Losing to villanova
- Thread starter biazza38
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Our pitching has been bad and we can't score runs. We are now 10-18 and I would like to see things improve but I don't see it.
Hand-picked/anointed successors often fail. They get the job for all the wrong reasons.
The recruiting paradigm has to change (geography). JUCOs and transfers included in the new paradigm, too. Hire coaches with sustained success whose recruiting reach extends beyond NJ. Hire staff who would be considered seriously for openings at other Big Ten programs.
Nearby St. John's roster is a great example ... multiple players from out of the area (CA, FL, other states), JUCOs.
http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/stjo-m-basebl-mtt.html
If Southern teams can find NJ players, maybe Rutgers can find players and coaches from the Southeast.
http://www.app.com/story/sports/col...e-baseball-jersey-aces-tobacco-road/99953036/
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If you want to compete on a league championship and national level, for most sports you need to recruit beyond the local level. Out-of-state, foreigners, transfers, JUCOs. Rutgers has never been resourceful enough when it comes to recruiting. Hire coaches with stature and achievement/success. Coaches and players need not be home-grown. With sustained winning, the local recruiting focus will follow.
Hiring coaches with stature and success requires funding that Rutgers usually lacks.Their salary structure doesn't match rivals in the B1G or other teams that are successful .
The Rutgers AD and Athletics Dept do not do their due diligence. The FGCU head baseball coach makes almost $50K less than the Rutgers head baseball coach. And his credentials are impressive. Dave Tollett and his staff would recruit more aggressively and resourcefully than the current Rutgers staff if they were at Rutgers. I bet hiring a successful ASUN Conference baseball coach would never be a consideration to our administration.
http://www.fgcuathletics.com/coaches.aspx?rc=429&path=baseball#
Correction: I Google-d ... Tollett made $105K salary in 2013. Probably not making that much less than the Rutgers coach. My bad.
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I think I read somewhere that Litterio's contract is up after the season. Anyone here know any truth to that? I think he should be history after this year if that's the case.
I know you folks seem to want to harp on the coaching and recruiting, but look at what they are trying to recruit to. I don't mean your school in general, it's a great university, but your game facilities have to be the worst in D-1 baseball. I couldn't believe when I was out there for the NU football game that they were the game facilities. Google what other Big 10 teams are doing to try and compete and it starts where they games are played. I will never understand why you don't have lights. I know it costs a lot of money but it'll be a battle till you have somewhere that today's kids who have choices want to play in.
Here we go again...you keep beating this drum but yet REFUSE to either listen, or believe, that we CAN NOT load up our roster with JUCO's at Rutgers unless or until the University decides to changes it admission procedures regarding JUCO credit transfers. Why is this so damn hard for you to understand?
Not sure it is going to get better for Rutgers. and in fact, may get worse. Here are the top 17 draftable players in NJ. Only 1 (right, just 1) lists Rutgers. Rest are heading out of state, including to powerhouses Fordham and Campbell. Second Tier NJ players will not get it done.
http://www.nj.com/hssn-mms/2017/03/baseball_preview_2017_njs_most.html
http://www.nj.com/hssn-mms/2017/03/baseball_preview_2017_njs_most.html
I think it's becoming pretty clear that we've got to make a coaching change. Shit like this is just unacceptable. His game day management of the team, as well, is highly questionable.
As a casual observer, and a fan of a recent opponent, I'd say that defense/fielding is by far the most hurtin' part of the Rutgers game. I think there enough good pitchers and batters to be competitive, but Oy...
Can't say I disagree with you because facilities are huge. That being said, we recruited better talent and competed in the Big East. The Big East was comparable and maybe even better than the B1G in baseball.
