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Nigel Johnson transferring

This. Our team honestly played best when he wasnt on the floor. Again this is addition by subtraction
He didn't create for anyone else, was not a spot up three point shooter, and had a lot cringe worthy misadventures driving into the paint but he did have a few games where he was on fire and on a team desperate for scoring he provided that on many occasions. Are we a better team than we were yesterday? No, we are not. Luckily the season doesn't start tomorrow so let's see what this staff can do. Time to go to work.
 
Nigel got yanked and never returned to the floor in our last home game against Illinois. When the rest of the RAC and the team were going bananas after Deshawn won the game with his three, Nigel was stonefaced during the postgame celebration. Didn't even pretend to be happy. That was pretty telling at the time. I've seen it before, unfortunately. But, it's also telling that a coach would be willing to make that kind of decision at that late stage of the season, knowing what impact it might have on a player's decision whether to stay or go.

The badmouthing will begin, addition by subtraction, etc, but the bottom line is that on a team devoid of shooting/scoring options, it is a loss and I'd be surprised if we will be able to replace him with a grad transfer of equal potential value to next year's team. I fully understand those that say "it's not about next year" anyway so what's the big deal, but I will always argue that your record always matters if for no other reason that it is the most tangible evidence of progress and makes it easier to sell a vision. So, this is something the staff will need to overcome. We'll just have to sit back and see how the roster shapes up for next season before really assessing how big of a blow this is.

It's interesting that we "invested" two years in a player who only gave us one year on the court. I wonder if the ability of transfers to pack up and leave as grad transfers is going to cause come coaching staffs to think twice about taking regular transfers anymore since they'll have to waste a roster spot for at least two years and potentially only get one year payoff and then "adios." Without the grad transfer rule, coaching staffs had any player who redshirted or already transferred over a barrel. Now, the player has the upper hand assuming he's academically on track.

You are going to see programs start slow playing players academic tracks.
 
Nigel got yanked and never returned to the floor in our last home game against Illinois. When the rest of the RAC and the team were going bananas after Deshawn won the game with his three, Nigel was stonefaced during the postgame celebration. Didn't even pretend to be happy. That was pretty telling at the time. I've seen it before, unfortunately. But, it's also telling that a coach would be willing to make that kind of decision at that late stage of the season, knowing what impact it might have on a player's decision whether to stay or go.
Word. I noticed that too, especially when I replayed that game winning shot 100 times on my computer and phone.
 
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Here's the thing; you as insider, no much more about the program than the outsiders looking in. You should know that next season's win/loss is irrelevant to the momentum this program has with a dedicated coach who's proven his own grit and a behemoth of a facility on the way. This should carry our momentum well past this next season. As long as we the fan base understand it and project it then it's what the recruits and outsiders will see.

When everyone goes woe is me or when writers make dumb statements like "there's no way to spin this" its an attack in the form of lies and misinformation on this positive narrative we KNOW we have going.

So i just suggest we take those two precious facts and positives, Pikiell and our facility, and we support it with our hearts and our dollars, because in reality it's that type of support that pulls players towards a school and makes them want to play there for the fans to be part of that culture.

*steps off alter*



this
 
Sanders, Williams, Thiam, Baker, Mensah and a player to be named later. Hopefully Baker is as good as advertised and Corey can become a shooting guard. Three guard line-up with baker, wiiliams and Sanders. We will need Doucoure to come next year and step right in with Freemen and Doorson. Need big efforts from Laurent and Eugene To improve in every phase of their games.

I would think Diallo and Bullock are gone as well. 2018 is obviously the year we can really start fresh and hopefully with super talented players and then I think 2019 could be the year we return to the dance.
 
I'm not in the "next year means nothing camp" but Politi's tweet that Nigel is the "one player we can least afford to lose" is idiotic even by Politi's uniformed standards. Losing Sanders, Freeman, Williams, or Thiam could easily be considered much bigger losses. I thought Politi at least watched more than just the Ohio State game. Jeez.
 
My initial post from the Round Table discussion:

Any transfers of players in our regular rotation hurts, and increases the uncertainty in the minds of fans (until he is replaced).
Johnson certainly carried RU offensively in several games this season, and ended up being RU's highest percentage shooter from 3-point range.

But:

1) He was wildly inconsistent, and I mean wildly. Yes, he scored 20 points 5 times (including the last 2 games). But he also scored 4 (FOUR) or fewer points SEVEN (7) times. He did shoot 35% from 3 for the year, but was 5-6 against Purdue and 5-6 against Northwestern in the last game ... both 20+ point losses.

2) Although he showed very good on-ball defense early in the season, he was benched QUITE OFTEN in the 2nd half of the Big Ten season due to a combination of lackadaisical defense, and loss of focus in transition defense.

3) The only Big Ten game in which you could argue Johnson was the difference between winning and losing was Ohio State ... though maybe that is unfair, since RU only won 4 Big Ten games. But the only other game besides the OSU game you could argue that RU would not have won without Johnson - or a "average" replacement player, was the Stony Brook game.

4) He was not a great FT shooter, shooting just 70% from the FT line. True, that was one of the better FT percentages on RU, but that is basically just average.

5) He was a 6'0" 2G who had trouble defending taller guards, and who took a LOT of bad shots, forced shots ... like many of RU's players, true enough, but still ...

It hurts RU's depth at guard, and certainly requires that RU find an additional guard replacement, as you probably do not want to enter the next season with just Sanders, Williams, Baker and Mensah (forget his last name), though that is 1 more guard than RU had this past season.

My guess is that RU will find a grad transfer shooting guard to replace him. Will that player be better? We do not know, but even someone not quite as good, but close enough, would be fine. Johnson was unlikely to start anyway, if Sanders returns ... I figure Williams would start.
 
