NJ4Life with the BB post of the last 20 years

[rutgersal]

Took this from the Round Table. Its great to get the perspective of a NJ Coach.


Originally posted by NJ4life:
Guys, I need you to please understand something. As a coach, I want to send my players to the best situation and and situation that has everything they need to be successful. Schools with all of this extra stuff fits the bill. Why you may ask? Additional practice time, access to more equipment and a place of bonding that really helps good teams come together. For instance, Kentucky has a vertimax machine for the entire time. It's a reason a player like Karl Anthony Towns is more polished/athletic now than he was before he got there. As a parent, you don't think I can't see the lack of support a program has? Why would I subject my son to that?

All the NJ players see and hear all the negatives and will not put their future in jeopardy to stay home. My co worker graduated from Ohio St. and made this observation to me today. NJ does not promote itself to the state. Do you guys even know the top ten players in the state? Why is that? Why don't we embrace our sports and paint the state RED with the block R everywhere. Lastly, history is key. We have no one to show as an example. Football can say about the NFL players and basketball has nothing. My name on this board is NJ4life but I would not send my son to a NJ school if he was a high major player. I have family that graduated from RU and SHU and know the value of a RU degree. It's just the facts that you have to accept and not blame it on a coach. I wouldn't send my son to play for coach K without a track record of or a committment to success.

 

[RUskoolie]

I will add on to this with a business example:

Let's say you have job offers from Apple, Google and Blackberry as an Engineer and are weighing the options.

Apple and Google have beautiful offices, great management, top notch technology, gyms, doctors in house and gorgeous views of the city, not to mention their stock is on a tear. Basically, they have everything you can possibly need to be successful and a great environment to boot. Then you compare their job offers to Blackberry, a company that has been clearly tanking for years and not to mention their offices haven't been upgraded in 30 years, you have a new CEO every 3-4 years, lots of turnover in the department, the IT department stinks, it's in a difficult area to commute to, etc. BUT, the Blackberry board said in 6 years they are going to build a new office and start investing in the company.

Do you really think Blackberry can compete with Apple or Google for talent in that situation?

It's no different than MBB. We're blackberry (no disrespect to anyone who works there).

 

[bac2therac]

This is nothing new...he and other Nj bball insiders have been saying this for over 5 years yet people kept ignoring that message

 

[Section114]

I have heard this for many years. Maybe I just didn't want to believe it. My own 8 year old son has aspirations of playing college basketball (we shall see) and has told me flat out, he wouldn't even consider RU at this point. He is 8 years old and he goes to all the games with me and cheers for RU, but wouldn't go there himself.

The point isn't that he may or may not play college b-ball- the point is he is 8 and RU isn't on his list!

It has really, finally sunk in for me. We are SO F**KED!

 

[ruman]

It's the "give up" message again. BS. Eddie Jordan is still here. I'm not a fan, but let's see next year. If that fails, we move to the next coach.

I would not follow the team if I thought it was hopeless. I don't believe it
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Local Shill]

Of course those things are true and many of our wounds are self inflicted.. But....
If the 5 best players in the state just got togeter and said to hell with it.. We have a gym with two baskets and a ball and we're going to Rutgers and we're going to win the damn Big Ten.
The rest is all bullshit.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[mychaljohn]

Originally posted by bac2therac:
This is nothing new...he and other Nj bball insiders have been saying this for over 5 years yet people kept ignoring that message

Who is ignoring the message? Everybody knows this. But we're powerless to change it.

 

[MORUFAN]

NJ4Life makes some very good points, but they are hardly new. Lack of support within the state, lack of examples of success...these are things people have been saying for a long time.

 

[shields]

Someone needs to be a leader and not a follower.

 

[Section114]

I understand the someone needs to be a leader, not a follower and the best need to come together, but we are so underwhelming and irrelevant to potential recruits at this point because we cannot possibly come close to giving these players the experience and facilities they need to be better players.

With that said, I am hoping Eddie is able to do more with less and start making progress with those that are here.

 

[RUJMM78]

Inaction speaks louder than words which has been the mantra at Rutgers for far to long.By now fans know about all the problems.The solutions are harder to find an din the meantime the futility continues.

 

[cohwx]

Look, we all know about the lack of support and how far behind we are in the facilities race. So what are we supposed to do until that changes? Maybe the solution is, as one poster had suggested, to shut down the program until we have a state of the art practice facility.

Or...we can get a coach who can find decent players (not the cream of the crop, that has become obvious)that want to be here, including some who can SHOOT, and develop them over a period of 4 years. Yeah, that's right...keep a coach around long enough so that we can actually have some seniors who have developed through his program, along with a group of underclassmen to take their place.

Is Eddie that coach...I have no idea (and would tend to think not, based on what I've seen so far). But the revolving coaching door hasn't worked out too well and the practice facility isn't going to magically appear in the next year or two. So what else are we supposed to do in the meantime?

 

[Aggs]

Originally posted by cohwx:
Look, we all know about the lack of support and how far behind we are in the facilities race. So what are we supposed to do until that changes? Maybe the solution is, as one poster had suggested, to shut down the program until we have a state of the art practice facility.

 

[bac2therac]

Committment to infrastructure first then hire a young energetic coach to sell a vision

 

[Bones131]

Originally posted by Local Shill:
Of course those things are true and many of our wounds are self inflicted.. But....
If the 5 best players in the state just got togeter and said to hell with it.. We have a gym with two baskets and a ball and we're going to Rutgers and we're going to win the damn Big Ten.
The rest is all bullshit.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

But why would you do that when you can go to a program where you are virtually guaranteed 3-4 tournament appearances over the course of your career?