That was basically before any schools other than the Southern ones spent money on baseball. Now schools everywhere have up their game and a lot of it has to do with added conference revenue. There are more good players opting to play college baseball now compared to 10 years ago as well. They are getting better coaching and the education part that the minor leagues can't provide. You never used to see to many college baseball players in the majors but now there are a ton of them. It is because of the added money schools are putting out for coaches and facilities to train in. It's a different game that 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. Right before NU entered the Big 10 Delany publicly said he wanted schools to up their spending on baseball and softball. The Big 10 was way behind other conferences and it needed to get modern with their programs or drop them. The schools have responded by spending on them and the quality of the Big 10 from top to bottom has improved every year since NU joined. Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern have all had major stadium stuff since NU joined.(NU put in a new stadium in 2001 and is getting ready for a major facelift) To me with the number of players in the NJ area it is a movie quote away from being way more competitive, "Build it and they will come".
That makes sense. Hopefully the new practice facility brings us up to par. We're not in RAC anymore, so that's a start.
I'm not referring to a practice facility. While that is great and is a start, I think the Big 10 schools have had them for a while. I know NU has the Alex Gordon Center that they can basically play a game in it and have 6 pitchers all working at the same time. I'm referring to your gameday facilities. That is where you are miles behind. The new practice stuff helps for sure but kids don't want to go play their games at a facility that is poorer than the one they played on in high school. I live in a town of 1300 and we only have legion baseball and none at the high school level and our facility and the ones in all the neighboring towns of the same size have better set ups than RU's game field. Kids nowadays whether it's right or wrong like bells and whistles and that's where RU is really lacking for baseball. I just think you could have Joe Torre be your coach and he would struggle to get kids to stay home and play at the current facility.
I don't deny that out game facilities arent anything special. It's definitely an uphill battle. Quite frankly I see some of these teams, PSU for example, with a minor league stadium and it's a complete waste. We don't have the money at the moment. But we'll have to make some changes when we do. We're just not cutting it. All that being said, PSU hockey got a ridiculous $80 million dollar donation back in 2010 when it wasn't even D1. I know that's not baseball, but it just goes to show the money these schools have to throw around. One last point on game day facilities, that stuff is totally overrated by players. There are a lot of MLB stadiums, Fenway, wrigley, Oakland, Tampa, etc who's stadiums are complete dumps. These kids are really spoiled these days. This isn't football, you don't need anything special.
I agree schools are spending way to much money. I get a letter every month saying that NU is planning this and that and would you be willing to donate. It's endless. NU has the Morrison Trust that just was given to them. It's worth about $1.5 billion. They get to spend so much annually depending on income.
You mention Wrigley, my favorite(see my avatar picture ha), Fenway etc. the outside of them and where the fans are is old and could use some help. However, where the players are as for locker rooms and their stuff and playing surface, they are first class. I've been on the field at Wrigley many a time and it is like Agusta National, perfect.
I agree completely that kids today are spoiled but you have to play the game or things won't be good.
I know you have more money coming so hopefully something can be built to try and keep up with the Jones's.
NU is playing Maryland on BTN this afternoon at 2:00cst. That's what schools are putting in for stadiums.
Completely agree with everything you said. Btw, you're an awesome contributor to the board. Love it when other fans can come here and give solid info.
Ohio State baseball has these transfers - (3) McLennan CC, Cypress College, Sinclair CC, Meridian College.
Indiana baseball has these transfers - (2) Iowa Western, Wabash Valley, Vanderbilt, Madison College/Virginia, Lower Columbia College, San Jaoquin Delta.
If Rutgers can not land these types of transfers, we can not compete.
Why is this so damn hard for you to understand?
Again, you're missing my point, it's not a matter of not wanting those type of players, it's the plain simple fact that the transfer of junior college credits, into our university, is much more difficult than it is in a lot of other schools. Until that changes we're not going to be able to load our rosters with those type of kids. It's that simple.
Doing what was done to Lafayette is what I expect from RU against a 3 win team!!!!
Maybe lazy recruiting? Don't know. Enough talent in NJ to compete. Not sure why Rutgers does not.
