Recruiting is going to explode

[Big East Beast]

If we take Wenzels whole career at RU into account, I think Pikiels record is better already. And I'm pretty sure one of Pikiels teams could also have won the A-10 in 89. That was not a great league.

I was at RU during the tail end of the Wenzel years and it was tough to watch if only because there were some talented guys who couldn’t stay in school. Football was similar in those years, but glad Mulcahy turned that around with a real approach to academic support.

The 89 team was solid by any standard. Duncan, Hughes & Savage would all start on any of Pike’s RU teams and to suggest otherwise is pretty ignorant.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for Pike, but keep in mind he’s finished dead last at 3-15 in each of his first two seasons here. I am like most and see great things ahead, so I just don’t see the need to bash prior coaches or hyperbole

 

[Big East Beast]

Pete was waaaaay better than Souf.

Souf didn’t play. Marcotte started. Big difference when using as points of comparison.

 

[80RU]

Souf didn’t play. Marcotte started. Big difference when using as points of comparison.

I think we were discussing bad recruits. Souf was recruited from junior college to back up Cory Sanders. Marcotte was recruited from junior college to back up Damon Santiago. It just happened that Santiago got injured and was out for that year. When Pete returned to the bench the next year he was still waaay better than Souf.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

It was simple with Bob

When he had good recruited players ...he had a good team

If there were rivals recruiting rankings back then His 90-91 team had two four star recruits... (savage would have been a border line one and third)...and a bunch of 3 star players.

When that level went down...his teams went southbound

 

[RUckusbuck]

Pete was waaaaay better than Souf.

Way way better!

 

[RUckusbuck]

I was at RU during the tail end of the Wenzel years and it was tough to watch if only because there were some talented guys who couldn’t stay in school. Football was similar in those years, but glad Mulcahy turned that around with a real approach to academic support.

The 89 team was solid by any standard. Duncan, Hughes & Savage would all start on any of Pike’s RU teams and to suggest otherwise is pretty ignorant.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for Pike, but keep in mind he’s finished dead last at 3-15 in each of his first two seasons here. I am like most and see great things ahead, so I just don’t see the need to bash prior coaches or hyperbole

Those three guys alone are better than anyone on Pikes team.

 

[satnom]

Pete was waaaaay better than Souf.

Aah. Don’t think so. Nice guy. He was roommates with a buddy. He was like 5’9” and the dropoff from Damon Santiago to him was like an NBA player to the CYO. Souf was at least built like a truck and could play mlb for the football team. Agree that Souf wasn’t much of a basketball player. Marcotte was scrawny and small. Like I said he wasn’t even the best player or athlete in Rec games on campus. In repetition, that was the beginning of the end when Wentzel started bringing a JUCO player of this caliber to the team. He kind of looked like a young Wentzel. Maybe that was the hook that got him a schollie offer.

GO RU

 

[JavaDunk18]

Wenzel did not start at the mountaintop. He took a 7 win Littlepage team to the NCAA. Climbed a steep mountain ( yes, with Van Gundy as a key assistant ) that first year. His next NCAA tournament was with the Syracuse transfers..

 

[Westcoast]

I was at RU during the tail end of the Wenzel years and it was tough to watch if only because there were some talented guys who couldn’t stay in school. Football was similar in those years, but glad Mulcahy turned that around with a real approach to academic support.

The 89 team was solid by any standard. Duncan, Hughes & Savage would all start on any of Pike’s RU teams and to suggest otherwise is pretty ignorant.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for Pike, but keep in mind he’s finished dead last at 3-15 in each of his first two seasons here. I am like most and see great things ahead, so I just don’t see the need to bash prior coaches or hyperbole

Minor point but in 89 Hughes and Duncan were watching from the sidelines as transfers. We got hot around halfway through the season and went on a run against mostly bad teams. And I was there for all the home games and some on the road.

As for Souf, Pikiel got him at the last moment. Yeah, it was a miss. But its not like a bunch of 4 star kids are lining up to play for RU after the second worst coach in RU history just left.

Anyone who needs more proof to see that Pikiell is THE guy just needs to pay more attention.

 

[80RU]

Aah. Don’t think so. Nice guy. He was roommates with a buddy. He was like 5’9” and the dropoff from Damon Santiago to him was like an NBA player to the CYO. Souf was at least built like a truck and could play mlb for the football team. Agree that Souf wasn’t much of a basketball player. Marcotte was scrawny and small. Like I said he wasn’t even the best player or athlete in Rec games on campus. In repetition, that was the beginning of the end when Wentzel started bringing a JUCO player of this caliber to the team. He kind of looked like a young Wentzel. Maybe that was the hook that got him a schollie offer.

GO RU

You are waaaay wrong! During the year Marcotte started he managed to shoot 44% from the field, 35% from three point range, 75% on free throws. He averaged about 5.2 points a game and had a positive assist to turnover ratio. Souf shot 27%, 26% free-throws, never hit a single three point shot and had a negative turnover/assist ratio. Even if you extrapolated his points, assists and steals to a full 40 minutes, his numbers in each category would still be less than Marcotte’s numbers per game (not even extrapolated to 40 minutes). The only area where he was better than Marcotte was rebounding.

A couple of other things. Souf did not have the confidence of his teammates. Pete did. Marcotte obviously had issues on defense because of his size, but he was was a better defensive player than Souf as well. He had very quick feet and could always stay in front of his man. He was more athletic than people gave him credit for, and even at 5‘7“ he could almost dunk. Souf was always lost on defense so his 220 pounds did not do him much good.

