WTF is going on? They played like they didn't care. Both games. Completely outhustled by both Stony Brook and Hartford. No excuse for that. We made that big stiff on Hartford (Carroll?) look like Kevin Durant. When a player is abusing you like that, you make him not want to drive the lane. Get physical. Heck we should have put in the seven foot walk on just to foul Carroll hard twice. To be out played by two low majors back to back is unacceptable.
No intensity the last two games
- Thread starter knight82
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What fans have seen in the last two game is the limitations of coaching when you have a squad lacking in shooting skills.There is no place to hide and its rather noticeable that players who were contributors on offense are now regressing which is a bad sign heading into B1G competition.Lets all remember that Rutgers last year had great difficulty scoring 60 points a game against league competition and that scenario has continued in the first two league games this season.Very disappointing way to end 2017.
I do agree that RU has played better against better competition...which is a typical trait of pretty much every college basketball team around the country.
I do think that if RU pulled out both Stony Brook and Hartford, nothing would have changed on the programs viewpoint....it's a review of progress over 30+ games, not a couple here or there.
There are really limited options and when you get production and 3's from Williams and Thiam and then Baker doesn't get a lot of shots and Doucoure isn't getting a ton of minutes (and you get outrebounded), then you are open to an upset.
The OOC slate really made the staff work harder to impress upon the players to perform and to an extent, perhaps the staff as well.
I'm viewing the program from a 18 month view on performance in B1G games in 2017-2018 and 20+ B1G games in 2018-19.
The programs goal remains the same....how do we upgrade the talent in the spring after attrition and what type of recruiting talent do we land in 2018 and 2019. This program has made progress and expanded expectations, which is fine. But anyone that didn't believe this years Hartford or Stony Brook games last year couldn't have gone against RU, isn't being realistic. Both games were very tight and RU pulled out the win at Stony Brook and stole last years Hartford game.....this year, both were given away or just not crisp enough to take a win.
I will explain again how difficult a rebuild is, but the signs of being way ahead of schedule are already shown....St. Johns, Yale scrimmages....Florida State, Michigan State battles and Seton Hall win....added to last years late season wins vs Illinois and Ohio State make this an overall trend up....
At the same time, RU was 3 games behind every other B1G team in the conference last season.....that means at 3-15, 3 teams finished 6-12 in conference last year. Closing the gap of 3 B1G games is ultimately going to be a large step forward to shoot for....can RU generate enough of a home court performance in 3-5 B1G games that will ultimately set RU up is the question....I'm still pretty certain that RU will make those steps forward this year and next.....2 OOC upsets don't change anything folks.
I do think that if RU pulled out both Stony Brook and Hartford, nothing would have changed on the programs viewpoint....it's a review of progress over 30+ games, not a couple here or there.
There are really limited options and when you get production and 3's from Williams and Thiam and then Baker doesn't get a lot of shots and Doucoure isn't getting a ton of minutes (and you get outrebounded), then you are open to an upset.
The OOC slate really made the staff work harder to impress upon the players to perform and to an extent, perhaps the staff as well.
I'm viewing the program from a 18 month view on performance in B1G games in 2017-2018 and 20+ B1G games in 2018-19.
The programs goal remains the same....how do we upgrade the talent in the spring after attrition and what type of recruiting talent do we land in 2018 and 2019. This program has made progress and expanded expectations, which is fine. But anyone that didn't believe this years Hartford or Stony Brook games last year couldn't have gone against RU, isn't being realistic. Both games were very tight and RU pulled out the win at Stony Brook and stole last years Hartford game.....this year, both were given away or just not crisp enough to take a win.
I will explain again how difficult a rebuild is, but the signs of being way ahead of schedule are already shown....St. Johns, Yale scrimmages....Florida State, Michigan State battles and Seton Hall win....added to last years late season wins vs Illinois and Ohio State make this an overall trend up....
At the same time, RU was 3 games behind every other B1G team in the conference last season.....that means at 3-15, 3 teams finished 6-12 in conference last year. Closing the gap of 3 B1G games is ultimately going to be a large step forward to shoot for....can RU generate enough of a home court performance in 3-5 B1G games that will ultimately set RU up is the question....I'm still pretty certain that RU will make those steps forward this year and next.....2 OOC upsets don't change anything folks.
come on Hawk, I love your optimism but bringing up St Johns and Yale scrimmages following back to back losses at home to Stony Brook and Hartford falls on deaf ears for me.
I think there was an optimism that the program was ahead of schedule, I think we are seeing its not and its not because the talent level on the team is still probably the worst in the league. Most of our team cannot shoot. Doucoure is clearly not ready yet. Doorson is always going to give us just spot minutes. Thiam and Eugene will improved seemed like they might be more the complimentary type players in this league. Willaims is a warrior but he cannot really shoot. Sanders is in a world of his own and he will give a great peformance one night and then a turkey the next. Freeman seems wild, an overall positive but very limited. Baker..now he is the one guy with promises, a Pike recruit with more on the way hopefully like him but expectations may be out of whack, he is forced to do just too much right now.
So its clear we need ALOT MORE TALENT...Pike has masked some of the defencies but now its being exposes and if the team does not play hard and rebound well then we really look bad. The SHU gets negated by these two losses, you cannot spin it. There are Big 10 teams that RU can beat. However some of them seem to be doing better than expected....do we have more talent than them? who? Iowa? Illinois? The only way to beat these teams is to work hard on rebounding and defense and hope those teams are a bit off. Certainly allowing low majors to step on the RAC and outplay 2x in a row cannot be just dismissed as not mattering
I think there was an optimism that the program was ahead of schedule, I think we are seeing its not and its not because the talent level on the team is still probably the worst in the league. Most of our team cannot shoot. Doucoure is clearly not ready yet. Doorson is always going to give us just spot minutes. Thiam and Eugene will improved seemed like they might be more the complimentary type players in this league. Willaims is a warrior but he cannot really shoot. Sanders is in a world of his own and he will give a great peformance one night and then a turkey the next. Freeman seems wild, an overall positive but very limited. Baker..now he is the one guy with promises, a Pike recruit with more on the way hopefully like him but expectations may be out of whack, he is forced to do just too much right now.
So its clear we need ALOT MORE TALENT...Pike has masked some of the defencies but now its being exposes and if the team does not play hard and rebound well then we really look bad. The SHU gets negated by these two losses, you cannot spin it. There are Big 10 teams that RU can beat. However some of them seem to be doing better than expected....do we have more talent than them? who? Iowa? Illinois? The only way to beat these teams is to work hard on rebounding and defense and hope those teams are a bit off. Certainly allowing low majors to step on the RAC and outplay 2x in a row cannot be just dismissed as not mattering
I really questioned the optimism at the beginning of the year because we lost Gettys and Nigel and I didn't think we were going to replace their offense this year.
Then I started to dream of better things with the encouraging play early on. That Stony Brook game killed me, the Hartford loss not so much as it's becoming obvious RU will not win many games with the lack of offensive talent.
Can't wait until we get some new faces into the program next year.
Then I started to dream of better things with the encouraging play early on. That Stony Brook game killed me, the Hartford loss not so much as it's becoming obvious RU will not win many games with the lack of offensive talent.
Can't wait until we get some new faces into the program next year.
I think the Hartford loss on top of the way in which the Stoney brook game was lost is a real momentum killer after the seton hall game. The Hartford game could not come soon enough to start putting that Stoney Brook debacle behind us. Now it snowballs a bit.
This does not shatter my confidence in the direction of the program longer term but seems uncharacteristic of what I have come to expect from Pike led teams for the short time he has been here. To spin or rationalize these losses as anything other than disappointing and inexcusable regardless of the longer term prospects is just not right. We should always expect to be these teams especially Hartford
This does not shatter my confidence in the direction of the program longer term but seems uncharacteristic of what I have come to expect from Pike led teams for the short time he has been here. To spin or rationalize these losses as anything other than disappointing and inexcusable regardless of the longer term prospects is just not right. We should always expect to be these teams especially Hartford
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