Relax... We are going to be fine......

[RAC93]

well if you are getting wacked by 20 plus in a few Q1 games, yes they will see that on the team sheet....not losing by much will be reflected in the NET but yes a loss is pretty much a loss

The committee is not going to care that we played Bana and A&M tough. Just like they didn’t care that Mag went down with an injury and we had heard they would factor in his injury favorably towards RU’s consideration. They were evaluating so much data and resumes that it’s pretty difficult to get into the weeds and every single teams individual team situations, what games they played on the road, which games were they robbed a win in (RU loss at OSU on the shot that should not have counted, it still just counted as a loss). They look at records, data, quality of wins, metrics, net rankings, etc.., and then evaluate.

The only intangible I could consider for once that might help us is Dylan and Ace. Those two are a show and if we are squarely on the bubble, we might get bumped in for once instead of out and not get the RU screw due to the fact that folks want to see Dylan and Ace in the tourney. We have to get the wins and build the resume, but for once we have a little intangible juice working in our favor.

 

[fluoxetine]

If every game were like this game where would we rank?

Game	Offense	Defense	Overall
Wagner	#160	#1	#29
Saint Peter's	#63	#246	#121
Monmouth	#1	#363	#46
Merrimack	#53	#96	#70
Kennesaw St.	#357	#151	#303
Notre Dame	#13	#226	#70
Alabama	#2	#129	#22
Texas A&M	#77	#23	#45
Weighted Average	#45	#121	#72
Actual Kenpom	#66	#85	#70

 

[RUGiddy777]

The committee is not going to care that we played Bana and A&M tough. Just like they didn’t care that Mag went down with an injury and we had heard they would factor in his injury favorably towards RU’s consideration. They were evaluating so much data and resumes that it’s pretty difficult to get into the weeds and every single teams individual team situations, what games they played on the road, which games were they robbed a win in (RU loss at OSU on the shot that should not have counted, it still just counted as a loss). They look at records, data, quality of wins, metrics, net rankings, etc.., and then evaluate.

The only intangible I could consider for once that might help us is Dylan and Ace. Those two are a show and if we are squarely on the bubble, we might get bumped in for once instead of out and not get the RU screw due to the fact that folks want to see Dylan and Ace in the tourney. We have to get the wins and build the resume, but for once we have a little intangible juice working in our favor.

I think the Mag injury - and how we played afterwards, was a negative factor. Think the plan and expectations remain the same - win the rest of the OOC and go 12-8 or better in the B1G.

 

[BillyC80]

What is a moral victory exactly?

The team that played the last two games is a 9-10 seed level team with a top 20 offense and ~70ish defense. That wouldn't change if they had traded 5 points against Bama for 5 points against Texas A&M.

I think it is pretty reasonable to be encouraged by this given that
(a) Some of the supporting cast was a disaster to a degree that is unlikely to continue.
(b) We only shot 20.5% from three which is bad to a degree that is unlikely to continue.
(c) The WORST defense Pike has had at Rutgers was ranked #70 and that was with his first team. I can't really believe this team has less ability to play defense than that roster did.

Now, the negatives:
(a) The losses DO matter because we need wins, not efficiency, to get into the tournament and we might need to play better than a 9-10 seed level the rest of the way to get in
(b) I've cherry picked the last two games.
(c) Probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of.

On the positive side our FT shooting has been pretty solid all year, currently at 75% as a team.

 

[fluoxetine]

I think we'd *likely* be in with 19 wins. So that would be 14-9 against the remaining schedule or 13-10 + a game in the Big Ten Tournament.

Though really I would love to get the 20th win and not need to sweat it out.

