Raise your hand if you thought the basketball team would have more wins at this point in the year than the football team.
Raise your hand if...
- Thread starter RUBubba
- Start date
Probably myself if I had the chance not even knowing much about the team. The football team is a ground up 4 year project minimum to just got back to where we were a 2-3 years ago and Pikell is a good coach
ME
I gave up on the FB team after the Illinois loss...week in /week out ...the team looks like they are lost
With basketball team I see .......
good coaching decisions so far
good recruits in the FIRST year
good teaching and player development
some wins vs mid-level teams we would have lost to last year
in short.....not a long list of excuses
CONTRIBUTIONS by players and coaches
I gave up on the FB team after the Illinois loss...week in /week out ...the team looks like they are lost
With basketball team I see .......
good coaching decisions so far
good recruits in the FIRST year
good teaching and player development
some wins vs mid-level teams we would have lost to last year
in short.....not a long list of excuses
CONTRIBUTIONS by players and coaches
Really want to see both teams doing well. Ash really inherited a crap storm from Flood, but I expected to see a little more this year.
Pike really seems to have the team going in the right direction, do not think we had this many rebounds in the last three years as do we in the first four games.
Pike really seems to have the team going in the right direction, do not think we had this many rebounds in the last three years as do we in the first four games.
Pike inherited a team in worse shape. The football team at least at winning seasons in the last decade. Basketball on the other hand has been more than a decade since experiencing success. Plus facilities are ancient and attendance has been dismal. So many kids have transferred out I wasn't even sure if they would have enough scholarship (warm bodies) players to field a team this year. The big difference between football and basketball is that you see the growth of the players in basketball game to game. The football team has regressed each week and the players are getting worse. The lack of head coaching experience is the difference that's being exposed between the two programs.
BB has much more talent than football. Transfers, returning players from injuries, made a night and day difference. Our young backcourt can be one of the best in the B1G. We have the biggest front court. Upside of this team is huge. Nothing at all like football, a disaster of a team that needs rebuilding.
He is a good coach but he also needs to thank EJ for leaving him with a bunch of talented players.
I thought the Football team would have about 3 wins. That's not hard for almost any basketball team to pass in the preseason.
Pike did not need to gut the team like Ash had to. Football is an absolute disaster after Flood. Buffs, go to the premium board and look at the breakdown of the Flood recruiting classes.
Not taking away what Pike has done so far, but everything is looking up for basketball right now. Football will take at least three years to build the depth needed to compete. Pike has a good core and facilities starting to be built this spring.
According to many on here last year we had little or no talent on our B-Ball team. Sanders was very good but many people were saying that Laurent and Williams would not even play much less start on any other major team. Freeman only played 7 OOC games and we really were not sure what he could do against BIG teams. Doorson and Diallo were never big scorers. Johnson only averaged 5 ppg at Kansas State. Give Pikiell some credit for what he has done. He wasn't hired until March after the season ended. He brought in Thiam, Bullock and Sa. He was smart to keep Vetrone on staff. Lastly he landed Gettys and Omoruyi late in the summer. Almost every D-1 recruit was taken by the time he was hired. He had a plan from day 1. He also brought in Knight, Hobbs and Young to make up our best coaching staff that I can remember and I have been going to games since 1971. Pikiell seems to be the breath of fresh air that our B-Ball team needed. As I was saying since 10-15 years ago "At least we got B-Ball".
Pikiell has been great. But, this board draws final conclusions on players after their frosh and soph years too often. Not sure we are the best gauge of who did or did not have talent on our roster.
With Corey, Nigel, Freeman, Doorson, Williams, and Thiam (50% credit to each HC) I am not sure it can be argued that Eddie left the cupboard completely bare. No question Pikiell has gotten more out of each of them and made the players better plus he brought in his own guys like Gettys, Sa and Eugene who have been great additions. But it also isn't like Coach P is forced to play Grier at PF and start Justin Goode.
Pikiell had to re recruit Thiam. He was able to get him to keep his commitment to RU. I wonder if Foreman thinks he should have stayed at RU? He was very strong and I think he would have really improved with our current coaches but I am happy with our current players.
The best move Pikiell made was to keep Shoes. Can you imagine if he discarded Shoes like some on this board were calling for. We would have zero to be excited about right now if he had wiped the slate clean and then suffered from players transferring. Pikiell has done a phenomenal job fitting the existing pieces together with the new additions and playing to the strengths of this team.
At this level 99% of the players are talented, but the difference is the ability to coach them up. Also, don't shortchange Pike on the players he bought in this year.
I know the football situation inside and out. The foundation for football was laid by Schiano years ago. Basketball hasn't had any real investment into the program since the RAC was built. Football has a new stadium, upgrades at the Hale Center just about every year and two new weight rooms in the last 15 years. Basketball doesn't have the use of a helicopter to go see recruits. Every AD since 2000 (with the exception of Hobbs) has made football a top priority. Now what Flood did was take a hammer and smash the fine china. The hole for Ash isn't as big as the one created by decades of neglect to the basketball program. For the record most classes for Schiano and Flood ranged from the upper 30s to 50s. Schiano had the worst recruiting class (2010- 69th). The difference was Schiano, like Pikiell got more out of the players. Flood was more in line with Jordan of just collecting a paycheck. As for Ash it appears he has his own problems starting with his staff who range from super young (OC) to outdated (ST coach).
99%? Must be super easy to recruit in MBB. I'm not shortchanging him. I expect him to make the NIT.
Last year we played a game with 7 scholarship players. Jake Dadika was getting regular minutes. A new coach comes in, and we have so much depth that Corey Sanders gets ejected in a game and we still win by 13. The stuff Pike was able to do in the OFFSEASON gives me more hope than anything for the future.
