Pike

[RutgersDom]

We all need to chill on the hot seat please. Way too many folks attacking him.

I'm close with a parent of 2 major college players who trains top talent and is close with Pike and others on the staff. He thinks (For what is very educated opinion is worth) Pike is a great coach but about 3 weeks ago said RU will screw this up. So I said "How so?" His reply was, "They and the fan base won't appreciate the job he is doing and will eventually run him out of town".

I really thought that was bizarre and thought he was all wet but judging by the remarks after losing a game we should win to a team who shot a ridiculous percentage (Some on tough shots - some not) I find myself thinking back at that comment.

I sure hope we give this man a fighters chance. I'm really not sure how everyone's expectations were so CRAZY high for this team. Especially shooting 3's when we weren't a good shooting team last year. Who did we add as a shooter? PM - no, Young - streaky, Yab - sure- good 3 point shooter. We would expect our freshman to improve but to go from not a good 3 point shooting team to a really good one makes no sense...

Losing UO is a BIG deal...I know some think it wasn't but that's ludicrous.

And can we please chill on RHJ breaking out and going to the NBA please? (We all know who said that one). He came in last year over weight. Started slow, came on strong. Had a great off season conditioning wise (Btw, still has room to go here), and had a great camp. Should have a better year than last year and expecting a very good year from him for sure. But let's level set expectations...

The expectations should be potential NIT team.

Don't forget it will also take time to get the right players gelling together as we have introduced 3 new players after losing one who played big minutes...That takes a bit of time...

I'm sure we'll hot our stride but B Ball is an up and down season unless you are the BIG boys and we are not yet...

So let's all chill a bit please and chat after game 10 ...We don't want an RU Screw here...

 

[Local Shill]

He didn’t coach a good game Saturday but I don’t think anyone who’s sane is talking about running him out of town.

 

[Mr Magoo]

I don’t think anyone is running him out of town either. In my mind, and it’s only my mind, I believe he should at least be at .500 with this team and this OOC schedule...that’s it. That happens at the END of the season.

I don’t think .500 is a very lofty goal after 4 seasons. We played a stinker Saturday and we’ve looked bad in 3 of 4 but there is plenty of time for this team to gel and start playing better. Hopefully, we start on Wednesday.

 

[superfan01]

OP is full of it.
No one will run pike out of town. Easily he will perform or he won’t. The favs have been very supported and so has the administration. We just gave him a brand new high level practice facility.
It’s on pike now to deliver

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

NIT/NCAA as a goal is fine, as an expectation is wrong. I am a big fan of this coach. I also realize he has made a ton of roster mistakes. I also realize it is VERY hard to get P5/P6 talent needed to compete at Rutgers.

The odds of the bear case for this year are on the rise. 4 games is still way way way too early to give up hope. The question that I hope doesn't need to be answered is will fans/media make the right call on our coach if things do end up going bad. I hope so.

 

[Rutgers25]

Main message I took away from the fan commentary is that if he fails to go 500 this year then he will be on the hot seat next year. I don’t think that is unreasonable for year 5.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

Pike needs to get his team to win the next two games handily

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Main message I took away from the fan commentary is that if he fails to go 500 this year then he will be on the hot seat next year. I don’t think that is unreasonable for year 5.

In 2025 our head coach will fail to reach .500 and he will look to find the coach we will fire in 2030.

 

[RocktheRac]

We all need to chill on the hot seat please. Way too many folks attacking him.

I'm close with a parent of 2 major college players who trains top talent and is close with Pike and others on the staff. He thinks (For what is very educated opinion is worth) Pike is a great coach but about 3 weeks ago said RU will screw this up. So I said "How so?" His reply was, "They and the fan base won't appreciate the job he is doing and will eventually run him out of town".

I really thought that was bizarre and thought he was all wet but judging by the remarks after losing a game we should win to a team who shot a ridiculous percentage (Some on tough shots - some not) I find myself thinking back at that comment.

I sure hope we give this man a fighters chance. I'm really not sure how everyone's expectations were so CRAZY high for this team. Especially shooting 3's when we weren't a good shooting team last year. Who did we add as a shooter? PM - no, Young - streaky, Yab - sure- good 3 point shooter. We would expect our freshman to improve but to go from not a good 3 point shooting team to a really good one makes no sense...