 

[ImBadRU]

I think the team played some good ball in LV, but there are ongoing challenges and so I don't know if we will be fine:

1 We are slow on D, very slow, guys blow right past us regularly
2 Poor shot blocking presence, guards have no fear going to the tin
3 We will continue to get hosed by refs...that never changes
4 Acuff's injury still looks like its a major factor in his movement, elevation, and shot
5 PJ, Martini, Dercak = good luck making a three pointer with them
6 Grant looks to have talent but he is not ready to be much of a contributor, freshmen are skinny and weak in a B10 full of big strong experienced men
7 Rebounding is at best inconsistent

So, #1, 2 are not going to change; 3, 4 don't look very good; 5 better change; 6 can't change very much in one year, and 7 who knows, not feeling it since Martini can't grab one?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I think we'd *likely* be in with 19 wins. So that would be 14-9 against the remaining schedule or 13-10 + a game in the Big Ten Tournament.

Though really I would love to get the 20th win and not need to sweat it out.

Bart who thinks we area top 50 team has us favored in 9 of those games and has us expected to win 11

 

[fluoxetine]

Bart who thinks we area top 50 team has us favored in 9 of those games and has us expected to win 11

Makes sense, since being the #48 team is not good enough to make the tournament on average. Since we are already a game or so behind pace we will likely need to play as the #30-35 team the rest of the way to get in.

The same Bart is still giving us a 21.3% chance to make it fwiw which is obviously not where we want to be but also a very long way from zero.

 

[goru7]

First off, don’t say I’m not an honest person. You’re attacking my character. But since you did that, I’ll do the same to you. You seem like you don’t understand sports. Just because a team loses to an inferior opponent, doesn’t mean they can’t bounce back and beat a quality one. The 2021-2022 team lost to DePaul, Lehigh, and Umass in consecutive games and then less than two weeks later beat #1 Purdue. So yes I do think college kids can recover. And this isn’t me upset at the players. Coach needs to do a better job.
Also, I’m not the only one who questioned the K State game. It was a stupid game. It’s not even about the loss. It’s the fact that we were on the road Sunday and then had to fly out to Vegas and play in a different time zone for our most important stretch two days later. If you don’t see what’s wrong with that, then you’re being dishonest. Second, Pike has always been atrocious in OOC road/neutral site games. It straight up doesn’t make sense playing that game. It doesn’t help our resume and was an awful landmine before Vegas.
Lastly, I don’t care about UConn. They are coming off back to back titles. We have a once in a lifetime situation with Harper and Bailey on our squad and coach has done a mediocre job to this point.
Sorry if those are harsh words. I know how much everyone loves Pike. But the season is not a marathon. If you don’t bank enough quality wins early, it’s more like and 800 meter sprint

I know more about basketball and have been following RU for 45 years so save the no nothing about sports. You didn’t answer the question about A&M. Why not ?
Your opinion about Kennesaw and reasoning was it was on Sunday and team had to fly across country for the tourney so timing wasn’t good . How did that affect the play ? We played our 3 best games of the year in Vegas. Maybe it took the mess up against Kennesaw to play closer to our potential. So not sure your opinion turned out correct.
Yes Pike has not been good on these out of conference games against inferior opponents , totally agree. But we never had a team with Harper and Bailey so maybe he did not think it was an issue and at the same time wanted to give ACE a homecoming. It didn’t work out but they didn’t just lay down and die when they were having a terrible day and maybe the worst day ACE will have all year. Something came out if it and our starts have been better in Vegas .
You can ignore UConn but if UConn loses 2 of their next 3 then they will have to do a lot of winning in conference , kinda like we will have to do. Lots of Q 1 games in conference to win and that should take care of the NET. Also , Vegas tourney was a neutral site and playing well there will hopefully help us on the road in the big 10. Have a little faith. I know you wanted all wins in Vegas , we all did and I was there with my whole family rooting team on to victory but they came up short against some really good teams despite some questionable reffing and mistakes down the stretch.

