he put a Grant in with a green light didnt he.....a guy he for some reason only played a couple minutes before this game
Pike
- Thread starter biazza38
- Start date
NIL is not the problem. Coach knows the rules and should be prepared to put a competitive team on the floor. I don't recall Pike playing a zone defense to help protect players.
I think U have the problem. Talk to us in 6 weeks
I was sitting in the first row mid court today. The officiating was beyond atrocious and we were getting the short stick. And Pike was placid as can be. As a coach you have to defend your players by pointing out to the referees the difference in treatment. Meanwhile a coach like Oates from Bama is letting them have it. Also don’t see Pike letting his players know in the sternest terms when they are not meeting his expectations with their play. I see many of the other coaches let it rip when tough love is required. Put differently, he needs to use more stick than carrot with some of the players especially the soft ones e.g., Martini.
We did play zone for a bit and they had a few easy layups and we went away. Pike isn’t stupid. Questioning his offensive choices in one thing. Defense not so much.
Did you want to go with a short lineup against a great rebounding team at that critical point in the game? Someone has to play. The problem is the guards kept feeding him the ball. The players need to read the room better and take those shots and not feeding the green frosh who barely plays.
such an informative post. Btw, take a look at our first 5 B1G games. We don’t have 6 weeks. We have two
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The zone was effective early in the second half when Rutgers took a 9 point lead.Later on it looked like some players didn't know if they were in zone or man defense and they allowed uncontested layups.
Ok so why do lower level teams have a center that's serviceable against our team?
The zone was effective early because A&M was initially confused by the change in defense, not because we played it well. To the contrary, it was incredibly weak and we looked like 8th graders playing it. Again, you can’t play an effective zone if you don’t practice the crap out it and have the proper personnel do it. Also, our already poor rebounding would get even worse. It was a nice change of pace and may have protected us from a foul or two and Pike recognized that he should abandon it quickly (perhaps a possession too late), Lot of people mistake a zone to be a simple way to play defense, when in fact, there are a ton of intricacies and all effective zones rely on very strong m2m principles, which many of our players are lacking (e.g, we leave our feet on almost every single head fake)
It looked like a weak call but Lathan needs to be smarter with 4 fouls.
A center reaching in to swipe a ball on the other side of the court is gonna get that foul called on them more often than not.
Refs were horrible but we also had some dumb reach ins.
I must have been sitting 2-3 rows behind you.
While get what you are saying about Pike, he has been here long enough for all of us to realize that is not his style so can’t expect him to change that.
Do we need more accountability on players? yes. That is why they will see reduced minutes or get pulled from games.
I saw Jwill attempt a pass to Dylan going against their press. As an upperclassman he left his feet to do so and they stole it from him. Not very smart. Was he our problem today? No.
The issues we have pertain to bad shooters and defenders from our bench. It’s abysmal. Momentum swing when JMike takes and misses his 3. Would have extended our lead and most likely a nail in the coffin. I can’t even explain Martini at the moment but not adding much of anything. At least we got Hayes shots and while he didn’t hit them we tried and I feel good about that.
Grant looks the part but he looked so scared out there. Wish he got more time in our preseason games to get him acclimated rather than against top 20. I’ll give him a pass but some weak attempts at shots around the rim.
This is complete nonsense. They do not have enough NIL as has been well documented and this meme about Lathan telling Pike not to get a transfer center is absurd.
Most of these folks are pining for the return of Fast Eddie Jordan. Did any of you notice a FT disparity in the TAMU game? Any thoughts on how that might have influenced the outcome?
I was kinda surprised how calm he was on Saturday given how close the game was and the refs etc. Echo whoever above said he seems to treat these early season games as scrimmages.
That said, in my season prediction I had us going 0-3 in Vegas (ok, flip-flop Kennesaw and Notre Dame) but then winning out in December.
I think these first 8 games have given him enough info to be able to coach and handle his rotations successfully going forward. It's also given Dylan and Ace the experience they need to know what it's gonna take to compete.
That said, in my season prediction I had us going 0-3 in Vegas (ok, flip-flop Kennesaw and Notre Dame) but then winning out in December.
I think these first 8 games have given him enough info to be able to coach and handle his rotations successfully going forward. It's also given Dylan and Ace the experience they need to know what it's gonna take to compete.
No doubt that they are wrong. Why would Steve reach out to multiple centers in the portal, if Lathan was preventing him from signing someone? It does not make sense, not having the NIL funds makes sense.
You can tell which people are extremely stupid by looking to see who believes that ridiculous rumor about Sommerville preventing us from signing portal centers.
