ADVERTISEMENT

Pikiell on Omoruyi and more (NJ.com interview)

Both good reads. Still not much on why EO left but was not expecting any big reveal coming from Pike. If we hear anything I expect it to come from EO's camp.
 
Just what I thought....article states very clearly. Hopefully, it's the last that we have about the so-called bad "trash talk culture" that a few are pushing.

There has been no indication of any behind-the-scenes event or internal issue led team captain and leading scorer and rebounder from a season ago to decide to leave.

“I think he thinks another place is better for him,” Pikiell said, “and that’s his right.”
 
Just what I thought....article states very clearly. Hopefully, it's the last that we have about the so-called bad "trash talk culture" that a few are pushing.

There has been no indication of any behind-the-scenes event or internal issue led team captain and leading scorer and rebounder from a season ago to decide to leave.

“I think he thinks another place is better for him,” Pikiell said, “and that’s his right.”
I mean it might not be why Omoruyi left but the younger guys talk A LOT of trash on the floor
 
Just what I thought....article states very clearly. Hopefully, it's the last that we have about the so-called bad "trash talk culture" that a few are pushing.

There has been no indication of any behind-the-scenes event or internal issue led team captain and leading scorer and rebounder from a season ago to decide to leave.

“I think he thinks another place is better for him,” Pikiell said, “and that’s his right.”

Not to relitigate this because I don't really buy that theory either but I don't think Pikiell would come out and say "yeah, our younger guys ran him off the team."
 
I'm all in on Pike. He will get it done here. It's to the point now that if my kid was a 5 star basketball player I would have no problem sending him to play for Pike. I believe Pike would get the most out of him and teach him to be a good man.

If my kid was a 5 star QB there is literally no chance I would send him to play for Ash and I am a diehard RU fan.

Not making this a Pike vs Ash thing just saying that sending my kid to play for Pike isn't my RU bias coming out.
 
I think this might be the first time he's used the P-word? (Positionless)

I really hope we see some interesting nontraditional lineups this season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubigtimenow
I think at last check there are at least 5 schools with 2 or more open scholarships in the B1G.

Illinois has 3

Indiana has 3

Nebraska has 2

Rutgers has 2

Michigan has 2 or 3

This is either a trend or coaches like Archie Miller in a recent interview, have decided not to fill spots after a Top 150 2018 kid transferred (Jake Forrester landed at Temple).

The thought process Miller had was to not fill a spot unless the player is going to absolutely make your Top 8 rotation, for the reasons Pike mentioned. If you have depth and fill the last 2 spots, those kids are either not as good as your starters and will leave because they won't play.....

Injuries are a factor and I know Daniel Lobach and Luke Nathan are on the court working with the roster as preferred walkons. I'm not advocating filling 2 spots with just another body.
 
I think at last check there are at least 5 schools with 2 or more open scholarships in the B1G.

Illinois has 3

Indiana has 3

Nebraska has 2

Rutgers has 2

Michigan has 2 or 3

This is either a trend or coaches like Archie Miller in a recent interview, have decided not to fill spots after a Top 150 2018 kid transferred (Jake Forrester landed at Temple).

The thought process Miller had was to not fill a spot unless the player is going to absolutely make your Top 8 rotation, for the reasons Pike mentioned. If you have depth and fill the last 2 spots, those kids are either not as good as your starters and will leave because they won't play.....

Injuries are a factor and I know Daniel Lobach and Luke Nathan are on the court working with the roster as preferred walkons. I'm not advocating filling 2 spots with just another body.

Yep. Duke just put a walk-on on scholarship the other day. UNC has had Shea Rush (a walk on) on scholarship the past two seasons. It's definitely a trend and something I was wrong about when I've referred to it as wasting a spot.

Look at the Trueblood guy from Nebraska or even Dadika. You don't want them playing big minutes but if they HAVE to see the floor you can live with it.
 
What I really like with this team, and for as long as I have followed the team (1985) I don't think we've had as many guys who can beat you. We might have had two, maybe a third option, but we may have about five or six guys (maybe more) that can beat you. Pick your poison!

So tired of saying that about other teams, too! It's about time it was us. IT'S OUR TIME!!
 
By looking at the portal numbers on average schools are going to have 2-3 unexpected openings after all/most HS kids are gone.

At what point do HS players/handlers start to think about delaying where they want to go until May.
 
Just what I thought....article states very clearly. Hopefully, it's the last that we have about the so-called bad "trash talk culture" that a few are pushing.

There has been no indication of any behind-the-scenes event or internal issue led team captain and leading scorer and rebounder from a season ago to decide to leave.

“I think he thinks another place is better for him,” Pikiell said, “and that’s his right.”
I don’t think anyone was pushing we had a “bad trash talking culture”. In fact, I even stated that I highly doubt that players piling on had an effect on Gene leaving and if it was a reason then he was incredibly soft. That being said, trash talk happens everywhere. Especially in summer pick-up. I think the part of what I heard that most people seemed to ignore was the quote that I heard where Gene was still “more loyal to his buddies than his brothers.
 
The burning question that hasn’t been asked or answered......

Does our offense change?
Do all Eugene minutes go to Yeboah?
Is this a permanent change to the RU 4?
 
I think I liked McConnell quite a bit more than most last year, so hearing this definitely excites me. I felt like there were stretches when he was a better option than Geo, which I know is blasphemy. I just like what he gives us a bit more. I hope to see a hue leap this year.
 
