Portal recruiting

[Rutgers25]

Pike’s strategy is going to go down as an all time fail.

1) he runs out Woolfolk to replace him with somebody in Martini who’s never rebounded in his life and can’t defend. I’m sure the tape was there to see all this.

2) he runs off Simpson to replace him with Acuff who clearly was just a high usage, low efficiency at a terrible MAC program. He brings no other intangibles or toughness. Can’t handle the ball, can’t defend.

3) Brings in Hayes but doesn’t do anything to put him in a position to succeed at what he does best

4) Derkack. Has significant flaws but at least he brings something to the table.

I don’t think he had any idea what he’s doing. It’s understood that we don’t have real NIL money, but I don’t think we needed NIL to avoid losses to Princeton and Kennesaw. Maintain some continuity with guys that know what he’s trying to accomplish defensively (Simpson and Woolfolk). Forget about Acuff and Martini and use it on an athletic tall wing that is not scared to stick his nose in there. I don’t care if the guy was a 25% 3pt shooter. We clearly needed a very specific player and it didn’t necessarily need to be someone who was highly coveted by other schools. Somebody that gives 6pts, 6 boards and a willing defender. Basically Mag until he lost his heart.

We were all scratching our heads at the portal pick ups but generally chose to trust Pike. Clearly he had no idea what he was doing.

 

[Ridge 22]

It's the fans fault

 

[SBP]

Simpson saw writing on the wall. He wouldn’t be the man anymore. “Geo 2”. I’m sure Pike wanted him.

Wolf is missed. Toughness and rebounding. He would be a “Horace Grant” type 4 for us. Oh well.

Acuff is the biggest mystery. I envisioned him starting with Dylan. I think Pike did too.

 

[SirScarlet]

You're not wrong on your other points...but Acuffs injury makes evaluation of him an INCOMPLETE in my humble opinion

 

[RutgersClassof2004]

Acuff is slow as a tortoise

 

[Rutgers25]

Simpson saw writing on the wall. He wouldn’t be the man anymore. “Geo 2”. I’m sure Pike wanted him.

Wolf is missed. Toughness and rebounding. He would be a “Horace Grant” type 4 for us. Oh well.

Acuff is the biggest mystery. I envisioned him starting with Dylan. I think Pike did too.

Well clearly Acuff wasn’t scouted well. There’s a reason he had no options despite being a top scorer.

Not sure on Simpson but I doubt we tried to do much to keep him.

Wolf we certainly could have kept.

 

[Ridge 22]

Acuff has literally showed nothing so far and we are 40% through the season. Whatever the reason, this looks like another L

 

[RutgersClassof2004]

Pike’s strategy is going to go down as an all time fail.

1) he runs out Woolfolk to replace him with somebody in Martini who’s never rebounded in his life and can’t defend. I’m sure the tape was there to see all this.

2) he runs off Simpson to replace him with Acuff who clearly was just a high usage, low efficiency at a terrible MAC program. He brings no other intangibles or toughness. Can’t handle the ball, can’t defend.

3) Brings in Hayes but doesn’t do anything to put him in a position to succeed at what he does best

4) Derkack. Has significant flaws but at least he brings something to the table.

I don’t think he had any idea what he’s doing. It’s understood that we don’t have real NIL money, but I don’t think we needed NIL to avoid losses to Princeton and Kennesaw. Maintain some continuity with guys that know what he’s trying to accomplish defensively (Simpson and Woolfolk). Forget about Acuff and Martini and use it on an athletic tall wing that is not scared to stick his nose in there. I don’t care if the guy was a 25% 3pt shooter. We clearly needed a very specific player and it didn’t necessarily need to be someone who was highly coveted by other schools. Somebody that gives 6pts, 6 boards and a willing defender. Basically Mag until he lost his heart.

We were all scratching our heads at the portal pick ups but generally chose to trust Pike. Clearly he had no idea what he was doing.

It is incredible that his portal pickups in Martini, Acuff, and Hayes either don't play or are total non-factors when they do. Biggest year for RU Basketball on paper going in, and this is what Pike delivers.

 

[FIJI'83]

Exhibit “A” - Pikell named Martini a team captain.

 

[billgumpper]

Pike’s strategy is going to go down as an all time fail.

