Rutgers Basketball Has Gotten Worse Offensively Since Last Season. Fact, not opinion

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Look we pointed to Bart all year how he rated our team and he said what could derail us is if teams start shooting the 3 against us better because 3pt D is mostly luck and teams were missing a ton of open looks against us to date.

Guess what’s happening?

this. we've been a bad team for about a month now, we just played some teams who couldn't hit water if they were in a boat. If Maryland couldve sunk some of their open looks from 3 last night we're looking at a 15+ point loss.

 

[Treeman]

none Of this drivel classifies as analysis. You fight with the army you have, not the army you want.

If you want to criticize Pike’s recruiting, have at it, but to make the claim, at this moment in Pike’s career and even just basic trendline drawing skills, that Pike has peaked is nothing short of disingenuous, imo. It’s a free statement with no downside, and only upside to your ego.
- If Pike soars to great success by recruiting players who can, you know, actually shoot the ball well (look at any FT stats on our players, and report back on their natural shooting ability), then everyone’s happy. No one remembers your audacious “Peak Pike” post because good times are rolling. And if anyone does you can always just claim they are being petty, or any number of other dismissive approaches.
- Pike has peaked. You called it. To the moment in fact. Your ego can’t handle your own brilliance, and you slap yourself on your back. The dopamine in your head is flooding your receptors, and near nirvana is achieved. You demand everyone on this message board bows down to your superior understanding of the nuances of the game, and your obvious ability to predict the future based on a 1 thousandth l, grossly statistically insignificant (to mere mortals) piece of mined data. Moderators of this board consider ways of memorializing your brilliance, and head coaches from all around college basketball seek you out to help them understand where their blind spots are. Even Mr Television is humble enough in your presence to seek your vast understanding of all things basketball. You, brilliant, insightful god, are to be congratulated.

 

[RUsojo]

none Of this drivel classifies as analysis. You fight with the army you have, not the army you want.

If you want to criticize Pike’s recruiting, have at it, but to make the claim, at this moment in Pike’s career and even just basic trendline drawing skills, that Pike has peaked is nothing short of disingenuous, imo. It’s a free statement with no downside, and only upside to your ego.
- If Pike soars to great success by recruiting players who can, you know, actually shoot the ball well (look at any FT stats on our players, and report back on their natural shooting ability), then everyone’s happy. No one remembers your audacious “Peak Pike” post because good times are rolling. And if anyone does you can always just claim they are being petty, or any number of other dismissive approaches.
- Pike has peaked. You called it. To the moment in fact. Your ego can’t handle your own brilliance, and you slap yourself on your back. The dopamine in your head is flooding your receptors, and near nirvana is achieved. You demand everyone on this message board bows down to your superior understanding of the nuances of the game, and your obvious ability to predict the future based on a 1 thousandth l, grossly statistically insignificant (to mere mortals) piece of mined data. Moderators of this board consider ways of memorializing your brilliance, and head coaches from all around college basketball seek you out to help them understand where their blind spots are. Even Mr Television is humble enough in your presence to seek your vast understanding of all things basketball.

I guess it’s 5’oclock somewhere.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

This isn't a gotcha question - where did Pike's SB teams rank offensively in their conference while he was there?

Genuinely curious and too lazy to look it up.

basically half of his time at SB he had an offense that ranked 300+ in the nation which is dreadful. His highest offensive ranking ever was 102 in 2013.

His offenses at stony brook

2006- 311
2007- 312
2008- 319
2009- 245
2010- 179
2011- 307
2012- 158
2013- 102
2014- 173
2015- 206
2016- 132

Bottomline, he's always been a pretty bad offensive coach.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Disagree completely - continue to improve recruiting & offense will follow.

how will it flow? What's your logic? We don't run a half court offense so how will better players just make it flow? I do agree better players who can take guys off the dribble 1 on 1 will help because that's what this offense is but will pike every recruit top tier talent? he never has in his career, will he ever?

