Rapid Reaction — St. Peter’s

[Degaz-RU]

1. Despite the blowout win, nobody should feel very good about this team’s offense. We are extremely out of synch and frankly just can’t shoot.

2. The sheer number of missed layups and bunnies is eye popping. I don’t have the stats, but we must’ve missed 20 shots “at the rim.”

3. Noah Fernandes gets game ball tonight. He energized the team in the second half and was perfect from the foul line on his way to a team leading 19 points.

4. Our defensive pressure was elite tonight, both in the full court 2-2-1 press and in the half court rotations. We forced 22 TOs, and we also blocked 9 shots.

5. SPU absolutely destroyed us on the boards, 51-38, including 22-11 on the offensive glass. Very concerning. Our starting PF had a total of 1 rebound.

6. Cliff continues to frustrate. He’s sooo athletic, but he’s so uncoordinated in making post moves, and when we force feed him in the paint, it really drags down our offense. He still ended up with 17 and 8, but it was mostly dunks and FTs.

7. The free throw shooting continues to be a MAJOR concern. We actually ended up 23-31 for 71%, primarily because of Noah’s 9-9 and Cliff’s 5-6. Kudos to them. But Derek 2-4 and Hyatt 3-6. Also, JMike 0-2 and Woolf 0-1, all on 1-and-1 chances, so it’s really like 6 missed FTs. JMike is now 7-18 and Woolf 6-18 on the year.

8. Gavin had a quietly solid game, nice to see two 3-pointers, plus contributing in other ways and creating scoring chances. But he needs more time on the floor, especially when we’re in a scoring drought.

9. Simpson with a good first half with two 3s and 10 points, but quiet in the second half as Noah took over and Pike gave A. Williams some time on the floor.

10. JMike with 4 assists and solid defense. Making himself valuable even though not looking to score and struggling at the line.

11. Hyatt was awful tonight. 3-6 from the line, 2-11 from the field, and many of those were him playing hero ball and just throwing crap shots up in the post.

12. Woolf drains a 3-pointer and had 3 assists. But only ONE rebound on a night we were getting creamed on the boards. Unacceptable for our starting 4.

13. We need Mag back in the worst way for interior defense and especially rebounding.

 

[billgumpper]

Giving up 22 offensive rebounds to this team is very concerning, if this was a Big 10 game we get crushed.

 

[Jersey07712]

Didnt st Pete's have a huge advantage in offensive rebounds and forced turnovers all season so far?

 

[rubaseball78]

I would not place Simpson in the group of poor FT shooters. He’s 90% for the year.

 

[winfield102]

Full court defense is an absolute requirement all year. No exceptions, even if we aren't pressuring the ball.

Great game by Noah. Under control and looking for his shot.

If Hyatt dribbles more than 4 times, the result is consistently bad.

Cliff shooting fadeaways off of 1 foot? HELL NO. great job with the foul shots though and probably the best game of his teammates getting him the ball as he goes towards the basket. I did think he did a better job of establishing position when we posted up and not giving it up when the pass was thrown to him.

B1G teams won't be turning it over like st. Peters. We MUST weed out the 10-12 bad shots we take a game. Cliff, Derek, Hyatt and jmike are usually each good for 2-3 bad shots.

Curious to see the breakdown of minutes for Derek, Noah, austin and jmike as we move forward. Jmike's drives have been tough to watch and it doesn't look like he can hit foul shots. I think Austin ends up getting more minutes starting in 3-4 games.

2 more midranges misses for Derek (0-2).

When we are in the bonus, we need Derek touching the ball more and driving more. He must get at least 1 of the 1and1 attempts. Great way to generate points. Were we 0-3 on the front end of the 1st half 1and1 opportunities?

 

[Scangg]

First game of the season attending live. Some really great seats thanks to my main man FIG!