Go check the NIL thread on the basketball page and re-evaluate how difficult it may actually be
I’m fairly confident everyone on here looking for reasons we lost and are struggling and Continuing to blame pike and scheme and such probably donate $0.00 to nil or to athletics in any capacity
Probably also thought our ticket prices were too high even though we’re amongst the cheapest in the conference for season ticket sales
There’s no reason other than $$$ that Texas AM has Pharrell Payne from Minnesota and we don’t
There’s no reason first year coaches at Michigan and ohio state had more success in the portal than us and no reason a coach on the hottest of hot seats like Mike Woodson could scoop 3 of the top 15 transfer portal guys besides $$
Pike and staff can identify talent… they did it when we were shopping from the dollar menu in 2018-2021 and now there’s an added element they don’t have control of
Shame on you guys for criticizing unless you have an actual stake in the program like some of us
Probably also thought our ticket prices were too high even though we’re amongst the cheapest in the conference for season ticket sales
There’s no reason other than $$$ that Texas AM has Pharrell Payne from Minnesota and we don’t
There’s no reason first year coaches at Michigan and ohio state had more success in the portal than us and no reason a coach on the hottest of hot seats like Mike Woodson could scoop 3 of the top 15 transfer portal guys besides $$
Pike and staff can identify talent… they did it when we were shopping from the dollar menu in 2018-2021 and now there’s an added element they don’t have control of
Shame on you guys for criticizing unless you have an actual stake in the program like some of us
Pike got us to the point where he brought in 2 NBA draft picks in the same year. They could’ve gone anywhere else.
Watch Dylan’s video tour of the basketball facilities, and how he lights up when Pike comes out. Then Dylan says, more than once, “Best coach in America.”
Money can’t buy that kinda love and loyalty for a coach.
Watch Dylan’s video tour of the basketball facilities, and how he lights up when Pike comes out. Then Dylan says, more than once, “Best coach in America.”
Money can’t buy that kinda love and loyalty for a coach.
Totally agree and we already know that’s big reason Ace committed so early
That being said the best coach in America is going to lose to 2-3-4-5-6 when they have more tools and resources in the tool chest unfortunately
That is the part fans can control
It's like everything else. You've got to practice it to be good at it. I doubt they practice it much.
Pike has always mixed in zone and press as a change of pace and based on matchups. Of course you need time to teach it and with most of the roster turning over he has other things to prioritize. Zone is something you practice after you are competent with hedging and switching in man D...which we aren't consistent at yet.
Nobody will every know if the rumor is true or not. Reminder, this rumor came out in near/in the summer where most of the players were committed elsewhere. There were no good options available, so I'm not sure if Pike was still looking for a depth center at this point. Anyway, I don't think you can figure out if this rumor was valid either way.
after the terrible offensive foul call on Derkack, he walked towards the ref and shouted “bad call” but in a fairly calm manner. That was the only time I saw him react. He’s definitely no Dan Hurley. (thankfully)
In our game at Bama, Oates pulled Cliff immediately after he traveled going to the hoop, and screamed in his face following and yelling at him all the way down the bench. Cliff didn’t get much playing time after that.
JMike is unplayable and the next time he touches the court is grounds for Pikes dismissal.
Yup - this. The rumor wasn’t that we passed on Cliff type centers that we could’ve gotten because of Lathan. Rather - it came up after Pike learned he couldn’t afford any of the top tier guys. The rumor was more that Lathan had expressed some concerns about being buried on the depth chart and seeing what we could realistically land in the portal Puke decided it wasn’t worth paying for a utility center who would ultimately make Lathan a flight risk.
See above. That was the rumor. We have no way of knowing if it’s true but I’m not sure why you think it’s stupid to entertain the possibility that it’s true. If that was Pike’s predicament, it wouldn’t have been an easy choice. Do you overpay for a proven utility player who won’t be great but will be servicable and then risk losing you promising frosh who would come in with upside potential to be a star? There’s no easy answer. Thats why I believe it might be true.
This is not really what the stupid people are saying though. They are saying Lathan was holding Pike hostage threatening to leave if we brought in a portal center.
I mean - when you consider some of the ridiculous takes on these boards I guess my point is this one more of a potential half truth than just flat out stupid. Nowadays with NIL, kids look out for themselves and the possibility of being a 3rd string center on a roster is not exactly where a kid would want to be as a frosh to maximize college earning potential. If we could’ve afforded to keep Cliff or get someone similar, there is no way Pike was turning it down because Lathan might be a flight risk. Like zero shot and yeah, the takes that imply this are in fact just dumb. But after it became clear we could not afford a true difference maker at 5, the thinking changes. A lot. It’s plausible that we held back on overpaying for a mediocre center and chose to roll the dice with Lathan because Pike feared Lathan wouldn’t stay otherwise and he wasn’t actually sure the mediocre kid he could get would even be better than Lathan and we’d have to pay a premium for him. Very possible.
If he didn’t play Lathan big minutes he would leave after his Freshman year so Pike chose not to bring in someone to compete. So, word it however you want and blame can be shared. Ultimately the program starts and stops with Pike.
The louder people complain on here the less they give or do not give it all. The people who give big bucks understand bigger picture items.
Again, though, this is very different from the takes that I’m complaining about, which are along the lines of
“Pike could have brought in an impact center, but didn’t because Lathan threatened to leave.”
If that were actually true in the way implied by those people it would mean than Pike is a ****ing idiot that gambled away this season to appease some kid who had never played a single game for him. And that is exactly the implication those people are trying to make.
You are saying “maybe Pike weighed the possibility of Lathan leaving when considering bringing in a lesser center that wouldn’t have made that much difference anyway” and, yeah, maybe. But that is just way way different.
If your point is just that way dumber things have been said around here then, well, yeah but that says more about this board than anything else.
I mean, you do realize that was reported on this site, right?
That’s not just some random thing posters made up.
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