 

[RUPete]

Last year 14 wins total
This year 16 wins, with 8 games to go

All that needs to be said.

You can't tell that to the analytics geeks in this thread. But I know the OP routinely torches his rec leagues, so I'll defer to him.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

What was said about Tony Bennett for all the years before last. Your OP could replace Pikiells name with Bennett and you'd be just like the masses. Point remains you can build a program off of D and the offense will come. Something you explicitly said is not possible

does tony bennett run a half court offense and draw up sets to get his guys looks?

 

[RUPete]

I guess it’s 5’oclock somewhere.

I thought his post was pretty funny actually, but I'm not surprised you're all over this thread after a loss.

 

[bac2therac]

this. we've been a bad team for about a month now, we just played some teams who couldn't hit water if they were in a boat. If Maryland couldve sunk some of their open looks from 3 last night we're looking at a 15+ point loss.

a bad team does not hold Maryland to no fgs in 9 minutes or Michigan in 9 minutes

 

[ScarletR30]

does tony bennett run a half court offense and draw up sets to get his guys looks?

That was his biggest critique since hes been there and they are struggling again this year without the top talent.

Oh wait, I said top talent?

Yes, even the defending national champions are struggling on O. What makes you think when Pikiell starts bringing in higher rated guys our o won't change? with you being our resident offensive expert why don't you draw up some plays too.

 

[RUPete]

This thread is getting silly so we should cut to the chase- what is Kyk's solution? Show Pike the door? Get an offensive minded assistant in the offseason? Or hire Kyk as an assistant coach?

 

[kcg88]

1. The defense has gotten a lot better.

2. The offense is about the same as last year, maybe a tick better, maybe not.

3. Rutgers has probably gotten a little bit lucky with opponents missing more open three-pointers than you'd expect.

4. Rutgers has definitely gotten a little bit unlucky in terms of winning close games. If we continue to play one-possession games with 2 minutes remaining, even when we're underdogs (like we were at Iowa and at Illinois and at Maryland) we're going to win some.

5. However, that luck might not turn this year. As the expression goes, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. 31 games is a small sample size. Weird stuff happens and you cannot count on a regression to the mean in that sample. Spin a roulette wheel 31 times and you might get 20 black and 11 red. That doesn't mean that red "doesn't know how to close out games" or "isn't ready for prime time."

 

[RuSnp]

basically half of his time at SB he had an offense that ranked 300+ in the nation which is dreadful. His highest offensive ranking ever was 102 in 2013.

His offenses at stony brook

2006- 311
2007- 312
2008- 319
2009- 245
2010- 179
2011- 307
2012- 158
2013- 102
2014- 173
2015- 206
2016- 132

Bottomline, he's always been a pretty bad offensive coach.

That is pretty eye opening. Thanks.

 

[Pancho1939]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

I think you need to see a doctor and should stop watching games. It is not safe for your mental health. It has gotten so bad that you are attacking a coach because average points per possession and not wins and loses. This is the best Rutgers team since 1982. Yes that 1982. The 1982 that is 38 years ago. Just 4 years after the worst 4 years in Rutgers history and you want to talk about points per possession? You seriously need to see a doctor.

 

[RUChoppin]

basically half of his time at SB he had an offense that ranked 300+ in the nation which is dreadful. His highest offensive ranking ever was 102 in 2013.

His offenses at stony brook

2006- 311
2007- 312
2008- 319
2009- 245
2010- 179
2011- 307
2012- 158
2013- 102
2014- 173
2015- 206
2016- 132

Bottomline, he's always been a pretty bad offensive coach.

Please say which site you are getting your #s from, and what metric you are using.

Per ORtg on sports-reference.com (data begins for 2009-10):
2010 - 148
2011 - 294
2012 - 93
2013 - 92
2014 - 142
2015 - 187
2016 - 38

Rutgers (340th in 2015, 329th in 2016)
2017 - 316
2018 - 327
2019 - 292
2020 - 166

 

[Pancho1939]

basically half of his time at SB he had an offense that ranked 300+ in the nation which is dreadful. His highest offensive ranking ever was 102 in 2013.