1) he runs out Woolfolk to replace him with somebody in Martini who’s never rebounded in his life and can’t defend. I’m sure the tape was there to see all this.

2) he runs off Simpson to replace him with Acuff who clearly was just a high usage, low efficiency at a terrible MAC program. He brings no other intangibles or toughness. Can’t handle the ball, can’t defend.

3) Brings in Hayes but doesn’t do anything to put him in a position to succeed at what he does best

4) Derkack. Has significant flaws but at least he brings something to the table.

I don’t think he had any idea what he’s doing. It’s understood that we don’t have real NIL money, but I don’t think we needed NIL to avoid losses to Princeton and Kennesaw. Maintain some continuity with guys that know what he’s trying to accomplish defensively (Simpson and Woolfolk). Forget about Acuff and Martini and use it on an athletic tall wing that is not scared to stick his nose in there. I don’t care if the guy was a 25% 3pt shooter. We clearly needed a very specific player and it didn’t necessarily need to be someone who was highly coveted by other schools. Somebody that gives 6pts, 6 boards and a willing defender. Basically Mag until he lost his heart.

We were all scratching our heads at the portal pick ups but generally chose to trust Pike. Clearly he had no idea what he was doing.

The real problem is the Woolfork and Simpson were not Big 10 calibur players to begin with, which leads to the bigger problem which is his HS recruiting the last 6 years has been bad with only a couple exceptions.

 

[billgumpper]

It is incredible that his portal pickups in Martini, Acuff, and Hayes either don't play or are total non-factors when they do. Biggest year for RU Basketball on paper going in, and this is what Pike delivers.

For the most part Pike's portal picks the last 3 years have not been good.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

When those men left the program almost all celebrated this saying we would be getting better players. When we got our new players most celebrated them and praised them. Most of you spend to much time worrying about a program you did absolutely nothing to help get better. The majority of the roster is not a BIG roster. If we collectively were not the cheapest fanbase in America we could have helped Pike get one player. lol some will stay say what about Dillon and Ace as if this fanbase had anything to do with them coming here. NIL is a failure for this fanbase and program.

 

[RUby RED]

The Woolfolk revisionism needs to stop. He wasn’t close to a Big Ten player. Got bullied by real bigs and wasn’t versatile enough to play the 4

 

[RutgersClassof2004]

The Woolfolk revisionism needs to stop. He wasn’t close to a Big Ten player. Got bullied by real bigs and wasn’t versatile enough to play the 4

Woolfolk revisionist history lol. Wolf 2.0!

 

[S_Janowski]

Pike’s strategy is going to go down as an all time fail.

1) he runs out Woolfolk to replace him with somebody in Martini who’s never rebounded in his life and can’t defend. I’m sure the tape was there to see all this.

2) he runs off Simpson to replace him with Acuff who clearly was just a high usage, low efficiency at a terrible MAC program. He brings no other intangibles or toughness. Can’t handle the ball, can’t defend.

3) Brings in Hayes but doesn’t do anything to put him in a position to succeed at what he does best

4) Derkack. Has significant flaws but at least he brings something to the table.

I don’t think he had any idea what he’s doing. It’s understood that we don’t have real NIL money, but I don’t think we needed NIL to avoid losses to Princeton and Kennesaw. Maintain some continuity with guys that know what he’s trying to accomplish defensively (Simpson and Woolfolk). Forget about Acuff and Martini and use it on an athletic tall wing that is not scared to stick his nose in there. I don’t care if the guy was a 25% 3pt shooter. We clearly needed a very specific player and it didn’t necessarily need to be someone who was highly coveted by other schools. Somebody that gives 6pts, 6 boards and a willing defender. Basically Mag until he lost his heart.

We were all scratching our heads at the portal pick ups but generally chose to trust Pike. Clearly he had no idea what he was doing.

A couple decent points but also some flawed thoughts as well.

1) Woolfolk wasn’t a 4. I don’t see a place for him with Ogbole and Sommerville. Doesn’t change the fact that Martini has been a complete dud but keeping Woolfolk really wasn’t the answer.

2) We have no idea if Simpson was “run off”. More plausible scenario is that he was given a talk that his minutes and role would be greatly reduced, and he chose to move down a level where he could still get his 30 + minutes a game that he wasn’t going to get here any longer. Can’t fault the staff or Simpson here.