Hopefully they are recruiting other pitchers they think are better prospects, though twice being Pitcher of the Week on a national level, no matter what the level, is a decent credential. As well as arriving with two years of maturity and physical development and post-high school competition under his belt. Guessing that Fluke was recruited by Roxbury, NJ native and Old Dominion University baseball assistant coach Karl Nonemaker, who played at an SEC team (Vanderbilt), played professionally, coached at another SEC program (Auburn). Nonemaker better be a candidate when and if a coaching change occurs. We need a staff with "southern" baseball connections.
http://www.odusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31100&ATCLID=208409403
http://www.odusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31100&ATCLID=208409403
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Some follow-up on this year's successful County College of Morris (JUCO) baseball team. The coach expects 3 players to be drafted, two of them pitchers. It would be nice to know that Rutgers gave them some recruiting attention.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/sports/college/2017/05/08/college-corner/101070914/
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/sports/college/2017/05/08/college-corner/101070914/
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This is a difficult time. Kids go JUCO in baseball usually for academics and they want to get drafted earlier. We never had a JUCO the years I was there. I was on a 38 win team that beat UNC and Georgia Tech 2 of 3 but we lost to Aldelpi and Lafayette the same year. Mid week games aren't always pretty, kind of the way things are. Moose use to win with NJ pride. I do not know if we have the same set up.
All this facility talk is kind of funny. The RU field was built on an old Livingston dump site and there used to be a railroad tie sticking up in right field. Seton Hall has the worst field I ever played on and the coach screamed like a crazy person. They got Mo Vauhn and all those others stars to go there. Mark light in Miami was a really hard surface. Villanova and Temple played there home games in an open Park in the middle of Philly (or the Vet which was a knee killer). We played for our teammates and our coach. The rest didn't matter.
I usually say patience but I have not enjoyed watching us lose so much in the past few years. I have only spoke with the new coach briefly so I don't have anything else to add. I don't want change for change sake. I want a plan and an established coach.
All this facility talk is kind of funny. The RU field was built on an old Livingston dump site and there used to be a railroad tie sticking up in right field. Seton Hall has the worst field I ever played on and the coach screamed like a crazy person. They got Mo Vauhn and all those others stars to go there. Mark light in Miami was a really hard surface. Villanova and Temple played there home games in an open Park in the middle of Philly (or the Vet which was a knee killer). We played for our teammates and our coach. The rest didn't matter.
I usually say patience but I have not enjoyed watching us lose so much in the past few years. I have only spoke with the new coach briefly so I don't have anything else to add. I don't want change for change sake. I want a plan and an established coach.
Any talk/rumors of Hobbs firing Litterio yet? Once the season is over if we don't make B1G Tourney I would pull the plug if I'm Hobbs.
C'mon, the Baseball team still has a realistic chance of making the Big10 tourney.
Get a grip, lol.
Please tell me more about this. My impression had been that RU is pretty generous in giving credit to Juco students, at least from New Jersey. The legislature mandated it. What are the problems?
ODU is a top 25 baseball team and plays in the south. That hard for Rutgers or any northern school to compete with. So it probably wouldn't matter if Rutgers had recruited him or not.
This isn't exactly a topic that hasn't been talked about here 1000x since the boards first opened. It's a major problem. hence the (almost) complete lack of CC/JUCO transfers on our athletic rosters.
Maybe this was a "mandate" for Camden and Newark?
It is not a Camden/Newark issue. The criteria for accepting transfer credit are university-wide. When I served in the University Senate some years ago, there was tremendous resentment of policies that allegedly resulted in too many unqualified JUCO transfers, and I remember the state legislature passing a law to force Rutgers to accept more JUCO credit than it was. It's interesting that this issue is perceived so differently by faculty than by sports fans.
BTW, it works much better in California, where the University accepts loads of transfer students from JUCOs (and where there are lots of athletes from JUCOs) There the JUCO catalogues spell out exactly which courses will be accepted for transfer credit by the University of California and California State University.
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