike not only constructed a poor roster but he didn’t even correctly manage the current poor roster that we do have. Makes you wonder if Dortch had anything to offer and whether Grant and Dortch were actually better options than Martini and Hayes. We now know that Grant is better than Martini, and it could maybe be the same for Dortch versus Hayes if Dortch got his opportunity. Pike has a really poor ability to evaluate talent, that should be the main factor for disqualifying him as coach at this point. I always liked him, but this season has shined a spotlight on his poor talent evaluation and it is an unacceptable trait for a coach to have.
The staff isn't about intensity. Cam Spencer said as much. It appears to be about having fun. How much fun is it to lose and look bad ding it? I know I'm not having fun watching it.
Gotta love early in the game when Williams and Davis are passing the ball back and forth to each other in possessions taking turns trying to drive to the rim without Ace or Dylan even touching the ball. I think Davis dribbled into 5 people and fell to the ground losing the ball on one possession. Classic.
I was done with J Will 10 games ago. Tired of his ice skating routine, weak takes to the rim and getting shot blocked. Seriously, why can't this guy stay on his feet? When he finally makes a basket, we have to watch the theatrics all the way down the court with that cocky smile like he's Michael Jordan. He's got all the Chicago swag with none of the game. I never dreamed that this would be the least fun team to watch since Pikes early years.
Williams has been a big disappointment.
That said, Acuff’s defense has been truly horrendous, and his overall shooting percentage of 35% on the season doesn’t exactly make up for that based on one good shooting game. He’s not exactly an efficient 3 point shooter over his entire career.
That said, Acuff’s defense has been truly horrendous, and his overall shooting percentage of 35% on the season doesn’t exactly make up for that based on one good shooting game. He’s not exactly an efficient 3 point shooter over his entire career.
Acuff is a tough one to pick on, his usage rate is way down and until recently exclusively was taking catch and shoot 3s for a pretty good percentage. I don’t agree that he hasn’t been a good 3pt shooter during his career. Two years ago he shot it well from downtown while his usage was down similar to this year. As for defense, can’t really argue that. Seems slow on his feet, but the team as a whole is so bad on defense, wouldn’t you want to play the better offensive player?
I know it's not similar at all.
My son joined a private U8 club baseball team this past fall.
Previously only our town PAL travel team (parent coached).
One of the biggest difference I noticed was the pregame warmup.
Club was 1 hour before the game and everyone was there. They had a set routine for stretching, fielding, throwing. It's was regimented and purposeful.
Many other teams would casually start showing up 30min before the game and not really warming up. Or sitting sround not really doing anything. Even his PAL team was like that.
Sorry everyone.
But I bought up all the oceanfront property on "Cut JWill Minutes Island" months ago.
There might be some bungalows available.
Post in thread 'Rutgers basketball has ‘best 2-man backcourt’ in Big Ten, analyst says' https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/t...’-in-big-ten-analyst-says.279062/post-6864944
But I bought up all the oceanfront property on "Cut JWill Minutes Island" months ago.
There might be some bungalows available.
Post in thread 'Rutgers basketball has ‘best 2-man backcourt’ in Big Ten, analyst says' https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/t...’-in-big-ten-analyst-says.279062/post-6864944
I’m not trying to say he’s terrible from 3, but he’s nothing special and he’s horrible on D. Like seriously horrible. He looks like an old man out there. When Dylan gets better, we will need D more than offense. Grant looks like an upgrade all around.
This is why Dortch should play too. The offensive 3 point portal snipers failed. Why not try the "surround Dylan and Ace with defenders" strategy
To be honest, I'm not sure whether the "snipers" failed, or the staff's lack of a semblance of an offensive scheme failed?
The shooters failed. They both have had olenty of wide open 3's and missed them all season
Martini, Acuff and Hayes are 7th, 9th and 10th in MPG.
The "surround Dylan and Ace with defenders" strategy has occurred all season.
Haven't the portal and returning defenders been a bigger failure?
The entire supporting cast has been a disaster. Hence giving Dortch a try. He, like Grant, brings something different to the roster that is missing
And the guys who played ahead of them still give us a better chance of winning with a healthy Dylan than any of the guys you mentioned. We’re not losing because of their lack of offense - Dylan and Ace are putting up enough points to carry us if we could just get stops. We’re losing because we can’t defend the post well or rebound. It’s what Scangg said. Grant should get more minutes and maybe give Dortch a shot. Swapping for worse perimeter defenders who might be able to score a bit more isn’t the answer. It won’t help us and at best would be a net neutral. We don’t want Acuff taking 15 shots when Dylan is healthy.
Do they? Season has been going great so far.
Sure. Play Dortch and Grant. No reason not to at this point.
Just pointing out that "the transfer shooters have failed and shouldn't be playing - lean into defense" has been happening all year already.