 

[brad1218]

Bones,

Forget the tournament experiences stuff. Why as a dad would I send my kid who has NBA aspirations to a school with no practice facility and one that lacks other am entities that can get him to the next level? That would just be dumb.

 

[Aggs]

nmm.
This post was edited on 3/1 5:06 PM by Aggs

 

[seels2662]

So what can we do? Like there are players right now who if we get will make a big difference right now like a certain JUCO forward but it sounds like there is no shot at getting him because there is no argument that cn be made for him to come here. The same thing with a coach. People keep on saying oh just fire Jordan and get someone with spunk or charisma but noone can answer this question-why would an up-and-comer coach go to Rutgers when you have a much better chance making the next step if you become the coach of the Manhattans or URIs of the world? Its not like we are going to poney up a bunch of money to make it worth while. So in the future we will have no coach, no new players.

This is why I am absolutely begging the AD to come up with a plan, a vision, even if its pie in the sky and will take a bunch of money to accomplish. Saying we can't do shit in 6 years no matter what won't cut it. I do realize I am saying that I need something from the AD but in reality it may not be the AD thats the problem its the people above her.

 

[Knight_Light]

Originally posted by Section114:

The point isn't that he may or may not play college b-ball- the point is he is 8 and RU isn't on his list!

It has really, finally sunk in for me. We are SO F**KED!

I played almost all sports when I was 8...didn't spend one second thinking or worrying about colleges...as I was just a kid who wanted to have fun.

Unless you are pressuring your child to make decisions when he clearly doesn't have to (like when he is 8), he will turn out fine...and maybe, just maybe, might decide to go to school to RU...as his athletic and academic future goals may not be known for many, many years.

Let him be a kid.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

This is why a coach's gets 7 digits a year

Find a way

 

[ruman]

Makes 1.1 million. Not doing it for free.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Section114]

Knight Light,

Believe me he is a kid and he gets no pressure. He randomly told me after the Indiana game, " hey dad- there is no way I am going to RU to play hoops". The point is even an. 8 year old doesn't want to come here and play at this time. Has really nothing to do with my kid, but perception is out there.

 

[RU MAN]

Al NJ4life makes salient points, but you don't think we haven't discussed what he said in that post a gazillion times? You may need to spend more time on the BB board. We've discussed and discussed and discussed what NJ4life brought up countless times over the years. Until there is dedicated funding to put into this program and not treat it as a non-revenue sport, this will continue to occur. My money however, is with JH. I feel confident she and her staff will get this done.

 

[ruman]

When you lose by 30, it doesn't create a lot of fans
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

The takeaway is that we must acknowledge where we are at and recruit accordingly.

Why not go in to a HS juniors living room and talk about turning their son in to a man who is ready for a successful career after basketball. We don't have fancy facilities and quite honestly when your son isn't playing basketball we'd rather him spending his free time in a library.

 

[RUskoolie]

You are all still missing the point thinking you can just recruit out of this. 4 people in my extended family have or are being recruited as D1 athletes. If it was your son/daughter you want them to have everything they can possibly need to be successful. Basketball has none of it, to the point where you'd have to be crazy to actually consider RU MBB or realllllllly fall for the baloney a coach is selling. What if Etou wants to watch film or get an extra lift in or shoot hoops? Oops, he can't a WBB game is going on or wrestling. Meanwhile, his friends at other schools train in a Taj Mahal like facility.

 

[SAE96]

Originally posted by bac2therac:
Committment to infrastructure first then hire a young energetic coach to sell a vision

I think the opposite will happen here.

 

[Knight_Light]

Originally posted by bac2therac:
Committment to infrastructure first then hire a young energetic coach to sell a vision

Disagree...as one just needs to hire the RIGHT coach, regardless of age.

For every Shaka Smart, there are 6 young coaches who are never that successful.

Take Greg Marshall, 52 yr old Head Coach at Wichita State...where most experts agree he knows how to BUILD a program and finds players to fit his system that plays together.

Bottom line...its sometimes hard to find the right coach, even if you have top $$$ to offer...but with or without top $$$, just hire the RIGHT coach, regardless of age.

Also, maybe just as important, ask WHO the Head Coach can/will bring in as Asst Coaches...since they are usually the face of the program when recruiting/scouting on the road...and hopefully get Asst Coaches who have multiple recruiting contacts in different regions (i.e. Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-West (especially since RU is a Big Ten Member), Southeast, etc...

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

How many programs have state of the art facilities? 20? 40?

Lets say its 50... and lets say they recruit 5 players each year representing the nations top 250 players.

Can we win getting players in the next 250 every season?

Do any other teams win with recruits outside the top 250?

Are we under-performing with the recruits we have? If so.. would we under-perform with better recruits and brand new facilities?

 

[NJ4life]

Thanks for the thread, but I wish what I said wasn't the case. Do you really think football would have some success without the commitment they made to upgrading things? Basketball is easier to turn around, but where the hell is the commitment? I also stated that if I'm a player and want to workout, we have to wait until the gym is free. If it's a wrestling match etc...where do we go? Someone mentioned seeing the team in the hallway of the RAC stretching, that's straight unacceptable.