With respect to the Santiago CYO/NBA drop off comment, you are also way off base. You are confusing 1996 Santiago with 1993 Santiago. In 1993, the year before his injury, Santiago‘s numbers were not much better than Marcotte’s, other than averaging three more points per game — the “drop off“ was not that great at that time; Santiago just exploded later in his career.

You were even wrong about Wenzel in high school. He was 6‘1“, not that scrawny and a star football player/captain among his three sports.

 

[RUckusbuck]

Minor point but in 89 Hughes and Duncan were watching from the sidelines as transfers. We got hot around halfway through the season and went on a run against mostly bad teams. And I was there for all the home games and some on the road.

As for Souf, Pikiel got him at the last moment. Yeah, it was a miss. But its not like a bunch of 4 star kids are lining up to play for RU after the second worst coach in RU history just left.

Anyone who needs more proof to see that Pikiell is THE guy just needs to pay more attention.

Oh definitely think the enthusiasm and faith in Pikiell is warranted. To compare his time at RU to Wenzel and say it's better doesnt make sense. Wenzel has receipts.

 

[Seton75]

Didnt bannon and rice have more immediate success, both on the court and in recruiting? I always thought the guy you deepsixed to get hill was on the cusp of turning it around.

 

[wheezer]

Did Yogi really say that? $$$$

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nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded

 

[wheezer]

Didnt bannon and rice have more immediate success, both on the court and in recruiting? I always thought the guy you deepsixed to get hill was on the cusp of turning it around.

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rumor was, your team would have taken Hill, if we did not move, and that was feared at the time

 

[knights1212]

Pete Marcotte was way better than Souf. One game he hit a 3 at 3/4 court, a 75 footer to end a half. He was like a magician with the ball and was a real fan favorite. For his size he didn't back down from anyone. He was always one of my favorites.

 

[RUinFla]

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rumor was, your team would have taken Hill, if we did not move, and that was feared at the time

Rumor probably started by Fred Hill, Jr--the worst basketball coach we have ever had. We axed Gary Waters, who had taken us to 3 NI's in 5 seasons, including one final, energized the fan base and had the RAC rocking. In favor of a guy who was basically a car salesman with no leadership or management qualities. One who screwed up and screwed over several players. Thank you to our former AD, who many revered for a while because he hire GS.
TL

 

[Night Man]

Didnt bannon and rice have more immediate success, both on the court and in recruiting? I always thought the guy you deepsixed to get hill was on the cusp of turning it around.

Ehh, he was a good coach but there were no good scorers left on the roster or in the pipeline. Hard to say his tenure was trending upward. He deserved a better shake but it wasn't going to happen for him.

 

[wheezer]

Rumor probably started by Fred Hill, Jr--the worst basketball coach we have ever had. We axed Gary Waters, who had taken us to 3 NI's in 5 seasons, including one final, energized the fan base and had the RAC rocking. In favor of a guy who was basically a car salesman with no leadership or management qualities. One who screwed up and screwed over several players. Thank you to our former AD, who many revered for a while because he hire GS.
TL

Waters certainly turned out to be a better coach for us, but we had a hard time winning on the road in league, thus we were always a below .500 team in league. Waters best season was about 19 wins for us, which sounds real good, but three of those were gimme NIT home games
Post season, 16 more the real total

To his credit, we had a number of upsets or near upsets at home against very good teams .

He had the expression of ‘holding serve’ at home, which we had a bit of success with

 

[snowboarder]

Can't believe there is a discussion comparing Pete Marcotte and Souf. Only on a Rutgers board.
Next we should look at Andre Lamoreaux and Rudy Manne.
Pike is the real deal, this is just tougher night in and night out in the Big Ten.
Wenzel did a great job initially but ended up being something of a used car salesman
He really didn't want to be a College Head Coach long term and it showed in his recruiting or lack there of at the end.
Rodney Duncan was a very good player but would take Gio in a heart beat.
Hughes was a tremendous offensive talent by his 5th year but Eugene may end up being a better all around player.
I like the talent pool that Pike is building, I just think that Pike needs to be more flexible in his approach to defense.
This group in my opinion will never be a great man to man defensive team, it can be a very good zone team because of the number of long players that can be moved around.
Next year we will have the best roster top to bottom since the Tom Young years
Pikiell is doing a great job in the area of recruiting

 

[RUChow]

I agree... Wenzel's light began to dim towards the end. However, Pike's receipts don't quite add up to Wenzel's just yet.

Don't care what Wenzel won, he's not in Pike's world.

 

[RUckusbuck]

Don't care what Wenzel won, he's not in Pike's world.

Hopefully you are a thousand percent correct but as of today he doesn't have the receipts.

 

[Westcoast]

I don't think Wenzel would have any receipts either if his first 4 years were in the a Big 10 instead of the A-10. Though he may have gotten to the NIT in 91 with Hughes, EARL Duncan and Dabbs. But even with those guys he got bounced in the first round of the A-10 tourney by 8th seeded St. Joes.

 

[RUckusbuck]

I don't think Wenzel would have any receipts either if his first 4 years were in the a Big 10 instead of the A-10. Though he may have gotten to the NIT in 91 with Hughes, EARL Duncan and Dabbs. But even with those guys he got bounced in the first round of the A-10 tourney by 8th seeded St. Joes.

But, but, but, but...he still made the dance...twice... No RU coach has made it since....