This isn't going to turn into another "If it wasn't for GG and his 7mpg of bad defense, we'd be a NCAA tournament team", is it?
The defense isn't bad because of Hayes, Acuff, and Martini are playing minimal minutes most nights.
Maybe it's the "defenders" actually playing 25+min (Derkack, Davis, Williams)?
The defense is bad because we can’t rebound. Isn’t that obvious? We would likely have at least 4 more wins on the season if everything else about the season went the same way except that. It’s not just that we give up so many offensive boards it’s that so many of them are put backs. Has to be a record number for a major conference team. We didn’t bring in a center. That was a huge mistake. That’s the issue. The guys you are suggesting cannot help us win more games. PJ Hays is 4 of 17 from 3 against major conference teams from 3. Martini is 1 of 8. I don’t want to hear that either of them belong out there. That’s just silly. Tyson plays a style where he thrives as a high volume shooter. That’s the last thing we want when Dylan is healthy. And his D is terrible. Hes not the answer either. We need better interior play on defense. Figure that out and we will win some games and maybe if we make the BIG tournament we can make things interesting.
Figure what out?
Other than the great hope of Grant/Dortch there is nothing to “figure out”.
This idea of “we just need to play better defense” makes no sense.
Why is the defense and rebounding bad? What players need to be replaced or lose minutes?
You want to say Hayes, Acuff and Martini won’t improve the defense and rebounding?Sure agreed.
But they aren’t the reason the defense is bad and needs to be fixed in the first place.
The entire premise of “we need to improve the defense” is wrong. It can’t be fixed if the “defensive players” are already on the court.
In Conference ranks:
PPG 70.8 (15)
PPG against 78.8 (15th)
If we were playing Acuff, Hayes and Martini major minutes while losing then “we need to change the lineup and address the defense” would make sense.
Play Williams, Davis and Derkack more.
Sacrifice the offense for better defense.
We are sacrificing “potential” (because it is still just potential - although Acuff produced last night in more minutes but without Harper) offense for better defense - but not getting defense.
You can’t cut minutes from players not playing.
Play Williams, Davis and Derkack more.
Sacrifice the offense for better defense.
We are sacrificing “potential” (because it is still just potential - although Acuff produced last night in more minutes but without Harper) offense for better defense - but not getting defense.
You can’t cut minutes from players not playing.
In fairness to him, most of the guys do a clown show celebration after making a shot. And then don’t get back on defense quick enough and get burned..
Have you seen PJ after made 3s??
Just play the fvcking game guys.. Everyone thinks they’re on ESPN highlights.🤮
But yet read all summer long how Hayes was just a lights out shooter and would really add a different dimension to the offense. Yeah maybe in an empty gym when it's just him.
But it’s not the D on a whole that’s why we’re losing. Its our rebounding. The D is far from great but it would be good enough based on the video game level numbers Dylan gives us when healthy and Ace - the problem is that we are giving up too many second chance opportunities which have resulted in put backs. If we fixed that one issue we would be no worse than 11-4 right now. The guys you are suggesting we play more cannot help address this and would make the rest of our defense a lot worse. We would give up more first try attempts with them in the game. So I’m just not sure what it is about them that you think would or could help us in a typical game. None of them are lights out shooters at the P5 level and we don’t want them to have high usage anyway with Dylan healthy so the idea of them absorbing big minutes to help out our offense just doesn’t make any sense. Dylan doesn’t need their help. He didn’t play well yesterday because he was blatantly sick and couldn’t run. No other reason.
Agree, but if i were Dortch I am not sure I would want to waste a year of eligibility.
Ok. So the magical solution is Bryce Dortch who hasn’t played a minute yet?
How is the rebounding getting fixed then?
I’m not saying rebounding isn’t a problem.
But if there isn’t a solution - literally we’re limited by the players on the roster - then change the question.
Unless Dortch is Rodman in waiting just needs a chance.
Great point. Why would he? In which case, any discussion of reducing Jeremiah’s minutes down from 25 are ridiculous. We need 3 players on the court at all times to play the 3, 4 and 5. Most of Williams minutes are him sliding to wing / small forward because he’s the best we’ve got to stop the bleeding on D which is at those positions in the post. He’s actually not really getting that much PT at the 1 or 2. Jordan, Dylan and JMike are splitting the time at the 1-2. Acuff is a big drop off on D compared to all of them and he’s not this amazing offensive player where he’s going to add that much to make up for it. I actually think he’d be an awful complement to Dylan. He’s a guy who thrives on iso scoring. Has done so his whole college career.
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He's so predictable.
Legs seem to move in opposite directions as he drives, he blows a tire and shoots or loses it as he's falling over.
And then the look of shock with hands on his head after every stupid foul
Legs seem to move in opposite directions as he drives, he blows a tire and shoots or loses it as he's falling over.
And then the look of shock with hands on his head after every stupid foul
