This. Crazy some people's loyalty to this guy.
Pike Enthusiasts
- Thread starter rpiseman
- Start date
He's also the only one to collect 18 million dollars on the job and he's had big ten money, investment, and prestige of conference to back up his recruiting efforts. Anyone claiming that return on investment is adequate is a complete imbecile. Winning one tourney game is not hard. You're all acting like battered women who make excuses for their husbands because of how ineptly our basketball team was run in the past but many coaches could win here with what pike has been given.
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Well I hope you watch St. John’s because right now they are playing the best defense in the country .
Their offense not so good. You claim you want Motion offense , Pitino doesn’t do that at all. He does the same thing as Pike , runs a lot of high pick and rolls and iso offense. Luis and Richmond are given the ball with a screen sometimes and told to go get a basket and everyone crash the boards if there is a miss . Check out St. John’s Kenpom offensive #’s. It is just that an experienced Luis and Richmond are making the critical plays that are bringing the wins. Plus he has a legitimate center playing his best ball. Most of the time their defense is their best offense.
So acting like you want Pitino because he runs a Motion offense is maybe something you saw taking mushrooms.
Last night was a weird game and clearly you didn’t have too much trouble with Pike in the first half. He sat Dylan a lot ( foul trouble ) and subbed ACE out every 4 minutes. He actually let the guys who were hot be used repeatedly on possessions and got rewarded with Acuff hitting 3 threes and Martini hitting two. The 3-4 point lead was expanded to 11 , and then 9 at the half , without Dylan and ACE having little to do with it. All shots were falling and the supporting cast was having one of their best halves of the year.
Now the second half was a different story and your criticism of Pike is justified but don’t make general statements without looking at the whole game. Pike ‘s fault , no way around it, but he allowed Iowa back in the game and the lead to disappear , when he had the ball under his own basket and ran 3 out of bounds plays , 2 thrown long and intercepted and another a 5 second violation. Instead of stomping on Iowa’s throat and building the lead to 10-16 points , he gave them hope. Pike has out of bounds underneath plays to get layups. Why he has insisted on the long pass out out of bounds plays is curious but also dumb. That was the first bad coaching done.
Then he never switched up his defense , to run a trap, a 1/3/1 or part zone , part man to man to change Iowa’s rhythm . They ran their sets over and over and at a 66% success rate and he never changed anything . Bad coaching move #2. Not sure because the game became a 2 point game and we were matching Iowa for about 10 minutes from the 13 minute mark ti the 3 minute mark is why he didn’t change and thinking just get 1 or 2 stops and we can pull this out , but that was just bad coaching not getting Iowa rattled.
To allow Iowa to finish the game on a 8-0 run was also pathetic. Bad coaching.
He is 25 games in and still cannot figure out his rotations . He remarkedably played 11 guys last night ? Why? I don’t know but it is his failure . He forgot the guys that got him the lead in the first half and I guess he was hoping Dylan , who had his worst game , offensively and defensively , and ACE , who was incredibly passive and terrible defensively , were going to step up and win the game for us. Forgot about Acuff , who maybe should have started second half , sits Sommerville and Grant for almost the entire second half after playing 2-3 minutes and then gets killed on the backboards with no height in the lineup . He failed miserably with his rotations and Dylan and ACE could not bail us out tonight . Despite that it is a 2 point game with 1:30 left. Sandfort hits the big 3 .
So your criticism of Pike for the second half is totally justified. Your criticism of him overall is so over the top. We are not being blown out by 20-30 every night ,, like almost every team in the BIG has been this year . It is frustrating because we continue losing these 1-2 possession games repeatedly. The losses almost all were winnable games which makes it really suck and prompts you to say his coaching costs everyone of them. But that is not true , the players shit the bed , whether it was Alabama , Texas A& M, Michigan , Ohio State , Indiana , Penn State . All games where the players sucked at key moments causing a win to become a loss and I will not call out individual names but we know who they are . Injuries and illness has also cost us games. Last night Pike cost us the game with a terrible second half with no adjustments and bad rotations and inbounds plays. You cannot say that every game. This year is frustrating and terrible disappointing to all of us but you are over the top .
The season as a whole is disappointing and he is the captain of the ship. You outlined key misses by him.