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I'm not in the "next year means nothing camp" but Politi's tweet that Nigel is the "one player we can least afford to lose" is idiotic even by Politi's uniformed standards. Losing Sanders, Freeman, Williams, or Thiam could easily be considered much bigger losses. I thought Politi at least watched more than just the Ohio State game. Jeez.

I know man. I just sit here shaking my head going where do these guys get this stuff from. They try try try to set a bleak outlook for the programs. If you're a smart person you know yo just ignore the dickhead, but, you know you'll go into work on Monday and the guys who are leisurely fans of either Rutgers or college sports will come in touting his article as their primary talking point.
 
Good luck to him, I wish him well. Hope he finds a place he enjoys.

I wonder if we hear that Doucoure is reclassifying now. If there are other transfers that will likely reveal itself soon, too.
 
I know man. I just sit here shaking my head going where do these guys get this stuff from. They try try try to set a bleak outlook for the programs. If you're a smart person you know yo just ignore the dickhead, but, you know you'll go into work on Monday and the guys who are leisurely fans of either Rutgers or college sports will come in touting his article as their primary talking point.
He actually threw in an "absolutely" to "could not afford to lose" and also threw in an Indian burial ground reference. Look, I'm not happy about this, especially because we don't who else might be leaving and Corey's status will always be a question mark, but, come on now. Steve, come back to us. I realize that Nigel was technically our second leading scorer but he also only started 13 of 31 games.
 
I am going to make an educated guess that the staff wasn't too upset to see Nigel leave and maybe the parting was mutual. I would also guess they expect Corey back and would be looking forward to it.

Coach Pike's joke at the Court Club was that "Nigel thinks he gets a point when a shot of his gets blocked."
 
Yes, but to be fair he joked around quite a bit about our flaws and idiosyncrasies.

That being said, there is quite a bit of truth to that one.

It is true....Nigel Johnson is a two foot jumper. He should not attempt to go to the basket unless he pulls up for a short jumper. If you jump higher off of 2 feet you can't go against bigger players. On the flip side, Corey Sanders jumps high off of 1 foot....he can finish easier driving to the basket.

This explains why Johnson got so many shots blocked close to the basket.
 
Get an average grad transfer guard from anywhere in the country and he's easily replaced. It's not like he was the cornerstone of the offense or defense. In fact he was benched several times for his play. There are guys out there, now go get one.
 
It is bad for next year but maybe a positive in a way too for the future.
 
I like Nigel, but the reality is that he was an undersized SG on a team with to many undersized SGs. It might hurt a little next season, but I don't know how much. I've heard that the staff has had a plan for the roster since day one and this loss asked them to plug in a player that better fits their vision. FWIW, based on a recent recruiting update I've heard from a buddy, RU will have more options for incoming players than we've had in many many years, which is a testament to the work this staff has been putting in. Expect a player to be plugged in that is a little different than what we typically see here. I think we'll see someone more in line with the type of high-iq players a lot of the good mid-majors seem to have, which will do us well IMO.
 
Get an average grad transfer guard from anywhere in the country and he's easily replaced. It's not like he was the cornerstone of the offense or defense. In fact he was benched several times for his play. There are guys out there, now go get one.
Its not as easy as you say to get a replacement who can score in double figures.Johnson while flawed like all the players on the team was at least able to score over 20 points in multiple games including the win over Ohio State.

Rutgers had no margin for error this season and now has lost 18 points a game with the departures of Gettys and Johnson.Where are the replacement points coming from just to be at the same starting point next season?Rutgers isn't a program that has shown the ability to recruit and keep shooters/scorers.Complementary type players are easy to recruit and we have seen the disappointing results on the score board.
 
Rutgers wasn't going to the NCAAs (or likely even NIT) next season so Nigel is not the difference there. This is a blow for the short term for sure, but I don't want to panic until I see what the roster looks like for next year.

This.

I'm not saying I won't panic but I'm certainly not going to panic yet. Need to see what they do with this over the next several months. And with the way they have handled everything so far I've got my money on this staff.
 
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Remember, some of these kids are loyal kids.

The only reason we got Nigel Johnson is because he wanted to play for Eddie. He knew Eddie from AAU, and transferred to Rutgers because of that relationship. He never got the chance to play for him because Eddie was fired after his redshirt season.

Coach Pikiell might be a great guy, and they may have had a good relationship, but who knows if he's still sour about the way Eddie was handled by the school. This was probably his plan all along, as he would have had to sit out another year if he couldn't transfer as a graduate.

Pikiell may have done some good work in trying to convince him to stay, but sometimes when your mind is made up, it's made up, and in this case, I think Nigel stuck to the plan he had when the coaching change was made.

These things happen. He's not a bad guy....It doesn't mean Corey is definitely leaving, as if he was, he would have just hired an agent outright....This kid might have just wanted to start fresh again, as his reason for coming here is no longer here.

I hope Nigel has a ton of success. If this program ever turns around, he definitely helped contribute to it. In the few times I met him, he seemed like a solid kid, and nobody should have ill will about a 22 year olds career choices. Everyone on this site has left a job for another job. Same thing that's happening here. The only difference here is that the Company makes all the money and doesn't pay.
 
Too much drama added to this thread. Playing time, and potential to be a point guard somewhere else. The me culture.
 
Going forward, I am sure Pikiell will be selective with kids who have two years to play, but have to sit a year.

He got two years of scholarship from RU, but only played one year.
 
I agree with you Jon. Somehow, I will be surprised if Nigel winds up at Iona. Yes, they can make the NCAA in their league but we were ranked higher than Iona. I would think Nigel after playing at Kansas State and Rutgers would want to stay with a P5 team but I could be wrong.
 
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