The story of the game was the defensive pressure from the guards. The full court press was relentless. We had 3 or so 10 second violations which is crazy. Even when we didn't force turnovers, the other team was starting to attempt to get into their offense with 15 or 10 seconds on the clock. It was unbelievable. Now imagine the press with Mag

Noah was great. Showing composure and patience with the ball. His defense has stepped way up. A few really crafty finishes and making FTs

Hyatt was terrible. We know the story of bad Hyatt. When he's bad, he's really bad

Rebounding is a problem. Wolf can't have 1 board. Cliff multiple times just can't grab a missed FT. The guards need to help. Everyone just hopes Cliff will grab it. We could really use Mag's interior defense rebounding toughness and grit

 

[G- RUnit]

I hate to be that fan complaining after a 31 point win but…..

Simpson great early and then disappeared.
Noah had his 2nd nice game in a row.

JMike despite his D is a huge problem. Missing the bunnies and foul shots is demoralizing. Week off didn’t help.

Gavin needs more PT. We just look better with him in there especially on offense. He might get beat one on one but he has court sense and always seems to be in the right place at the right time on D. He seems to have chemistry with Hyatt and attempted to get it to Cliff.

Cliff a nice game and is intimidating but still think he should have 10 rebounds and 20+

Rebounding awful yet press in first half and half court defense pretty good.

Oskar quietly good and 4 for 4 from the line helps.

On the other hand we’ve have heard how good Chol is for two years and still shows nothing in garbage time for two years. When is it going to happen? Worried a Thimel guy.

Foul shooting has to be better. Were they practicing at all for eight days?

A Williams did some nice things.

Woolfolk a step back today although three was nice. Him and Cliff on court not working. Thought he would be a rebounding machine. Maybe next year?

Still think foul shooting with Simpson, Hyatt and Fernandes could be a secret strength but we were frustratingly bad today.

Hyatt a bad game but some nice blocks. Upset he missed foul shots. I think gotta take good with bad with him. Hopefully as a 5th year And captain he’ll settle down.

Still think 8 days off is silly. And now basically another week off? Would like rhythm and continuity before a B1G game?

Guess basically buys Mag another week.

Why would you put RU flag on floor?
Thought that was a big no no?

Monday night after Thanksgiving probably not a good idea. Whole world is traveling. Home football game. Asking a lot of fans.

 

[cm_13]

Why would you put RU flag on floor?
Thought that was a big no no?

I don’t think there’s any type of flag code for banners that have the letters R and U on them, I think it’s fine.

 

[RU848789]

Whoa folks, we won 71-40 with lights out defense, forcing 23 TOs, 12 of which were steals, and we held them to 23% shooting. Yeah rebounding wasn't great, but some of those were lucky bounces and we also simply had a lot of missed shots/FTs.

I thought Cliff played very well (17/8 with 4 blocks and many altered shots) with a few nice shots, despite some misses, and 5-6 FTs is awesome for him.

Very happy with Fernandez and Simpson, who are emerging as our two primary guards and both are playing well, now, on both O and D. JMike and AW can provide some decent if inconsistent minutes.

Thought Gavin played decently, but needs to get more shots; better on D after the first few minutes where he was lost a few times. And I think folks are being too hard on Hyatt here; not a great shooting night, but he had 6 boards, 2 steals and a great block. Wolf struggled outside of the trey. Nice minutes from Oskar.

We still miss Mag - was hoping to see him tonight. Still have no idea how we're going to do against good teams, since we haven't played anyone decent since Princeton. Guess we'll find out on Saturday.

Was nice to have all 4 of our group's tickets tonight - brought my wife, our son and his girlfriend (her first ever hoops game - and I caught a t-shirt and gave it to her). Dinner for 4 was $10 with $1 hot dogs, popcorn and water (the hot dogs were terrible, so we had to splurge on a couple of pretzels, lol).

 

[RCBeta79]

This team is a project at this point.
More work needed on offense and defense....this was a weak St. Peters team, not a Big Ten team.
Looking like a Big Ten, 10 seed at this point.

 

[letitrip2]

When you win by over 30 points offensive rebound stats are irrelevant. Sorry for the reality check negatoids.

 

[Eagleton96]

I don’t think there’s any type of flag code for banners that have the letters R and U on them, I think it’s fine.

It was fine. But also pointless. Doing the RU cheer is the one thing we don’t need help with.

 

[cm_13]

It was fine. But also pointless. Doing the RU cheer is the one thing we don’t need help with.

Oh for sure. Super unnecessary.

 

[rubjk]

People forget the last two years. We looked much worse against similar opponents.

 

[Scarlet Blind]

According to Torvik,
14-25 at the rim
1-10 from mid range

20 misses but 9 of them were between 5ft and 20 ft.

 

[cm_13]

This team is a project at this point.
More work needed on offense and defense....this was a weak St. Peters team, not a Big Ten team.
Looking like a Big Ten, 10 seed at this point.

What more did you want to see on defense?

23 turnovers, 12 steals, 9 blocked shots, 23% from the field.

 

[Saint Puppy]

I hate to be that fan complaining after a 31 point win but…..

Simpson great early and then disappeared.
Noah had his 2nd nice game in a row.

JMike despite his D is a huge problem. Missing the bunnies and foul shots is demoralizing. Week off didn’t help.

Gavin needs more PT. We just look better with him in there especially on offense. He might get beat one on one but he has court sense and always seems to be in the right place at the right time on D. He seems to have chemistry with Hyatt and attempted to get it to Cliff.

Cliff a nice game and is intimidating but still think he should have 10 rebounds and 20+

Rebounding awful yet press in first half and half court defense pretty good.

Oskar quietly good and 4 for 4 from the line helps.

On the other hand we’ve have heard how good Chol is for two years and still shows nothing in garbage time for two years. When is it going to happen? Worried a Thimel guy.

Foul shooting has to be better. Were they practicing at all for eight days?

A Williams did some nice things.

Woolfolk a step back today although three was nice. Him and Cliff on court not working. Thought he would be a rebounding machine. Maybe next year?

Still think foul shooting with Simpson, Hyatt and Fernandes could be a secret strength but we were frustratingly bad today.

Hyatt a bad game but some nice blocks. Upset he missed foul shots. I think gotta take good with bad with him. Hopefully as a 5th year And captain he’ll settle down.

Still think 8 days off is silly. And now basically another week off? Would like rhythm and continuity before a B1G game?

Guess basically buys Mag another week.

Why would you put RU flag on floor?
Thought that was a big no no?

Monday night after Thanksgiving probably not a good idea. Whole world is traveling. Home football game. Asking a lot of fans.

Love Noah - true PG with high IQ - YES PLEASE!

Hyatt just gonna be Hyatt - he is just never going to be smooth sailing. If you are going to play him, keep him on a short leash.

JMike is an issue - I was super excited about him at the beginning of the season. There are some major red flags with him though that are very concerning to me that will seriously limit his PT here. I realize this has only been a few games, but can't have your game based on speed and penetration but can't seem to finish or more importantly hit a free throw. I don't even want to know what FT% is on the season - unacceptable for a P5 PG.

I'm good with the way Gavin is playing - plays in rhythm, has talent and will have some big games for us this year. I think he is an easy player to fit into almost any system.

I can't make heads or tails with Simpson - feel like there should have been more growth from freshman to sophomore year, but still consistently inconsistent. Maybe I'm just wishing for something that isn't possible.

I've made peace with Cliff's game a while ago. Unless he is in position to dunk it (which has a longer range than 99% of players) he just shouldn't be shooting. NBA Body, NBA Defense, NBA Athleticism but his offense is pretty much an anchor and I think will unfortunately sink his NBA aspirations.

 

[S_Janowski]

Good call out on the rebounding - this may be what I’m most concerned about this season up to this point.

We are getting destroyed on the glass by teams like Princeton and St. Peter’s.

Let’s hope we figure this out or we’re in for some trouble.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

The obvious positive was our guards completely disrupting everything St peters was trying to do offensively. Again they determined the outcome for the 2nd straight game.

Defensive rebounding…….st petes getting 25 oreb out of 52 misses just cant happen. 4 OREB off of foul shots. That may seem insignificant in a game like this but it is a terrible sign. Cliff is taking off a lot of possessions. Pike again trying to pump him up.

Point Guard play……outside of a few plays they just arent getting others good looks. Gavin is unplayable if he is goibg to get 5 shot attempts. That is on Simpson Noah and JaMike.

Another positive to note……gavin is starting to get the defensive side. He is in the right place and not losing his man off the ball. Unfortunately right now he isnt able to stay in front of people and is bad closing out.

 

[BillyC80]

For the first time, Gavin looked like he was having fun. Saw him smiling a few times.

 

[S_Janowski]

It was fine. But also pointless. Doing the RU cheer is the one thing we don’t need help with.

The flag thing with the RU chant was cringe worthy.

Please make this stop - agree its not needed.

 

[Yeah Baby]

The board hatred of Hyatt is approaching Paul level. Morons.

Hyatt played fine all around today. Missed some shots he can make but his D was solid and he was our best rebounder.

Noah was the man today. That’s what I love about this team. Derek one day, Aundre one day, now Noah and he’s been good the last few games.

I do think our starting 5 tonight didn’t match up well with the smaller and very quick SPU team at least Offensively. Defensively the starters pretty much shut them down but this board doesn’t care about D so I won’t waste my breath. If someone else wants to point out they barely scored against the starting 5 I won’t mind.

We looked better Offensively when we went small. J Mike made some nice passes. Gavin didn’t do much today but they paid a lot of attention to him as they should because he can go off at any time. But tonight was just a meh game for him. Again, he can score in bunches and he will.

 

[goru7]

We just weren’t very crisp tonight , passing , shooting in rhythm , cutting , screening , just all around. OP is correct full court pressure defense basically took St. Peter’s out of anything they wanted to run. They then chucked up shots and all 5 guys crashed the boards. We were roasted 34-14 at 1 point. If Cliff doesn’t get the rebound no one even goes for a rebound. Cliff cannot block the shots and get the rebounds ,he needs help.
Op is also correct Noah was the star of the game offensively and defensively. Cliff ‘s lack of hands a big problem early as he could not hold onto the ball the first 6-7 times he touched a ball or tried to get a rebound . Better running the break second half and blocking shots. Good news is Cliff has much better like 20-25 point 10 rebound games in his future . The guards have to pass to him better and on the pick and roll.
Gavin was okay. Hit 2 threes ,, passed nicely , had a nice block but has to damn rebound as does the rest of the team. Think he can do so much more if he was just more active cutting , rebounding and dribbling up court after a rebound and then hitting the three even on a secondary break .
Glad we got this one in with a 31 point win after the 9 day layoff but if a team wins a game by 31 but didn’t play well at all can be looked at 2 ways. One is not good. The other way to look at it and there are so many ways we could have played better and won by 60. So potential is there.

Finally , the missed layups have caused me to lose my voice and it is only Game 6. Not sure which one pissed me off more , the Hyatt missed on the break although he got fouled , the Oscar miss on a beautiful break until the miss , the Gavin miss front rim , then Oscar not hitting Gavin ahead of him . Just mind numbing.
Pike says this is an 80 point team. I think it s a 90 point team if we could hit simple layups and foul shots where we are missing about 10 a game. Defense is elite again but it would be nice to put it all together offensively making simple fundamental shots.

 

[RUDivision]

The obvious positive was our guards completely disrupting everything St peters was trying to do offensively. Again they determined the outcome for the 2nd straight game.

Defensive rebounding…….st petes getting 25 oreb out of 52 misses just cant happen. 4 OREB off of foul shots. That may seem insignificant in a game like this but it is a terrible sign. Cliff is taking off a lot of possessions. Pike again trying to pump him up.

Point Guard play……outside of a few plays they just arent getting others good looks. Gavin is unplayable if he is goibg to get 5 shot attempts. That is on Simpson Noah and JaMike.

Another positive to note……gavin is starting to get the defensive side. He is in the right place and not losing his man off the ball. Unfortunately right now he isnt able to stay in front of people and is bad closing out.

Agreed I would just add it’s in Pike and the coaches not getting Gavin more Looks or sets.run through him.
Nice win boys!

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Agreed I would just add it’s in Pike and the coaches not getting Gavin more Looks or sets.run through him.
Nice win boys!

We ran once a play where we have a high low screen followed by Cliff screening Gavin on the wing and it got Gavin’s 2nd 3 made. I have seen it a few times. I suspect/hope we will see a lot of it in B1G play

 

[bac2therac]

People forget the last two years. We looked much worse against similar opponents.

last year we were beating these teams by 30-40

 

[bac2therac]

We ran once a play where we have a high low screen followed by Cliff screening Gavin on the wing and it got Gavin’s 2nd 3 made. I have seen it a few times. I suspect/hope we will see a lot of it in B1G play

i want to see more and its criminal that Pike is not actively working on Gavin getting more involved in the offensive gameplan

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

My biggest fear is come B1G time opposing guards will harrass our guards and we wint run enough offense and we will see a lot of guards just dribbling and taking it to the basket. We are at our offensive best when the ball moves and we use our sets.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

i want to see more and its criminal that Pike is not actively working on Gavin getting more involved in the offensive gameplan

I dont pay $30 in parking to see Hyatt chuck shots or our guards putting their heads down and plowing to the rim.

I come for defense
I come for Gavin scoring
I come for Cliff getting ball in good spots

I get 1/3. $10 worth

 

[bac2therac]

1. Despite the blowout win, nobody should feel very good about this team’s offense. We are extremely out of synch and frankly just can’t shoot.

2. The sheer number of missed layups and bunnies is eye popping. I don’t have the stats, but we must’ve missed 20 shots “at the rim.”

3. Noah Fernandes gets game ball tonight. He energized the team in the second half and was perfect from the foul line on his way to a team leading 19 points.

4. Our defensive pressure was elite tonight, both in the full court 2-2-1 press and in the half court rotations. We forced 22 TOs, and we also blocked 9 shots.

5. SPU absolutely destroyed us on the boards, 51-38, including 22-11 on the offensive glass. Very concerning. Our starting PF had a total of 1 rebound.

6. Cliff continues to frustrate. He’s sooo athletic, but he’s so uncoordinated in making post moves, and when we force feed him in the paint, it really drags down our offense. He still ended up with 17 and 8, but it was mostly dunks and FTs.

7. The free throw shooting continues to be a MAJOR concern. We actually ended up 23-31 for 71%, primarily because of Noah’s 9-9 and Cliff’s 5-6. Kudos to them. But Derek 2-4 and Hyatt 3-6. Also, JMike 0-2 and Woolf 0-1, all on 1-and-1 chances, so it’s really like 6 missed FTs. JMike is now 7-18 and Woolf 6-18 on the year.

8. Gavin had a quietly solid game, nice to see two 3-pointers, plus contributing in other ways and creating scoring chances. But he needs more time on the floor, especially when we’re in a scoring drought.

9. Simpson with a good first half with two 3s and 10 points, but quiet in the second half as Noah took over and Pike gave A. Williams some time on the floor.

10. JMike with 4 assists and solid defense. Making himself valuable even though not looking to score and struggling at the line.

11. Hyatt was awful tonight. 3-6 from the line, 2-11 from the field, and many of those were him playing hero ball and just throwing crap shots up in the post.

12. Woolf drains a 3-pointer and had 3 assists. But only ONE rebound on a night we were getting creamed on the boards. Unacceptable for our starting 4.

13. We need Mag back in the worst way for interior defense and especially rebounding.

agree with all of this. I am with you on the offense. I feel it will be a polarizing take to have after winning a game by 31. The dry stretches during games is alarming.

our defense is fine, I thought that would be the weak link early but clearly its not. Noah is locked at this point and I feel very confident with him on both ends.

With you on Cliff, I expect more. He is 4th year. Perhaps the level of competition will pull his performance up. Yes he was better in the 2nd half but some of his play this year in the first half does not cut it for what we need from him.

Gavin had a good game and did it with different things. I love his passing. I loved his steals. Need to get more shots Coach...thats why you start him.

With you on Hyatt....2-11 fg and the one 3 he was 10000 miles open so he had better have made that one. Its St Petes not Purdue so that kind of shooting and decision making continues to make me shake my head

I didnt think Wolf had a good game at all and we had our best defensive stretch with him sitting and Gavin in. Our offense is bad at the start of games. Need a switch at the starting spot.

Definitely need Mag but not good he missed tonight so even if he plays by the end of the year, we are not getting 100% Mag until sometime in January. Have to somehow gut wins out

T

 

[bac2therac]

I dont pay $30 in parking to see Hyatt chuck shots or our guards putting their heads down and plowing to the rim.

I come for defense
I come for Gavin scoring
I come for Cliff getting ball in good spots

I get 1/3. $10 worth

do you think we can beat Illinois 54-52

 

[bac2therac]

My biggest fear is come B1G time opposing guards will harrass our guards and we wint run enough offense and we will see a lot of guards just dribbling and taking it to the basket. We are at our offensive best when the ball moves and we use our sets.

THIS and then when that fails they will start chucking bricks

 

[Scangg]

Need the offense to run through Gavin more on the wing. He has shown he can get to the middle of the court and dish as well as score. Everyone else basically only drives to score

Instead he's too often standing in the corner completely uninvolved

 

[zappaa]

Need the offense to run through Gavin more on the wing. He has shown he can get to the middle of the court and dish as well as score. Everyone else basically only drives to score

Instead he's too often standing in the corner completely uninvolved

Standing and not moving?

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

Here's what's actually happening, what's actually being done or required and how does that matter?

First, we have to give credit to St Peters, not because of their talent level, but they actually compete for 40 minutes. We have to give the opponent credit for knowing who they are and how they have to play.....they look like RU in the 1st 2 years of Pike.....poor shooting, not a lot of skill, BUT, you can play that way, if you are willing to hustle, rebound and get on the glass.

It was early Eugene Omoyuri before he was actually functional as a complete basketball player, miss shots from inside 6 feet, get his own rebound and try again.

There would be post-game comments in the early Pike years, where the other coach wouldn't say RU isn't good, the coach would essentially say, "RU wanted it more and outworked us"......that was a theme of the only way RU could win. St Peters played hard and they didn't back down and got on the glass......because they couldn't score over Cliff or the defense, getting offensive rebounds is the way to win or compete.

The other "concerns" are actually part of the process on how RU is being rebuilt and how RU is going to play this year and more importantly next year and beyond.

So when the comments are "Hyatt played poorly and took too many shots or Davis keeps driving and attacking the basket without a plan or then can't hit his FTs....."......that is actually part of the change on how RU is going to play.

It may be difficult to comprehend, but what good is having Aundre Hyatt, if he's not shooting the ball.....what else does he do well.....?? Is he a dominate defender, shot blocker?? NO.....so when we see the same comments game after game, it's as if no one understands "what is that players primary role or strength??

If you don't use your quickness and speed and ability to dictate tempo, if you are JMike Davis and you actually DON'T drive to the basket, what's his strength to his game if he doesn't do that?? He doesn't have to be a 80% foul shooter himself to help the team win.....if he draws a foul, that pushed RU into the bonus quicker.....significantly more effective and sustainable vs launching 3s last year and hoping they go in.....

If you are Gavin Griffiths in the 1st month of his college career, why do we see the same comments about how he may not be the best defender or can't stay in front of players on defense...?????.......well, duh, he's played 5 to 6 games and is learning how to play real college basketball.....St Peters or Bryant have 21 to 23 old men playing on their rosters, do we actually think a true freshman walks into the RAC and plays plus level defense AND is our best perimeter shooter, scorer and learning how to play, all at the same time??? All players take time to grow.

I can only say it so many times from May 2023 through now and into 2024.....this revamped roster is NOT going to look as organized, or as crisp or as reliant on 3 point shooting like RU did last year.

It is a process to evolve away from playing a slower paced game and setting screens for Spencer to shoot 3s and Caleb to play superman as Defensive Player of the Year and hope that's sustainable over 30+ games like last year.

The roster is revamped and is attacking the basket. What matters to me is what's actually working and will it get better when Mag starts to get minutes??

The on the ball press, is wearing down opponents.....is that sustainable with our guards and Woolfolk or Mag at PF....?? Yes....we are actually effective without Mag, it can only stay the same or improve, once he starts playing off the bench.

The guards are being required to drive into the paint to try and score (unlike last year, when we didn't have guards or Caleb, capable of taking their defender off the dribble and getting into the paint).....I don't want Davis playing passive and then relying on him to shoot jumpers.....he's not there yet.

Foul shooting.....is that sustainable OR can RU continue to draw fouls.....?? I think so....here are foul shot attempts the last 2 years through 6 games.

2023-24

7, 30, 34, 24,26, 32

2022-23

14, 22, 34, 29, 32, 22

The 7 vs Princeton is probably more of an aberration, Princeton does not foul or play that type of defense....that is probably closer to what we will see vs Iowa, Nebraska or another team that's reliant on offense and shooting.

RU has played better OOC opponents this year vs last year.....we are drawing fouls with our guards at a higher rate this year vs last year.

All of these things (to me) are about fitting players into roles that work now AND can be developed into December, January and February.

The good news is RU should get back another player who doesn't need the ball to score (Mag) who can rebound, defend and help Cliff on the glass. Woolfolk is still learning how to play along side Cliff, and he will get better in that role. He's clearly more comfort functioning as the primary big man when Cliff is not in. But that will sort itself out in December and January.

I think the next phase of development is what RU looks like when they decide to take more 3s and teams start to take away driving lanes OR if teams decide to play zone to keep RU from driving and drawing fouls. That's when the guard play of Fernandes, Simpson and Davis will set up Gavin, Oskar, Hyatt or the other guard to find shots.

I'm very comfortable with what I've seen, 6 games into the season. It's sustainable over 3 months.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

do you think we can beat Illinois 54-52

Looking at Illinois so far….yes actually. They havent been exactly lighting it up so far. They have pmayed all 6 at home and 5 cupcakes and Marquette.

Good chance neither team breaks 70

 

[Scangg]

It may be difficult to comprehend, but what good is having Aundre Hyatt, if he's not shooting the ball.....what else does he do well.....?? Is he a dominate defender, shot blocker?? NO.....so when we see the same comments game after game, it's as if no one understands "what is that players primary role or strength??

You're painfully close to getting it on Hyatt

Agree with most everything else. Davis needs to keep attacking. His finishing will only improve with more actual game reps at it. FTs nowhere to go but up. Can't imagine he is actually this poor from the line. Sample size is still small.

Gavin needs more shots and is learning defense. Slowly getting better. He is making some plays with blocks steals and deflections. Positioning improved. Really needs to work on lateral quickness and use his length effectively to compensate, but he's on the right path

Wolf needs to rebound better. You can't start your backup 5 at the 4 and have him get 1 rebound while getting dominated on the glass against a low level program. Rebounding struggles have been a theme all year and we aren't in the B1G schedule yet where rebounding should only get tougher. Right now this looks like the worst rebounding team in years

The offense has seemed to really struggle with Cliff and Wolf on the court together as well. Is his defense at the 4 so much of a positive that it outweighs the negatives so far? TBD but if I was coaching against RU I would play so far off Wolf and clog the lanes. Let him shoot 3s all day long. Clog the lane for guards to prevent drives. Crowd the paint to make it tougher on Cliff... yes he made a big 3 and I was pumped for it but the chances he is actually an effective 3 point shooter are unlikely at this point. Wolf is surprisingly good at ball handling for his size. The way he ran the break and dished off that steal was very impressive.

 

[IMARUFAN]

We may have set a new record for a fan base complaining about a 31 point win.

OMG! Rutgers might not be the #1 team in the country! Bench this guy ... bench that guy.

I was very concerned going into the game that the team might not take St. Peter's seriously and have one of their post-holiday, 9-day layoff, head-scratching, duds. So I was very happy with the win given that I think St. Peter's is going to win their share of games this year with their ability to be physical, rebound and play defense.

 

[GRU23]

last year we were beating these teams by 30-40

Well we just beat this team by 31. There were certainly games last year that we won by a lot that we still weren’t too impressed by. We also looked terrible last year without Mag, yet this team gets no relief for the same thing

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Standing and not moving?

Please tell me you didn't opt to watch the Rangers lose to Buffalo over watching/going to RU game