Nuff said 🤷♂️
Yeah but you miss the point. You are acting like we play like the Jordan teams and get blown out every night. We play well enough to win then we don’t and we lose. The 13 losses have come down to 1-2 possessions in about 8 games and injury or illness . Winning all changes your record to 20-5 and winning half of the 8, the record would be 16-9. The difference between winning and losing this year is just a few possessions per game. Pike can be blamed for part of that but just bad luck or someone not doing what was expected is the other half.
I apologize and understand ! You are correct and if in my frustration came across to stern.
As far as this team not being EJordan like I can agree. However the godfather of a phenomenon happens to coach and Dylan’s older brother was given a chance . Both are once in a generation events. So yes we lose and we lose close games but is that the team we have? Is the team grossly underperforming because of the items you outlined like the ones last night?
We are grossly underperforming. The supporting cast was pathetic early and Martini might have cost us the Alabama and Texas A&M games. But over the last 4-5 games they have gotten better and contributing. Cannot explain the Dylan and ACE games last night. To only have 24 points and be bad with turnovers and terrible defensively is something we have not seen much this year.
Pike is lost now with his rotations as the defensive lack of playing to a decent standard seems to have fried his brains. He actually played 11 last night then forgot who was playing well and who he was winning with. Easiest win of the year turned into a loss.
The bench did it's job. The subs were fine. At some point player responsibility has to be considered. Ace and Dylan played soft last night. Dylan was outplayed in every meaningful stat by a short sophomore. Little dude even had more rebounds.
The staff bears some responsibility to have the guys ready to play but the players bear the responsibility of actually giving effort and playing. Dylan and Ace playing soft lost that game last night. Dylan in particular was dreadful.
The staff bears some responsibility to have the guys ready to play but the players bear the responsibility of actually giving effort and playing. Dylan and Ace playing soft lost that game last night. Dylan in particular was dreadful.
Love this. We're in game 25 and Pike is still searching. Why Hayes over Acuff? PJ stood up first so he got to play? Sounds about right. Both struggle on defense. Acuff is better offensively.
Hayes and Acuff were on the court a lot together. Hayes actually played well yesterday. Everyone did. Except our two lottery picks.
Jordan being derelict in his duties has given Pike too much runway. I guess that's a good life lesson, try to be the replacement for someone who's incompetent in their job.
That's usually the case or accept criticism and do what your bosses suggest, or make it seem like you do,and you'll usually do ok-- even if you done believe the criticism is correct. That's how it often works.
Hayes did not play well. 1 layup, 2 points on 1-4 shooting. I'm curious how many points were scored by who he defended.
Acuff hitting the 3's in the first half was critical.
Towards the end of the first half, I asked myself "where are the two stars?".
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Mucho opportunities here at Rutgers over the years.....Anderson, Shea, and Ash in football....Littlepage, Hill, and Jordan in hoops. Some people here seem to always underestimate how difficult it was to recover from so much sucking.
I was dumb enough to watch Ace on defense last night. It reminded me of why I don't watch the NBA anymore.
That's the one area I thought he played well. He had one defensive breakdown I saw but that was it. He offset by the 2 points. I thought he moved the ball well and wasn't taken advantage of on D like he usually is.
We didn't lose that game because of Hayes.
I think he gave up at least one score but then Iowa got a little exuberant trying to attach him and missed back to back chances. Credit to pj he played hard he’s just not athletic.
Honest Question - Why do you guys even watch or stick around? I'm talking to the ones who are angry and want Pike gone right now. You know things aren't going to change this year. Wouldn't you just stop watching and stop making yourself miserable? Does spamming the board make you feel better?
We stink and I just don't watch and just monitor every once in awhile. I have other interests as well. Don't you guys?
We stink and I just don't watch and just monitor every once in awhile. I have other interests as well. Don't you guys?
The catch and shoot 3's that Acuff took are what PJ should be doing. If he ain't gunning 3's, he shouldn't be on the court. Why was Acuff able to get off a number of attempts but PJ wasn't?
Still trying to wrap my head ahead what we witnessed offensively last night. Harper and Bailey often standing around and JWill just dribbling at the top with no movement by anyone for half the shot clock early in the 1st half. What was the plan? Were we trying to stall?