 

[biazza38]

I know more about basketball and have been following RU for 45 years so save the no nothing about sports. You didn’t answer the question about A&M. Why not ?
Your opinion about Kennesaw and reasoning was it was on Sunday and team had to fly across country for the tourney so timing wasn’t good . How did that affect the play ? We played our 3 best games of the year in Vegas. Maybe it took the mess up against Kennesaw to play closer to our potential. So not sure your opinion turned out correct.
Yes Pike has not been good on these out of conference games against inferior opponents , totally agree. But we never had a team with Harper and Bailey so maybe he did not think it was an issue and at the same time wanted to give ACE a homecoming. It didn’t work out but they didn’t just lay down and die when they were having a terrible day and maybe the worst day ACE will have all year. Something came out if it and our starts have been better in Vegas .
You can ignore UConn but if UConn loses 2 of their next 3 then they will have to do a lot of winning in conference , kinda like we will have to do. Lots of Q 1 games in conference to win and that should take care of the NET. Also , Vegas tourney was a neutral site and playing well there will hopefully help us on the road in the big 10. Have a little faith. I know you wanted all wins in Vegas , we all did and I was there with my whole family rooting team on to victory but they came up short against some really good teams despite some questionable reffing and mistakes down the stretch.

I did answer the question about A&M. And you not thinking we could beat A&M is wild. This is the type of team we’ll have to beat to get to the sweet 16. They had the same Vegas schedule that we had. And again, UConn is irrelevant. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity with Harper and Bailey and coach is fumbling it. Stop bringing up UConn going 0-3. Who cares if they make the tournament. I can assure you if Uconn had Harper and Bailey, Dan Hurley wouldn’t go into the season with a giant question mark at center and lose to K State on the road. You’re bringing up UConn b/c you don’t want to feel bad about going 1-3 so you’re latching onto another team’s failure. Makes no sense.
And as for K State, our resident tournament and bracket expert @bac2therac agrees with me. Silly game and silly timing. Our OOC schedule once again has too many landmines with very little reward.
I also love the first sentence of your post. You see what happens when you try to insult others? You don’t like it when people do it back to you, do you? Enjoy your day

 

[PiscatawayMike]

As frustrating as the season has been so far, I'm confident we'll be right where I predicted us to be when we turn the calendar to 2025.

We'll be favored in our next four games and I expect us to win them all... 9-4 overall, 8-3 OOC, 1-1 B1G

 

[winfield102]

Based on what we've seen so far, we aren't going to the tourney. I'm calling my shot.

What makes anyone think that we're going to play smarter on offense and/or better on defense?

 

[koleszar]

Based on what we've seen so far, we aren't going to the tourney. I'm calling my shot.

What makes anyone think that we're going to play smarter on offense and/or better on defense?

There's been no improvement on defense from game 1 to 9. That's concerning, I saw a lot of guys struggling to figure out who they were supposed to cover. While they were trying to figure it out, guys were constantly left wide open. Whatever Pike is teaching them, they ain't getting.

 

[RU#1fan]

I know many people are upset we lost. But, being out here in Vegas, I saw many positive signs. We must tighten up the defense, but today we kept the lane open on offense. That is a big step to us becoming a real good team.

We will be fine. Just relax.....

Best of Luck,
Groz

Sure .. relax.

 

[Groz]

OK, time to start worrying, even after just 1 more game. All of our players are playing like we don't practice together.

Is this the same Martini that helped dominate Cliff when we played Princeton? Where is PJ Hayes the sharpshooter. Is it because his defense is so bad, that he can't find time? Derkack hustles like crazy, but how many balls go off his hands on rebounds?

It won't happen yet, but we probably are better off playing Dylan Grant and Dortch, to see what kind of players they are. They have to at least be athletic.

JMike's game has pretty much gone downhill since the exhibition game last year against St. John's when he looked like he was going to be real good.

I am praying that we are not going to waste Dylan's and Ace's only year here.

Our defense has been non existent for most of the year.

So many questions, yet so few answers so far. Long way to go, but it might be time to start to worry and not RELAX....

Best of Luck,
Groz

 

[PiscatawayMike]

Certainly not relaxing, but I gotta admit I am not too concerned yet. To be sure, there are things we need to improve upon, but record-wise we are still on pace to have the season I expected (8-3 OOC, 12-8 B1G).