Losing UO is a BIG deal...I know some think it wasn't but that's ludicrous.

And can we please chill on RHJ breaking out and going to the NBA please? (We all know who said that one). He came in last year over weight. Started slow, came on strong. Had a great off season conditioning wise (Btw, still has room to go here), and had a great camp. Should have a better year than last year and expecting a very good year from him for sure. But let's level set expectations...

The expectations should be potential NIT team.

Don't forget it will also take time to get the right players gelling together as we have introduced 3 new players after losing one who played big minutes...That takes a bit of time...

I'm sure we'll hot our stride but B Ball is an up and down season unless you are the BIG boys and we are not yet...

So let's all chill a bit please and chat after game 10 ...We don't want an RU Screw here...

OP says that we weren't a 3 pt shooting team last year so why should we be this year? Did we add any shooters? OP thinks not. Isn't this what Pikes job is? Takes time to have a team gell? I believe Bryant had 9 new players this year and we struggled to beat them. St Bonnie? We got smoked from 2 freshman. Stop with this gell stuff. Year 4 should be over .500

 

[knights1212]

I think too many posters did go over the top and are sitting on the ledge. Talk of a hot seat to me is absurd. Pikiell is a much better coach than we have had in quite a while. These are kids and they are not perfect. The Bonnies shot unbelievable from three against us whereas they were beyond horrible from three in their first 3 games. They played outstanding and won the game. Give them credit and move forward. It is too bad we didn't land Winston as we did recruit him.

 

[RocktheRac]

I think too many posters did go over the top and are sitting on the ledge. Talk of a hot seat to me is absurd. Pikiell is a much better coach than we have had in quite a while. These are kids and they are not perfect. The Bonnies shot unbelievable from three against us whereas they were beyond horrible from three in their first 3 games. They played outstanding and won the game. Give them credit and move forward. It is too bad we didn't land Winston as we did recruit him.

We are missing out on a lot of recruits and the pace better pick up.

 

[Rutgers25]

I think too many posters did go over the top and are sitting on the ledge. Talk of a hot seat to me is absurd. Pikiell is a much better coach than we have had in quite a while. These are kids and they are not perfect. The Bonnies shot unbelievable from three against us whereas they were beyond horrible from three in their first 3 games. They played outstanding and won the game. Give them credit and move forward. It is too bad we didn't land Winston as we did recruit him.

Again, nobody is talking hot seat this year. It is hypothetical with respect to year 5 if we don’t go 500 this year.

 

[RU-ROCS]

We all need to chill on the hot seat please. Way too many folks attacking him.

I'm close with a parent of 2 major college players who trains top talent and is close with Pike and others on the staff. He thinks (For what is very educated opinion is worth) Pike is a great coach but about 3 weeks ago said RU will screw this up. So I said "How so?" His reply was, "They and the fan base won't appreciate the job he is doing and will eventually run him out of town".

I really thought that was bizarre and thought he was all wet but judging by the remarks after losing a game we should win to a team who shot a ridiculous percentage (Some on tough shots - some not) I find myself thinking back at that comment.

I sure hope we give this man a fighters chance. I'm really not sure how everyone's expectations were so CRAZY high for this team. Especially shooting 3's when we weren't a good shooting team last year. Who did we add as a shooter? PM - no, Young - streaky, Yab - sure- good 3 point shooter. We would expect our freshman to improve but to go from not a good 3 point shooting team to a really good one makes no sense...

Losing UO is a BIG deal...I know some think it wasn't but that's ludicrous.

And can we please chill on RHJ breaking out and going to the NBA please? (We all know who said that one). He came in last year over weight. Started slow, came on strong. Had a great off season conditioning wise (Btw, still has room to go here), and had a great camp. Should have a better year than last year and expecting a very good year from him for sure. But let's level set expectations...

The expectations should be potential NIT team.

Don't forget it will also take time to get the right players gelling together as we have introduced 3 new players after losing one who played big minutes...That takes a bit of time...

I'm sure we'll hot our stride but B Ball is an up and down season unless you are the BIG boys and we are not yet...

So let's all chill a bit please and chat after game 10 ...We don't want an RU Screw here...

