Pike blew it

[Mr Magoo]

Don’t worry, Pike should still be able to recruit mid major level talent. Jkjk, but he’s you are absolutely correct. What a dumpster fire

He has already done that. The roster is already loaded with 3-4 star freshmen and sophomore players (provided the sophs stay) for next year.…you know, the kind of player that most B1G teams aren’t even bothering with anymore because they can’t contribute immediately and because with they need to recruit the portal instead.

 

[Salvi's Headband]

He struggles with roster management for sure. That said if he indeed fails rutgers is in for another long cold winter. Basketball people know he can coach and if he fails Rutgers well deserved reputation as a graveyard will be back perhaps stronger than ever and it will be a miracle if we get someone that can actually get us back to decent.

Impossible to predict things like that. Especially these days.

 

[RexMantlepiece]

When they make posts like that and lie to the board and eventually make the board miserable to be around, it’s frustrating.

It’s sort of like your infatuation with me I guess.

Now this is a great take… the mods make the boards miserable? Wow… the board being miserable has nothing to do with the constant emotional doom posting?

 

[ScarletLongIsland]

Next year doesn’t need to bad just because Ace and Dylan are leaving. However Pike better learn quickly that hitting the portal is key not development of young guys

 

[RUsojo]

Next year doesn’t need to bad just because Ace and Dylan are leaving. However Pike better learn quickly that hitting the portal is key not development of young guys

It’s the downward trend since 19-20 and the recruiting thereafter that has people pessimistic for 2025 imo

 

[fluoxetine]

It’s the downward trend since 19-20 and the recruiting thereafter that has people pessimistic for 2025 imo

20: #28
21: #38
22: #77
23: #39
24: #100
25: #76 so far

If anything as the on paper recruiting improved the results got worse.

 

[higgins3]

Pikiell thought Ace and Dylan would be enough and he could fill the other spots with guys who were selfless, etc. One thing we can see from the situation and learn from is that Pikiell recruited kids that had high success at lower conferences and didn't realize it wouldn't translate.

Acuff- Top scorer on a low major team. Although top scorer, the team was terrible and he was the only one shooting. Not gonna translate.
Martini- Role player on Ivy League. Not gonna translate.
PJ- 3 pt threat on low major team. Not gonna translate.
Derdack- Big player on low major team. Not gonna translate.

I think these were some of the issues that Pikiell made a mistake with thinking the skill sets would transfer. At Columbia game live, many of our players do not fit the part of high major players.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Why? The team would stink either way.

How do you know what the roster would have looked like? How are we now looking for next year?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

this all sucks because I really think Pike is a good man and would have loved for him to succeed but I really believe this program is in trouble in the NIL era. Schools reload every year with talented transfers while we pick up low major reaches. He’s not cut out for this era.

or he has to adapt

 

[Shelby65]

This season has put a spotlight on Pike and this program and Steve is proving not to be a big time coach. He’s completely failed the test and Rutgers would be wise to cut him loose sooner than later.

lf there's one thing RU is good at, it's giving undeserved extensions and raises. He deserves that as much as the other guy who disappoints every year, not just one year.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

NIL is a problem but I don’t think it can fully explain what happened with this team

Maybe I am naive or just flat out wrong.....I think there are pieces here that can play good (not great) defense and we just aren't.

Derkack has been a huge huge huge disappointment on the defensive end.

I expect us in the next 3 games at home to be a lot better defensively.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Obviously I've been a huge Pike supporter and he turned the dumpsterfire around miraculously, but missing on this entire portal transfer class in a once in a lifetime opportunity this season is a bigtime fail. It is what it is at this point and is honestly a fireable offense if the season doesn't turn around

Rutgers needs a GM to help with the portal. Pike's hit rate simply is not high enough

Do we really know if he had a chance? My Pittsburgh Pirates keep missing on all these good free agents. If you don't have the money a player wants for 99% of players it is going to be a hard stop.

 

[NickRU714]

The mistake was going with the one and dones

I agree but maybe not the same reason.

Going with the one and done was the right move for Rutgers. Getting more talent is a key step on winning - the ultimate goal.

The mistake was personally for HC Pike.
It raised expectations that it appears he wasn't ready for.
Which is fine. Not everyone is.

Puttering along as maybe a bubble team or maybe not under the "we're a developmental team - we're not a team that competes every year".


That goes out then door when you jump up to having the #2 and #3 recruits.
Expectations raise and you have to deal with the consequences - good and bad.

 

[seansherm]

100% yes. nearly 4000 additional people want tickets. There is also a waiting list for court side.