I enjoyed both of these articles. Steve is such a nice man and an honest man. I really want to see him and our team have some real success.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubigtimenow
And just think a few guys said McConnell might be on the outside hoping to get minutes. He will get them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scangg
"Shaq Carter has done some tremendous things. I think your first year is always an adjustment, but you saw at the end of the year when Gene went down with that injury, he kind of filled in and took his next step. He’s going to have a great senior year. He has all the good qualities to him. He’s tough, he’s physical, he’s bigger. He’s in better shape.

"I think Montez (Mathis) got better. Ron [Harper Jr.’s] body is ridiculous. He looks better. Caleb (McConnell) has now grown an inch, and he’s gained 18 pounds since last year. And Myles has a chance to have a breakthrough season. I think he’s one of the best big guys in the league. I expect him to be that now after a year of figuring it out and showing signs of being great. Now he needs to be consistent, and he’s going to get consistent minutes."


This excites me. Myles is going to be an absolute problem and Yeboah is going to clear up a lot of space for him. We have a lot of shooters and depth. People forget often about Duke, Young, Carter when thinking about what we lost with EO. We are going to be a lot better and wayyyy more fun to watch.
 
I think I liked McConnell quite a bit more than most last year, so hearing this definitely excites me. I felt like there were stretches when he was a better option than Geo, which I know is blasphemy. I just like what he gives us a bit more. I hope to see a hue leap this year.


There comes a time (I believe it is now) where we need Geo to shoot it better. In most cases you are what your numbers say you are. Geo is a career 36% shooter from the floor. geo shot it 35% last year, 34% in conference. In his career he is 33% from the floor in conference.

These numbers have to improve or we can't win. geo had to play last year because he was the only capable PG on the roster. Hopefully that changes this year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kcg88
There comes a time (I believe it is now) where we need Geo to shoot it better. In most cases you are what your numbers say you are. Geo is a career 36% shooter from the floor. geo shot it 35% last year, 34% in conference. In his career he is 33% from the floor in conference.

These numbers have to improve or we can't win. geo had to play last year because he was the only capable PG on the roster. Hopefully that changes this year.

It was actually very interesting to me that Pikiell only mentioned Geo one time.
 
It was actually very interesting to me that Pikiell only mentioned Geo one time.

That's because he is about to enter the transfer portal so why mention him.....j/k , :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :fistbump:
 
I think this is going to be another exciting year for RU BB, but for different reasons than last year. I think that we can set the bar higher than last year (NCAA expected) and we now have versatility and experience that we didn't have last year. I don't think that Geo will be the focus of the team any longer as you now have players who are new and the others, who have developed from last year, who are now on par with Geo in terms of value to the team. Coach seems excited and so am I!
 
Great articles. I just love Pike's maturity about all of this and his focus on one year at a time and moving forward after the EO move, as per the excerpt below. And his comments about everyone improving, Doucure being healthy, and the way the new guys are fitting in already are certainly positives. Can we end the 29 year drought? No idea, but I'd bet the house on breaking our 13 year losing season run (had no idea it's been that long until I looked it up, lol).

[Kratch] As a college basketball coach in general, seeing where this is going, does it scare you that you can find these guys, develop them for two or three years, and then they hit the portal and a blue blood program gets to take them? Because you kind of know how a transfer is going to go, it’s less of the boom-or-bust with high school kids.

[Pikiell] "It’s the way it is now. Nothing surprises me. They have more opportunities to leave, it’s easier to leave, they have waivers now. Students have those rights. I don’t even complain about it. I expect it. You’ve got to coach your team one year at a time, do the best job that you can.

“You can’t control some of those reasons why. You try to do a great job of educating your kids always on the good things. And I’ve been saying this – and it’s not about this – but I want kids that want to be at Rutgers. Get kids that want to be here and appreciate the journey that we’re on. I think these kids that are here, I think they’re going to work their tails off to make this a historic year for us. I think they’re excited about that challenge too.”
 
" But we have a good team right now, we have good chemistry, good depth. I like what we have.”---this quote may say a lot about the right now chemistry after O left
 
The burning question that hasn’t been asked or answered......

Does our offense change?
Do all Eugene minutes go to Yeboah?
Is this a permanent change to the RU 4?

Nothing is permanent, you play whose playing well and matchup against your opponent or force them to matchup to us.

All points made over the last few days about not missing a beat and about Yeboah being a better shooter and more versatile were mentioned by Pike....strange how that happens, I guess.
 
McConnell gained an inch and 18 pounds since the start of last year, and that's a great sign - it also showed in his production on the floor.

2018 games before B1G restart: 9.8 min, 3.3 pts, 1.4 rb, 0.6 ast, 0.8 tov
2019 games after B1G restart: 19.1 min, 6.9 pts, 3.3 rb, 1.3 ast, 1.4 tov

On a per 40 basis:
2018 games before B1G restart: 13.2 pts, 5.8 rb, 2.4 ast, 3.4 tov
2019 games after B1G restart: 14.4 pts, 6.8 rb, 2.8 ast, 3.0 tov

He improved his numbers even while stepping up in competition. Given that there's more of a conditioning focus in the offseason, it's possible he puts on even more weight/muscle before next season and enters play at 6-7, 215 or so.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT