We won, but did not dominate even though Merrimack shot poorly from the 3. If their 3s started dropping with any regularity the results could have been different. Was shocked to see how Clark could take it to Davis. Clark kept Merrimack in the game with both his shooting and assists. However we had Ace and Dylan who were by far our 2 best players (big surprise). Ace was particularly efficient offensively with 20 points scored and 10 rebounds.
RAPID REACTION - Merrimack
- Thread starter Degaz-RU
- Start date
On no particular order:
1) Davis was not good this game. He is on there for his defensive intensity and defensive chops, but got completely schooled by Clark.
2). Derkack was very, very good in this game, shooting aside. He played terrific defense on Clark, using his height advantage to good purpose. Clark had just 2 points before Davis replaced Derkac in The 1st half, and Derkack also did a good job on him in the 2nd half. Derkack also had 5 assists an 6 rebounds.
3) Harper missed a number of midrange and at the rim shots he usually will make. Still, in an off game he had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. He also was very focused and intense with his on-ball defense, I thought.
4) Bailey was great offensively and rebounding... 23 points (did I get that right?) and 10 rebounds, 9-15 FG.
5) Ogbole had 2 bad turnovers late in the 2nd half, and got pulled. And was just 2-5 ft. But otherwise did just fine: 6 points, 7 reb (4 offensive), and at least decent defense.
6) Hayes was very poor defensively
. He has been better. He still takes only good shots, and the open shots just were not available.
7) sommerville struggled at the rim and seemed to force a few shots even when he had opportunities to pass to open teammates. And he struggled defending the high screen.
8) Williams was... Okay. He picked up 2 fouls in the 1st half, one on a steal that was a phantom foul. He was short with a couple of midrange shots... As were a number of his teamates. He also had 3 really good steals. His defense was better in the 2nd half than in the 1st half.
On RU's zone offense:
I thought it was... Okay... Other than finishing. Yes, it did struggle at times. But because the zone stretched out quite a bit to try to cut off the 3's, especially when Hayes was in, it opened up the middle for both post ups by ogbole and Sommerville, and for drives. The problem was RU was shortarming the shorter midrange fg tries. My pet peeve was that RU did not pass to the foul line enough. Derkack or Bailey were the primary players flashing to the foul line. And when they got the ball there, the zone shattered. RU got a number of good fg tries off good interior passing once they got into the middle of that zone.
1) Davis was not good this game. He is on there for his defensive intensity and defensive chops, but got completely schooled by Clark.
2). Derkack was very, very good in this game, shooting aside. He played terrific defense on Clark, using his height advantage to good purpose. Clark had just 2 points before Davis replaced Derkac in The 1st half, and Derkack also did a good job on him in the 2nd half. Derkack also had 5 assists an 6 rebounds.
3) Harper missed a number of midrange and at the rim shots he usually will make. Still, in an off game he had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. He also was very focused and intense with his on-ball defense, I thought.
4) Bailey was great offensively and rebounding... 23 points (did I get that right?) and 10 rebounds, 9-15 FG.
5) Ogbole had 2 bad turnovers late in the 2nd half, and got pulled. And was just 2-5 ft. But otherwise did just fine: 6 points, 7 reb (4 offensive), and at least decent defense.
6) Hayes was very poor defensively
. He has been better. He still takes only good shots, and the open shots just were not available.
7) sommerville struggled at the rim and seemed to force a few shots even when he had opportunities to pass to open teammates. And he struggled defending the high screen.
8) Williams was... Okay. He picked up 2 fouls in the 1st half, one on a steal that was a phantom foul. He was short with a couple of midrange shots... As were a number of his teamates. He also had 3 really good steals. His defense was better in the 2nd half than in the 1st half.
On RU's zone offense:
I thought it was... Okay... Other than finishing. Yes, it did struggle at times. But because the zone stretched out quite a bit to try to cut off the 3's, especially when Hayes was in, it opened up the middle for both post ups by ogbole and Sommerville, and for drives. The problem was RU was shortarming the shorter midrange fg tries. My pet peeve was that RU did not pass to the foul line enough. Derkack or Bailey were the primary players flashing to the foul line. And when they got the ball there, the zone shattered. RU got a number of good fg tries off good interior passing once they got into the middle of that zone.
5. I don’t think we scored ANY points in transition, as Merrimack did a superb job of getting back on defense and immediately setting up their zone, and they immediately found their man on defense. So this became a tortuous half-court game.
highlighting this from you Degaz.....no points in transition....stunning giving what we have
highlighting this from you Degaz.....no points in transition....stunning giving what we have
yep...we are so used to it with Pike...hands in the passing lanes, pokaways.
how about the fact RU only 8 fouls all game and only 2 from the center spot. Is the reason that we didnt need to or didnt want to
Well we don't need to yet. Pike is giving guys an opportunity to get into the flow, see if they can contribute.
Tonight 9 guys played double digit minutes. Acuff added 7.
need to some guys to emerge...right now its 2 guys and the rest are role players....cannot have 7 role players. J Will and J Mike need to step it up big time going forward
For as good as Clark looked, he wasn't crazy efficient and couldn't hit 3's. He reminded me of Corey Sanders.
22 points on 20 possessions (19 shots and 2 foul shots). 6 assists but 6 TO's. I was more concerned with how we looked with our help defense and what ended up being a number of easy baskets on assists by Clark.
22 points on 20 possessions (19 shots and 2 foul shots). 6 assists but 6 TO's. I was more concerned with how we looked with our help defense and what ended up being a number of easy baskets on assists by Clark.
Look guys , it’s a looooooooooong season …and I’m glad we are bitching about stuff even though we won all four games by double digits.
Seriously …the ncaa first round is FOUR months from now . The goal is to be playing our best basketball in the last 4-5 game of the season headed into the big ten tourney and ncaa
This requires playing a longer rotation….and seeing what guys can and can’t do now , before needing to settle down into a tighter rotation and more defined rolls
Plus …we are going to be playing 4 games in 7 days …we are going to need to play 10 guys and share minures here ….
Now…there is a real issue that this next week will have sone weight on our total season resume for sure …and my hunch is that we aren’t ready yet. I’m really hoping to win the next two and thsr Notre dame game is gonna be a toss up …anything after that in Vegas , is gravy .
Want to see us compete ….snd get a little hungrier . Be interesting to see if we are ready to answer the bell this week.
Seriously …the ncaa first round is FOUR months from now . The goal is to be playing our best basketball in the last 4-5 game of the season headed into the big ten tourney and ncaa
This requires playing a longer rotation….and seeing what guys can and can’t do now , before needing to settle down into a tighter rotation and more defined rolls
Plus …we are going to be playing 4 games in 7 days …we are going to need to play 10 guys and share minures here ….
Now…there is a real issue that this next week will have sone weight on our total season resume for sure …and my hunch is that we aren’t ready yet. I’m really hoping to win the next two and thsr Notre dame game is gonna be a toss up …anything after that in Vegas , is gravy .
Want to see us compete ….snd get a little hungrier . Be interesting to see if we are ready to answer the bell this week.
When you have 2 guys good for 32 ppg in dylan and ace, three isn’t so many points to go around …especially since lathan right now looks in the 8-10 range as your third leading scorer
I don't see Lathan as our 3rd leading scorer. I think we'll have a bunch of 6 to 9 point scorers.
Martini, Derkack, JWill, hayes and maybe Lathan will alternate on who scores 12-14 points for the game.
Harper could/should have ended up with 18-20 points with no additional shots. He just seemed off tonight.
Martini, Derkack, JWill, hayes and maybe Lathan will alternate on who scores 12-14 points for the game.
Harper could/should have ended up with 18-20 points with no additional shots. He just seemed off tonight.
In hopefully no offense, all 5 of these takes from a hoops perspective are 100% wrong.
1) Merrimack is in the mid 240s on Kenpom, this is not a program in the 320s or 330s like past year's schedules. The program where Derkack literally came from, has a guard that can score IF he's on a team with players willing to play off of him attacking and scoring....any good game plan is willing to allow a PG to take and make tough 2 point shots. The current roster RU is also deciding to play, by not playing shot blocking options Dylan Grant and Bryce Dortch, will give up points on drives....Martini and Hayes are not here to play defense.
2) Clark is a very good guard and capable of scoring....I don't know how 1 player taking 20 shots as a PG and RU closing out on other 3 point shooters is bad defense. Would you rather Clark take and make 2s, or give up a ton of 3s??
3) The zone offense is only as good as the way the defense plays.....if you are Merrimack and playing a "matchup zone", where you actually stay attached to Hayes and Martini, that means a canyon of space is created inside. So, you cannot play Martini at Center over Lathan, because Martini is not effective playing the 5, as he is shooting stationary 3s......playing Ogbole 19 minutes was necessary, unless you wanted Clark from Merrimack to score even more points.
The only problem with playing Ogbole over a more effective player like Dylan Grant or Bryce Dortch, is because there has to be "some" development of Ogbole, so he's hopefully better in his limited minutes in January and February....it is simply an experiment of seeing how a player does, with more minutes. There's nothing wrong with the zone offense, if Ogbole wasn't clumsy or awkward and traveling or losing his balance near the hoop. Any reasonable improvement and he has 12 points on layups instead of just 6, but someone has to defend the paint against drives.
4) See above on collapsing in the paint....a team has to decide on staying attached to Martini and Hayes OR taking their chances on Lathan and Ogbole scoring. Ogbole and Lathan did a great job, drawing fouls, which is actually good offense. RU should have fed Lathan more, he was 5 of 6 from the line, but only played 18 minutes. Lathan playing 26 minutes and Ogbole 11, probably shifts the score by around 6 to 8 points on the scoreboard.
5) You cannot blindly score in transition, if the opposing guards are trying to score in the paint, 75% of the time....either Clark made shots and we rebounded, but Merrimack abandoned crashing the offensive boards and we're COACHED to immediately retreat after all shot attempts. Any reasonably well coached team would take that approach to the game.
All in all, it is surprising to see how fans view a game as if there's no game plan by an opponent. Just because a game has an inferior opponent in size, skill or talent, doesn't mean that opponent cannot win games....isn't that what Pike and RU has done for the majority of his 8 or so years at RU, by having lesser talented,.lesser skilled offensive teams, defeat clearly better opponents at the RAC, with a thought out game plan??
This is the style and roster constructed to highlight the skills and talent in place.....this is how the players recruited in 2024 and 2025 classes, want to play more offense and freedom to create and score. It is also how RU needs to change away from only focusing on defense and finding offensive players who can create their own offense, when they have options to do so.
I believe what we saw was a staffs goal of knowing they need quality minutes out of Ogbole and literally stress-testing him into making mistakes and hoping he can improve and cut down on them later. 10 to 11 minutes from Ogbole helps on defense once we get into B1G play. OR we play Dortch at 185 lbs and Grant for those minutes and abandon having any size other than Lathan.
on your last paragraph - great point about “stress testing” Ogbole. But he is so out of control on his post moves. And his hands - ugh.
I did not watch the first half but was reading the game thread and thought what the hell is going on? And the one guy that turns every thread about this year's team into a debate about whether the team should have kept Derrick Simpson instead of jMike 🙄. Tuned in for the second half and the team looked pretty good to me.. the other kid from Merrimack was cooking but I didn't think the team looked bad at all...think ogbole played to take advantage of his size against a smaller team. Looks like they are emphasizing rebounds at the moment...let's see what they do as the competition gets tougher before we start panicking
I saw jwill, jMike and derkack receiving criticism....every player isn't ace bailey or Dylan Harper and even those guys will have a bad game here and there. Jwill, jMike, and derkack will also have good games, you ride the waves as in anything else in life. You can't bail on everything in life during a downtrend that's a good way to never enjoy the uptrends...I knew this would be a tough game because first of all Merrimack is not bad at all and their former teammate is on ru playing with two future top 5 draft picks..guys are playing to impress the scouts there to see ace and Dylan, you will get max effort against RU every game this season because it will be seen as an NBA showcase...
JWill will find his game, he'll be good for 10ish.
I assume JWill will score more then Lathan, but Lathan is pretty clearly our best down low scorer, wouldn't shock me if he was 3rd in scoring this year, and I'd lay a couple dollars on him being no lower then 4th.
If JWill and Sommerville can both be around 10 pts then I think everyone else can fill in around that.
But I want Harper and Bailey to be the clear scoring leaders. Doesn't make sense to have players like that and not utilize their supreme abilities.
They actually had Hayes at the top of the key a few possessions playing that exact role. He hesitated to shoot on the one opening he did have.
Acuff needs to take a step in the right direction. He and JWill are currently heading towards Simpson levels of efficiency. I expected Acuff to be the better fit, not sure if he's still hurt or what. JWill and Davis have basically performed the same thus far, w Davis actually better offensively somehow.
The only thing I saw Acuff do was shoot. Would like to see something more then that out of him. Especially when he's missing shots.
I just dont really think the idea/risk of Summerville being a consistent threat against better competition is worth the reward. Sure he is winning offensively vs undersized opponents but will we waste possessions forcing him the ball and his defense is really bad and that will be magnified as the competition increases
Its early with J Will and to be fair he has been banged up BUT last year he came on like gang busters and then cooled off real quick. I mean we went on a run and some thought we were a ncaa team and he was an all league player. He has been banged up most of his career so need to watch that.
To me it looks like Bailey will be the most volume shooter and likely our leading scorer. Harper will not be far behind but I think Bailey just has that extra shot to his game.
i forgot to even mention Acuff in my recap and the fact I did says alot There are a few players that seem to bring the same thing to the table. Acuff so far looks like he does things less than the others. A situation where perhaps we need one less guard on the team and one more center...sigh
1. Agree, Davis had a rough game
2. Disagree, thought Derkack played a step slow all night, and wasn't great defensively. Clark may not have scored in the beginning, but he had 3 or 4 assists before he ever scored a basket. He was running things.
3. Harper is still trying to figure out how to get through the clogged lanes. Too many guys that don't draw defenders out of the paint out there. They don't even follow Martini out there, he's wide open on his shots.
4.Bailey is special, nothing else needs to be said. Better on the boards than I was anticipating
5. This was our best case scenario kind of game from EO. Bigger games, he won't get fed in the post, should limit his foot shuffles.
6. Hayes was quiet. Hoping his not going to vanish as people pay attention to him because of his shooting. Although he still showed up w help on the boards.
7. Right now, Sommerville is a black hole, and also provides none of the floor spacing I heard all offseason he would. This was a night LS should have been able to dominate, the post was where opportunities were.
8. Williams is a mess right now. Awful offensively, ok defensively.
Ogbole has played 81 minutes of basketball last season....
He has played 40 minutes in 4 games this year.....he has SIX turnovers in 40 minutes, which is very difficult to do.
In comparison I think Sommerville has played 100 minutes with ONE turnover. Fans complaining about him not passing, have to understand the shooters on the floor, Hayes, Martini, Acuff and Ace/Dylan can all shoot the ball. There is a difference between forcing a pass (last couple of years), and turning it over OR allowing the player, with post moves and ability to hit FTs, to score or get fouled.
Sommerville is 72% from the FT line, which in basic terms 5 out of 7. If he gets to the line 6 to 7 times a game and hits 5, I will take my chances with those percentages.
This is utterly wild how we read for years and years that...
"Pike can't recruit"
"The gang that can't shoot straight"
"They never make enough FTs"
"When will have have 3 point shooters".
The staff overhauls the entire roster in ONE offseason and the same fans complaining about lack of talent, inability to shoot, can't make FTs, don't have playmakers.....we address (as well as possible) a LOT of those holes and then they want elite Top 10 out of 350 program level defense.....LMAO
RU 48 Merrimack 35 was the score a couple of years ago....I'm 99% certain there were more fans upset about that score then, vs changing or evolving as a program.
Fans are treating this season like RU is a Top 10/12 team, when it's probably closer to 35 or 40. My hope it improves as the season moves forward.
My last point....and an important one.....the last 2 or even 3 seasons, once about 20 games are played, is when the more skilled and talented scoring teams continue to win.....and the limited, unable to create their own offensive teams run out of gas.
It is MORE likely that our younger players AND newer veterans improve as the season moves forward. The players who rely solely on effort and stamina to win games, wear down by mid January to early February.....the deeper rosters will be able to sustain success. It is a LONG season folks, enjoy the progress!!
Would you as an opponents coach, leave PJ Hayes open, leave Martini open OR prefer to have Sommerville go one on one in the post......he literally fouled out a Merrimack player with 16 minutes left in the game.
You have to take what opponents provide you as options to score and take advantage.
I am pretty certain that I explained that there's a way to defend shooters who do not prove as offensive players that they can also score off the dribble. And if that player is NOT a plus defender, there will be games where Hayes and Martini are taken away.
The Merrimack game plan was to stay attached to shooters and make RU beat them off the dribble and in the post.....RU essentially did that, without much fanfare, especially when I'm fairly certain that if Sommerville plays 26 to 27 minutes, he finishes with 16 and 10 rebounds.
No debate at all. Irony and hypocrisy compared to last year. Fair topic and was in a game thread where Pike quickly pulled player and many fans making exact same comments. SMH.
Team didn’t look bad at all? We play like last night in the B1G or in Vegas, we are not going to win and may get blown out.
Some positive signs, Ace showed his enormous talent. Dylan in an off game was still pretty darn good. O had his best game. Derkack nice all around game.
Some negative signs, While Sommerville has some nice moves he is becoming a black hole and no D whatsoever. Might want to nip that now. JMac was horrible defensively. No sugar coating that. Derkack can’t go 2-6. We’ve been burned defensively by Monmouth and Merrimack. I shudder what might have happened had Merrimack hit its threes.
I’ll give Acuff and Williams a pass as not sure healthy yet. Martini and Hayes need more shooting touches.
A W is a W and we will only get better but yesterday was a rough watch save for Ace and some Dylan. Nobody is panicking.
Agree, EO's turnovers, most of which came on foot shuffles on post touches that he won't normally get, are incredibly high. However he also leads the team in offensive rebounds in those limited minutes adding possessions that make up some of that. Sommerville only has two turnovers but also only 3 offensive rebounds. Sommerville's free throw shooting is a huge plus, but interestingly, down the stretch of both close games Pike has benched him and gone small because his defense is so bad. That is when I thought his FT shooting would be key.
This team shouldn't want Lathan shooting more than an Acuff, a Martini, or a Hayes.
The team should be very different come January
And paradoxically with Lathan shooting so much, it’s not only away taking shots away from Acuff, Hayes and Martini it’s taking away shots from Dylan and Ace.
BTW The big O was a plus +15 yesterday.
Davis was -2. Sommerville -8
Food for thought.
BTW The big O was a plus +15 yesterday.
Davis was -2. Sommerville -8
Food for thought.
The game plan is funneling shot attempts to him, he actually should have had more touches.....it is funny how someone calls a player a black hole, when he fouls out one center and gets to the FT 6 times in 18 minutes.
When Lathan is double teamed and then forces shots up, is when you call a player out.....when the game plan by the opponent and RU coaches want Lathan to make an opponent pay by scoring 1 on 1 and the opponent is staying close to shooters is wild.
Ogbole drew 5 fouls on guys as well, the post was where the opportunities were last night. Martini is wide open on all his three's, no one is following him out there. Hayes is getting extra attention.
Sommerville's rebounding % is lower than that of Ogbole's at this point. He had three last night in what, 19 minutes against a small team whose two biggest guys fouled out with 10 minutes left. We know +/- can be meaningless, but after four cupcakes games, the team is not even plus 10 with Sommerville on the court. The next closest is Williams at +24. He has a long way to go to really earn 26 to 27 minutes. He was given the bulk of minutes and lost that a bit last night. I'm sure he'll get it back, but he needs to do more with that time than just score. His offensive rebounding is in the bottom 30% in the country against the sisters of the poor. On the plus side, while bad, he's been a much more willing defender than I expected.
I don't think you guys are giving these other players enough credit. This Clark kid and bashir from Monmouth are good players. They will cook regardless of who's guarding when they are making shots. Acuff had a broken foot a couple of months ago, Ive never seen him play before but I'm guessing he doesn't have all of his mobility yet, jwill is finding his new role within this new roster. There will be nights when derkack goes 2/6 because he is not a go to player on this team. He won't be perfect every night and he won't get enough volume on nights he is shooting poorly, like yesterday. Ace and Dylan are the only players that will get enough volume to overcome bad shooting nights. Hayes and martini from 3 also...but everyone else has to get comfortable with their roles on this team...let's see how they look moving forward, I don't even think the coaches are using the normal rotations they would use when competition increases..
Seemed to me they really started feeding the ball inside when both of Merrimack's bigs got in foul trouble and both eventually fouled out.
This is it in a nutshell. Pike is still effectively holding in-game try-outs in the early season to settle on his rotation. Aside from Harper and maybe Derkack, the first and second guards off the bench are still being determined. Unfortunately, up to this point no-one else has stepped up and seized the third option.
He’s been quite good. Next year may be focal point.
Complimented his moves.
Foul shooting very good
But…
No assists yesterday.
Three rebounds. O had 7 rebounds
2-6 from the field
No defense at all
-8 plus/minus
We didn’t play well yesterday. Not sure if feeding the ball to Sommerville is our recipe for winning this year.
Complimented his moves.
Foul shooting very good
But…
No assists yesterday.
Three rebounds. O had 7 rebounds
2-6 from the field
No defense at all
-8 plus/minus
We didn’t play well yesterday. Not sure if feeding the ball to Sommerville is our recipe for winning this year.
And again I'm assuming you're related to Simpson so I understand. Its just so obvious when you read threads and any type of bad play from Davis or jwill you bring up Simpson. As I said last year, Simpson was the player with the green light last year and missed alot of shots, only reason he received so much criticism on the boards. jMike doesn't shoot nearly as much and jwill was the best player on the team when he arrived last year so he's like a known commodity for Rutgers. Just has to get healthy find his fit being off the ball more...we don't even know who the starters will be in Vegas let's give it a little time...
Idk for sure but I believe that was to take advantage of Merrimacks lack of bigs on their roster..
I am not happy with ogbole this year, but I have been consistent that he may be our best option most nights in B1G. Last night was the 1st game that my argument had any merit. I'd like to say Pike rewarded him with more minutes, but it was more that Somerville was so poor on defense.
Especially in the B1G if the 1st thing he does when he catches is dribble. He is just giving the defense an extra 1/2 second to defend. I am a broken record, but is the staff ever going to break him off this? Do they not see this as a problem? This is no different than a perimeter shooter with a slow and low release.
The game plan was getting the ball into the post, yes, agree. It's where the opportunity to make plays was. So you can stop with the Lathan single handedly fouled out their center story line, EO drew 5 fouls last night while Lathan drew 4.
9 points on 6 shots and 6 free throws is just OK, it's not really overly efficient.