The days need to end where people just donate the bare minimum for their seats but because they have had them 20 years they get to keep them.

What schools in the P2 are giving more to hoops? No one. The TV contract for the Big East sucks. Football drives the bus with TV and always will.

Hope you are right, but all I hear are people complaining about the product, not sounding like they can't wait to pay more for it.

 

[bac2therac]

Good luck if you think a 4k waiting list is real...same think with football back in the day.

 

[bac2therac]

Pikiell thought Ace and Dylan would be enough and he could fill the other spots with guys who were selfless, etc. One thing we can see from the situation and learn from is that Pikiell recruited kids that had high success at lower conferences and didn't realize it wouldn't translate.

Acuff- Top scorer on a low major team. Although top scorer, the team was terrible and he was the only one shooting. Not gonna translate.
Martini- Role player on Ivy League. Not gonna translate.
PJ- 3 pt threat on low major team. Not gonna translate.
Derdack- Big player on low major team. Not gonna translate.

I think these were some of the issues that Pikiell made a mistake with thinking the skill sets would transfer. At Columbia game live, many of our players do not fit the part of high major players.

Having only J Will and J Mike coming back is indictment on poor recruiting by Pike for a few years..too many misses and too much loyalty to players that were not moving the program forward

 

[Rutgers25]

Good luck if you think a 4k waiting list is real...same think with football back in the day.

Not a chance we have a wait list next year. We’ll be back to 6k butts in seats for weeknight conference games. The feeling that he is building something is long gone. He’s going the way of Wenzel. Some initial hope that is fading quickly.

 

[KK1827]

Not a chance we have a wait list next year. We’ll be back to 6k butts in seats for weeknight conference games. The feeling that he is building something is long gone. He’s going the way of Wenzel. Some initial hope that is fading quickly.

The only perplexing part to me is how people didnt see this coming. From day 1 I’ve constantly questioned that even if he had all the talent in the world, how are we going anywhere with his lack of running anything that resembles an offense? I was of course chastised for this.

You could throw him a lineup of 5*’s and wed go as far as iso ball would take us.

Again, hes a great man, genuinely good guy. But I dont think hes a great basketball coach at this level

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Do we really know if he had a chance? My Pittsburgh Pirates keep missing on all these good free agents. If you don't have the money a player wants for 99% of players it is going to be a hard stop.

I’m not buying that. Nor am I buying your blame on the one and dones. Sorry but it’s a bad take. The irony is that the real issue on Pike was that he actually listened to our critics and didn’t stick to his dang guns. He went out and recruited a bunch of poor man’s Hyatt types who don’t play tough defense - Acuff, PJ, and Martini. He made the same mistake with Martini probably that he did wit Noah Fernandez - judging him solely on what he saw in our one game. Dercack is the only transfer who fits the Pike protocol player mold. Tough nosed kid with some flaws - good defender in certain schemes - plays hard - Im actually fine with this one. He’d have been an ok addition with 3 other kids who play tough nosed D and rebound. Those kind of D first players would’ve actually been good complements to Ace and Dylan because they aren’t focused on scoring. Coming to RU would’ve appealed to those types of kids. We could’ve sold them on - be the next Caleb. But no. Instead he went for finesse shooting and volume scoring. It was a huge mistake. We didn’t replace Wolf. Instead we replaced Cliff with a frosh center in Lathan. You can’t tell me we couldn’t afford a Shaq Doorson type. I’m not buying it. We chose not to pick one up.

And oh yeah - Hyatt would be DPOY compared to Martini, Acuff, Lathan, and PJ. So there’s that…

 

[Treaster51]

The only perplexing part to me is how people didnt see this coming. From day 1 I’ve constantly questioned that even if he had all the talent in the world, how are we going anywhere with his lack of running anything that resembles an offense? I was of course chastised for this.

You could throw him a lineup of 5*’s and wed go as far as iso ball would take us.

Again, hes a great man, genuinely good guy. But I dont think hes a great basketball coach at this level

I agree pike isn’t a great offensive coach. The thing is it’s not the offense causing us to lose. We can’t rebound and can’t play defense

 

[KK1827]

I agree pike isn’t a great offensive coach. The thing is it’s not the offense causing us to lose. We can’t rebound and can’t play defense

Well, id just counter with the offense still looks like shit. However we have a generational talent in ace bailey making insane shots regularly to bail us out

 

[Treaster51]

Well, id just counter with the offense still looks like shit. However we have a generational talent in ace bailey making insane shots regularly to bail us out

Agree but even before Ace explosion the offense wasn’t the issue . Were scoring enough to win if this team could rebound and play even solid defense

 

[billgumpper]

Having only J Will and J Mike coming back is indictment on poor recruiting by Pike for a few years..too many misses and too much loyalty to players that were not moving the program forward

Easy, I've been attacked for the last 6 years for complaining about how bad his recruiting and portal players are.