Still trying to wrap my head ahead what we witnessed offensively last night. Harper and Bailey often standing around and JWill just dribbling at the top with no movement by anyone for half the shot clock early in the 1st half. What was the plan? Were we trying to stall?
And this folks, is why Rutgers is always mocked nationally. Because our alums and fans settle for. total mediocrity.
I appreciate him getting us to the tournament again, I do.
He had two NBA LOTTERY PICKS. TWO! And we likely do not finish .500 for the season. That's a fireable offense, sorry end of story.
The laundry list of excuses I have seen this season, holy shit open your eyes. He is done man. Barring a miracle this guy is done here in 14 months.
Because pJ Hayes sucks and belongs back at the school he transferred from. He cannot stay in front of someone to save his life on defense and on offense he just now discovered a pump fake at the 3 line but can't finish anyway. He has no business here.
No it’s not. If he did nothing prior to this..then sure.
What excuse am I making? This season sucks all around. But he’s earned the right to stay here
I almost started a thread on this.
In almost 3 decades of watching basketball (albeit mostly NBA) - I can’t think of another situation where a player went from DNP-Coaches Decision to 1st player off the bench 4min into the next game.
It's truly amazing. I've haven't been a fire Pike guy his seat becomes fire if next year poor), but it's like he has zero feel for this team. Definitely need a new voice on the team, I assume it will be Knight replaced first.
You’re questioning the first half last night . Why ? We played well , we shot well , and Dylan was on the bench for most of the first half so not sure where you saw him standing around. It was one of our best most efficient halves , assists to made baskets of the entire year done almost exclusively by the supporting cast. You complain all day , every day , about offense but the first half last night , there was nothing to complain of.
The narrative that lack of NIL was the issue this year is utterly absurd. We have one of the highest paid rosters in all of college basketball.
He is paid as a top 25 head coach in America? Are we getting results like that?
He has not earned the right to stay here long term when we have trended down the last 3 years and he completely fumbled a once in a 50 year opportunity at Rutgers. He's is cooked dude. I would bet on it. What is changing next year? It will be a team of all underclassmen plus some garbage transfers from Elon or some school no one has heard of and we will limp to 15-15.
Your miscalculation is in assuming Rutgers has the same athletics aspirations as most other universities.
Mediocrity is the goal at Rutgers. Just look down the hall at the nameplate on the football coach’s door.
Only here does .500 get ‘em raises and extensions after raises and extensions which make them unfireable even if there is eventually interest in doing that, which there won’t be.
I’m not in the predictions game so I don’t know lol.
But Pikes success has been with under the radar guys so maybe that’s the formula for him.
Either way…he’s here until he says he doesn’t want to be. So get used to it.
I swear, on messages boards, there are people who would rather be the first to call for a coach’s head than have th team win games. The loudest people on here are the people who’ve been calling for Pikes to be fired since Greg got hired.
The hypothetical is that it would. That's my whole point. All of these losses occured mostly in the offseason (and to some extent due to injuries). I'm sure an elite gameday coach could get a little bit more out of the same roster but there are people in here claiming we'd have 20 wins (already, pre Iowa!) with exactly the same roster.
That doesn't mean it's not Pike's fault it just means it's not mainly about errors that Pike is making now but rather errors that were made long ago the effects of which do not become clear until the games are played.
Half agree.
Shel: it’s not an Xs and Os failure due to coach knowledge deficit and ineptitude like some allege. He knows the game as much as any other coach.
By65: Instead, Pike’s too soft on the players. He lets them all be selfish chuckers. No accountability or shitty play guardrails. And not just this year. Players don’t learn because the coach doesn’t care.
A top tier coach wouldn’t allow that and we’d still have a shot at the NCAAs if Pappy Pike wasn’t running things.
Always a congratulatory pat on the ass when he takes players out. Rah rah rah.
Stop Mag was a role player and not Michael Jordan! How does the all powerful Mag look at his new school? He was a nice role player but that’s it. We didn’t make the tournament because pike wouldn’t make the necessary changes needed in season and blew games late in the season.
STOP
Depends on the players imo as different players respond better to different styles. I do not believe there is anything Pike could be doing after the season started that would give us more than say, two more wins in expectation.
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