3) Agree on Hayes. His use and production has been an utter failure.

4) Dercack has given us way more than I could have asked for. The problem is we’re getting essentially nothing from Martini, Hayes and Acuff.

 

[RUChoppin]

The Woolfolk revisionism needs to stop. He wasn’t close to a Big Ten player. Got bullied by real bigs and wasn’t versatile enough to play the 4

Same can be said for Martini, but at least Woolf showed he could rebound at this level. We did not upgrade his roster spot, unfortunately.

 

[Rutgers25]

The Woolfolk revisionism needs to stop. He wasn’t close to a Big Ten player. Got bullied by real bigs and wasn’t versatile enough to play the 4

Absolutely correct, but amazingly he would be doing job than Martini and certainly would understand defensive rotations and where he needs to be.

My point is a nuanced one. Retaining these players wouldn’t make us a final four team but it certainly would have helped with continuity and certainly could have helped us beat Kennesaw and Princeton.

 

[RutgersChow]

The real problem is the Woolfork and Simpson were not Big 10 calibur players to begin with, which leads to the bigger problem which is his HS recruiting the last 6 years has been bad with only a couple exceptions.

He's shown the last couple of years that he's not much of a coach, and he's shown since he's been here that he's not much of an evaluator of talent. There is nothing left. Offer him a nice cushy asst. AD's job - time to move on. Oh, I forgot. We don't even have anyone to do that. What an operation.

 

[RUBlackout]

Pike’s strategy is going to go down as an all time fail.

1) he runs out Woolfolk to replace him with somebody in Martini who’s never rebounded in his life and can’t defend. I’m sure the tape was there to see all this.

2) he runs off Simpson to replace him with Acuff who clearly was just a high usage, low efficiency at a terrible MAC program. He brings no other intangibles or toughness. Can’t handle the ball, can’t defend.

3) Brings in Hayes but doesn’t do anything to put him in a position to succeed at what he does best

4) Derkack. Has significant flaws but at least he brings something to the table.

I don’t think he had any idea what he’s doing. It’s understood that we don’t have real NIL money, but I don’t think we needed NIL to avoid losses to Princeton and Kennesaw. Maintain some continuity with guys that know what he’s trying to accomplish defensively (Simpson and Woolfolk). Forget about Acuff and Martini and use it on an athletic tall wing that is not scared to stick his nose in there. I don’t care if the guy was a 25% 3pt shooter. We clearly needed a very specific player and it didn’t necessarily need to be someone who was highly coveted by other schools. Somebody that gives 6pts, 6 boards and a willing defender. Basically Mag until he lost his heart.

We were all scratching our heads at the portal pick ups but generally chose to trust Pike. Clearly he had no idea what he was doing.

And you think Pike ran these players off??

Kids make their own decision in many cases. Who says Simpson wanted to be here when he knew the players that were coming in?

 

[billgumpper]

A couple decent points but also some flawed thoughts as well.

1) Woolfolk wasn’t a 4. I don’t see a place for him with Ogbole and Sommerville. Doesn’t change the fact that Martini has been a complete dud but keeping Woolfolk really wasn’t the answer.

2) We have no idea if Simpson was “run off”. More plausible scenario is that he was given a talk that his minutes and role would be greatly reduced, and he chose to move down a level where he could still get his 30 + minutes a game that he wasn’t going to get here any longer. Can’t fault the staff or Simpson here.

3) Agree on Hayes. His use and production has been an utter failure.
4) Dercack has given us way more than I could have asked for. The problem is we’re getting essentially nothing from Martini, Hayes and Acuff.

At this point we are also getting nothing from J Will which is a major problem.

 

[billgumpper]

Same can be said for Martini, but at least Woolf showed he could rebound at this level. We did not upgrade his roster spot, unfortunately.

With the exception of Harper and Bailey we did not upgrade any roster spot, that's on Pike.

 

[Mr Magoo]

I liked Woolfolk a lot but he was over his head in the B1G as an undersized PF. He slipped away so we could recruit over him and surprisingly we recruited under him. I wish he was here. He’s much better than Martini. Who knew? Simpson was over his head too but Acuff is worse. Griffiths too, but Hayes doesn’t play so that’s a wash.