 

[ScottRU93]

At this point just roll out the freshman in Dortch and Grant and play the 5 guys much as possible. What do you really have to lose? Can Dortch and Grant be that much worse then Hayes, Martini, Acuff, etc. see what you have for next year. Ace and Dylan are both top 5 picks regardless so try and develop the guys that will be here longer term.

But it wont happen.

 

[KK1827]

Agree but even before Ace explosion the offense wasn’t the issue . Were scoring enough to win if this team could rebound and play even solid defense

To be fair, we have two top 5 nba draft picks able to get buckets at will that cover up how bad the offense really is. This team could show up without coaches and pretty much look the same nightly it feels

 

[Knight Shift]

Every transfer he brought in this year is horrendous, lets also remember, as bad as the transfers are Grant and Dortch cant sniff the floor.

I'll drink to that! (And I don't drink)

 

[Knight Shift]

Pike's Contract--on the bright side, his buyout is only $5.5M if another team wants to steal Pikiell from Rutgers 😉 :

salary table, which remains unchanged except for the additional year:

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024: $3,250,000

April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025: $3,500,000

April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026: $3,750,000

April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027: $3,850,000

April 1, 2027 through March 31, 2028: $3,950,000

April 1, 2028 through March 31, 2029: $4,050,000

April 1, 2029 through March 31, 2030: $4,150,000

April 1, 2030 through March 31, 2031: $4,250,000

The new contract also has adjusted the buyout fee should Pikiell choose to leave (one thing that remains the same: if athletics director Pat Hobbs leaves at any point, the buyout is reduced by half). Here is the new buyout table:

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 - $15,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025 - $13,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 - $11,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027 - $9,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2027 and March 31, 2028 - $7,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2028 and March 31, 2029 - $5,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2029 and March 31, 2030 - $3,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2030 and March 31, 2031 - $1,000,00

Here are the details on Steve Pikiell's latest extension to remain with Rutgers basketball

Steve Pikiell's work to drastically improve the Rutgers basketball program were rewarded with another contract extension. Here are those details.

www.app.com

 

[Shelby65]

The only perplexing part to me is how people didnt see this coming. From day 1 I’ve constantly questioned that even if he had all the talent in the world, how are we going anywhere with his lack of running anything that resembles an offense? I was of course chastised for this.

You could throw him a lineup of 5*’s and wed go as far as iso ball would take us.

Again, hes a great man, genuinely good guy. But I dont think hes a great basketball coach at this level

Shelby did see it coming. Jordan and Lebron at 18 yo playing together couldn't overcome a roster of tomato cans who can't play D, rebound, create their own or make open shots.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Pike's Contract--on the bright side, his buyout is only $5.5M if another team wants to steal Pikiell from Rutgers 😉 :

salary table, which remains unchanged except for the additional year:

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024: $3,250,000

April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025: $3,500,000

April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026: $3,750,000

April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027: $3,850,000

April 1, 2027 through March 31, 2028: $3,950,000

April 1, 2028 through March 31, 2029: $4,050,000

April 1, 2029 through March 31, 2030: $4,150,000

April 1, 2030 through March 31, 2031: $4,250,000

The new contract also has adjusted the buyout fee should Pikiell choose to leave (one thing that remains the same: if athletics director Pat Hobbs leaves at any point, the buyout is reduced by half). Here is the new buyout table:

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 - $15,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025 - $13,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 - $11,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027 - $9,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2027 and March 31, 2028 - $7,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2028 and March 31, 2029 - $5,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2029 and March 31, 2030 - $3,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2030 and March 31, 2031 - $1,000,00

Here are the details on Steve Pikiell's latest extension to remain with Rutgers basketball

Steve Pikiell's work to drastically improve the Rutgers basketball program were rewarded with another contract extension. Here are those details.

www.app.com

Wow - Hobbs was really afraid someone would steal Pike. Those buyout numbers are significant.

 

[fatsam98]

Pike's Contract--on the bright side, his buyout is only $5.5M if another team wants to steal Pikiell from Rutgers 😉 :

salary table, which remains unchanged except for the additional year:

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024: $3,250,000

April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025: $3,500,000

April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026: $3,750,000

April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027: $3,850,000

April 1, 2027 through March 31, 2028: $3,950,000

April 1, 2028 through March 31, 2029: $4,050,000

April 1, 2029 through March 31, 2030: $4,150,000

April 1, 2030 through March 31, 2031: $4,250,000

The new contract also has adjusted the buyout fee should Pikiell choose to leave (one thing that remains the same: if athletics director Pat Hobbs leaves at any point, the buyout is reduced by half). Here is the new buyout table:

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 - $15,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025 - $13,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 - $11,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027 - $9,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2027 and March 31, 2028 - $7,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2028 and March 31, 2029 - $5,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2029 and March 31, 2030 - $3,000,000

Termination by Head Coach between April 1, 2030 and March 31, 2031 - $1,000,00

Here are the details on Steve Pikiell's latest extension to remain with Rutgers basketball

Steve Pikiell's work to drastically improve the Rutgers basketball program were rewarded with another contract extension. Here are those details.

www.app.com

The buyout is irrelevant. All that matters is what we owe him through 2031

 

[Scangg]

It’s the downward trend since 19-20 and the recruiting thereafter that has people pessimistic for 2025 imo

If I am Pike, next portal season I am going after long athletes who play defense and rebound and get back to my roots. If you're going to go down, go down with what got you some success and got you here

Do we really know if he had a chance? My Pittsburgh Pirates keep missing on all these good free agents. If you don't have the money a player wants for 99% of players it is going to be a hard stop.

The NIL issue is real, but with over half the NCAA in the portal, there are gems to be had, especially at guard

 

[Knight Shift]

The buyout is irrelevant. All that matters is what we owe him through 2031

The post was in jest., the winking emoji after saying someone would steal Pike from us was the clue. Sorry.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I suspect that is exactly what he does. Does anyone know how much, if any, of available NIL $ went to Ace and Dylan?

If there is a pool of NIL $ and I am Pike I am spreading it over 7-8 guys that will be long players, who defend and can shoot but aren't necesarily the best athletes (realizing that you have to give up something).

May have to allocate a bit more than 20% of a budget for a shot blocking center

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Wow - Hobbs was really afraid someone would steal Pike. Those buyout numbers are significant.

Despite what people may think Pike was a great coach and somebody 95% of schools would want less than 2 years ago.

It actually did happen. Those numbers are a good illustration

 

[NickRU714]

I suspect that is exactly what he does. Does anyone know how much, if any, of available NIL $ went to Ace and Dylan?

If there is a pool of NIL $ and I am Pike I am spreading it over 7-8 guys that will be long players, who defend and can shoot but aren't necesarily the best athletes (realizing that you have to give up something).

May have to allocate a bit more than 20% of a budget for a shot blocking center

What makes you think HC Pike can evaluate players who can both defend and can shoot?

The "can only shoot" players can't shoot in our offense.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

Then that is on the fans. Couldn't help laughing to myself, Indiana goes out and gets a complete beast of a center from Arizona. Why? Because their fanbase cares and pours in donations. Rutgers fans have alligator arms a list of complaints that can top Mount Everest so we get the kid from Princeton as our 5.

Thats what you all get IMO.

It’s just the truth!!! Easier to bash the coach and his players.

 

[ru-baby]

Acuff---He has to be hurt still right? Can someone confirm because he cant be that slow usually--can't be

 

[rucoe89]

Despite what people may think Pike was a great coach and somebody 95% of schools would want less than 2 years ago.

It actually did happen. Those numbers are a good illustration

The key operative word - "was". That point has now passed.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

sure blame the fans

You’re the anti fan. You can careless if the team wins or loses as long as you get to write up a 10 paragraph story with zero quotes from anyone that matters. You been a fan forever and sit in horrible seats because donate hell no not Me. NIL recruiting that’s all insignificant to you all you care about 3 hours of your life a couple days a week with a recap and then the rest of the time on the CE board. Favorite thanksgiving foods March of the wooden soldiers and twilight zone marathons LOL from a near 56 year old.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

Pikiell thought Ace and Dylan would be enough and he could fill the other spots with guys who were selfless, etc. One thing we can see from the situation and learn from is that Pikiell recruited kids that had high success at lower conferences and didn't realize it wouldn't translate.

Acuff- Top scorer on a low major team. Although top scorer, the team was terrible and he was the only one shooting. Not gonna translate.
Martini- Role player on Ivy League. Not gonna translate.
PJ- 3 pt threat on low major team. Not gonna translate.
Derdack- Big player on low major team. Not gonna translate.

I think these were some of the issues that Pikiell made a mistake with thinking the skill sets would transfer. At Columbia game live, many of our players do not fit the part of high major players.

Maybe he had no money to get play that could help. That’s the problem with zero NIL dollars and a fanbase that ignores it.