Worry-time commences for me if we have a 3-5 (or worse) B1G record prior to our game vs. MSU at MSG.

 

[fluoxetine]

Based on what we've seen so far, we aren't going to the tourney. I'm calling my shot.

What makes anyone think that we're going to play smarter on offense and/or better on defense?

I think we will play better. I’m not sure that it won’t be too little too late.

 

[seansherm]

OK, time to start worrying, even after just 1 more game. All of our players are playing like we don't practice together.

Is this the same Martini that helped dominate Cliff when we played Princeton? Where is PJ Hayes the sharpshooter. Is it because his defense is so bad, that he can't find time? Derkack hustles like crazy, but how many balls go off his hands on rebounds?

It won't happen yet, but we probably are better off playing Dylan Grant and Dortch, to see what kind of players they are. They have to at least be athletic.

JMike's game has pretty much gone downhill since the exhibition game last year against St. John's when he looked like he was going to be real good.

I am praying that we are not going to waste Dylan's and Ace's only year here.

Our defense has been non existent for most of the year.

So many questions, yet so few answers so far. Long way to go, but it might be time to start to worry and not RELAX....

Best of Luck,
Groz

I'd really love to know where this Martini dominated Cliff narrative came from. Cliff played less yet scored more, rebounded more, assisted more, blocked more shots. Then his back up Wolf shot 5-6 and also had as many rebounds as Martini, and Palmquist also played as well as Martini. Guards are why we lost, not bigs.

 

[fluoxetine]

I'd really love to know where this Martini dominated Cliff narrative came from. Cliff played less yet scored more, rebounded more, assisted more, blocked more shots. Then his back up Wolf shot 5-6 and also had as many rebounds as Martini, and Palmquist also played as well as Martini. Guards are why we lost, not bigs.

It came from this board after a loss lol

 

[Groz]

I'd really love to know where this Martini dominated Cliff narrative came from. Cliff played less yet scored more, rebounded more, assisted more, blocked more shots. Then his back up Wolf shot 5-6 and also had as many rebounds as Martini, and Palmquist also played as well as Martini. Guards are why we lost, not bigs.

OK, maybe didn't dominate, but did outplay him, regardless of the stats. Did you go to the game or watch it?

Best of Luck,
Groz

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

As frustrating as the season has been so far, I'm confident we'll be right where I predicted us to be when we turn the calendar to 2025.

We'll be favored in our next four games and I expect us to win them all... 9-4 overall, 8-3 OOC, 1-1 B1G

We will be favored in all 4 but our expected wins is right at 3.0

If i had to gues
RU -3 psu
Ru -7 shu
Ru -8 princeton
Ru -10 columbia

 

[jakeknight]

We are what we are, we will either get better or we won’t. I still think we will be a good team by the second half of the year. Issues that need to improve, we need to be stronger with the ball, too many soft sloppy turnovers, need to move the ball and to create open looks, too much one on one this doesn’t work, too easy to double the ball and overplay.
Defense, defense, defense, guards need to stop the ball up top, and stay in front of the of their man, right now we are way to soft and not strong enough. Our rotations on our help defense often doesn’t happen and we end up unbalanced and out of position.

 

[biazza38]

We will be favored in all 4 but our expected wins is right at 3.0

If i had to gues
RU -3 psu
Ru -7 shu
Ru -8 princeton
Ru -10 columbia

If were favored against PSU, I may have to drive to New York

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

If were favored against PSU, I may have to drive to New York

Gas up

 

[seansherm]

OK, maybe didn't dominate, but did outplay him, regardless of the stats. Did you go to the game or watch it?

Best of Luck,
Groz

I did, yes. Martini had like one solid 2 or 3 minute stretch and other than that was his average self. Their other forward rebounded well. I think many equate hitting a couple 3's with playing well. I thought Palm even played as well as Martini. Again we lost because our guards and Hyatt shot like 6 for 30 or something.