I'm definitely not jumping of the Pike bandwagon after one bad loss. But several posters have lamented the big loss of Eugene Omaruyi and its significant negative effect on this team, as if Pike had nothing to do with his departure. It's not like we lost EO to injury. When a junior captain up and transfers the head coach must take some responsibility for that too. One of Pike's many (difficult) jobs as HC is to keep his players engaged and happy at RU.

 

[Mr Magoo]

I'm definitely not jumping of the Pike bandwagon after one bad loss. But several posters have lamented the big loss of Eugene Omaruyi and its significant negative effect on this team, as if Pike had nothing to do with his departure. It's not like we lost EO to injury. When a junior captain up and transfers the head coach must take some responsibility for that too. One of Pike's many (difficult) jobs as HC is to keep his players engaged and happy at RU.

We don’t really know if we lost him to injury or not. He might have felt that he couldn’t give 100% on his knee this season and might be better off sitting out. Then, if he’s going to sit out anyway, perhaps he decided to go to a program with more exposure and a better chance to reach the NCAA tournament. We really don’t know. I agree that it’s partially on Pikiell to try to ensure it doesn’t happen though.

 

[jtung230]

Is he a millennial that we need to be gentle with? just win and people will get back on the bandwagon.

 

[RUSK97]

Main message I took away from the fan commentary is that if he fails to go 500 this year then he will be on the hot seat next year. I don’t think that is unreasonable for year 5.

Exactly. What is so unreasonable about this?!? With that Charmin Ultrasoft OOC schedule designed to pad the brutal Conf sched, is going 0.500 in year 4 that unreasonable? And just about no one is saying he needs to go at the end of year 4 if he fails to get to 0.500. It just means his seat should be toasty in year 5. Just how much time do our fans want to give a coach? No one’s saying Elite Eight in 2020 or else. This is beyond generous.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

We are missing out on a lot of recruits and the pace better pick up.

Who the heck is this guy?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

It's not like we lost EO to injury.

We actually might have.

 

[PiscatawayMike]

I'm not much for placing much importance on a single game. Things happen.

I predicted RU would be 19-12 (9-2 OOC; 10-10 B1G) at the end of the regular season, but my expectation entering the campaign was to finish 17-14. Simply, if we don't have 17 wins entering the B1G tournament, I don't think the players and the coaching staff will have done their job.

 

[LotusAggressor]

So if he gets run out of town, who's the next coach? Does RU take a page out of the football playbook and ask.Gary Waters to.come back?

 

[kcg88]

So if he gets run out of town, who's the next coach? Does RU take a page out of the football playbook and ask.Gary Waters to.come back?

Pointless to start listing names now. He's getting six years at a minimum. Who are the up-and-coming coaches in 2022? No one knows.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I actually had started in the prediction thread an unfinished write up where the team would be up and down and we would have seperate threads both with coaching replacements AND contract extensions. Dont think I finished and sent

 

[RUJMM78]

I don’t think anyone is running him out of town either. In my mind, and it’s only my mind, I believe he should at least be at .500 with this team and this OOC schedule...that’s it. That happens at the END of the season.

I don’t think .500 is a very lofty goal after 4 seasons. We played a stinker Saturday and we’ve looked bad in 3 of 4 but there is plenty of time for this team to gel and start playing better. Hopefully, we start on Wednesday.

I agree with your comments.There needs to be minimal success this season which means a winning season .Failure to do so would be deeply disappointing .The coaching staff and players need to understand the sense of urgency to break the long cycle of losing seasons.

 

[essexknight]

NIT/NCAA as a goal is fine, as an expectation is wrong. I am a big fan of this coach. I also realize he has made a ton of roster mistakes. I also realize it is VERY hard to get P5/P6 talent needed to compete at Rutgers.

The odds of the bear case for this year are on the rise. 4 games is still way way way too early to give up hope. The question that I hope doesn't need to be answered is will fans/media make the right call on our coach if things do end up going bad. I hope so.

I am also a fan of him as a coach and agree that the NIT should not be an expectation as of now. My biggest concern is with regard to recruiting. I’m not sure that RU can move up in the B1G hierarchy with this level of recruiting. Bringing in consistent shooters needs to be a priority ASAP in addition to more interior help.