His offenses at stony brook

2006- 311
2007- 312
2008- 319
2009- 245
2010- 179
2011- 307
2012- 158
2013- 102
2014- 173
2015- 206
2016- 132

Bottomline, he's always been a pretty bad offensive coach.

this is the problem with stats. If you do not provide context you look like an idiot.

Pikeill took over a program that went 64-108 in the previous 6 season with zero division 1 history(literally SBU was D1 starting in 1999), limited scholarships, zero facilities... to be an upper echelon offensive team? Do you know how ridiculous you sound?

The only job that was worse than SBU when he took it over was rutgers when he did. Big ten, no facilities, 30 years since ncaa bid, coaches getting fired for being mentally and physically abusive....

 

[zebnatto]

while some of what you are saying is true, alot of it is based on reaction to a couple of losses and to a team who lost by 5 last night to the #9 team with Young suspended and Baker not 100%. Two games ago you wouldnt have given this take. Lets slow down.

Do I think Pike has to recruit a higher level of talent...yes

Is he a defensive minded coached, where emphasis is on rebounding, contesting the shot and forcing turnovers...yes

Does this team only do well when they are getting stops and getting transition buckets..yes

Its obvious that Pike's style is to grind out games that are not pretty. He does this because usually more talent exists on the opposition, its a harder and tougher way to win games but that is his style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Look at the competition of late though and cut some slack. The defense held Maryland to almost nothing. This team can shut down teams for 10 minutes at a time..that is a plus. That is why Pike is a great coach and has RU in the games at the end. The reason RU is losing is they panicked and lacked composure at the end and didnt make plays. At the RAC vs Purdue and Nebby, they did.

So Pike is going to need to recruit an outside shooter, I am not a big fan of the class coming in thus far so he needs to do better there. Remember we also have a couple of misses in Doucoure and Kiss taking up roster space.

The one area where Pike just has to do better is drawing fouls and getting his team to absorb the contact so the foul actually gets called. Myles was particularly soft last night around the basket with the ball in his hands and that is just inexcusable. Who is coaching them to chuck up 3s at the rate they are. Why isnt Yeboah getting more touches if he can get hot at times? Why is Montez not relied on more when his shot is going down? Who is teaching Caleb to run a fast break down 1 heading into trees? Sure there are things that Pike can clean up

Overall Pike has been outstanding, may get coach of they year though Underwood and Chambers are also contenders. RU has exceeded expecations and almost skipped a year. You are frustrated because we lost a couple of games. Relax we may not have been as good as 7-3 in league...thats okay. This team still has a lot of growth to do. Its a flawed team but its always going to be in the game at the wire and thats why we all love Coach Pikiell despite some criticisms we may have

As to one point, re: Myles’ softness. He just has to be tougher at the rim. The other guys for all their shortcomings come to play. Myles has to get his head on straight, or someone needs to shake him and tell him to wake the f up.

Stop with those soft layups and jam the damn thing.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

This thread is getting silly so we should cut to the chase- what is Kyk's solution? Show Pike the door? Get an offensive minded assistant in the offseason? Or hire Kyk as an assistant coach?

Hayn was a laughable hire. That hire should've either been A) recruiting stud or B) a guy who knows offense. So yes, my solution is replace Hayn with a coach who knows offense

 

[Pancho1939]

Hayn was a laughable hire. That hire should've either been A) recruiting stud or B) a guy who knows offense. So yes, my solution is replace Hayn with a coach who knows offense

Why hayn and not Knight or hobbs? Hayn has been here one year and it is the best we have been. If any assistants are the problem then it seems knight or hobbs would be the first ones the chopping block

 

[richthedentist]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

Have not read the rest of the replies and I know there are many but in a way this is eerily similar to CVS a great defensive coach but not a good offensive coach; I know everyone was worried about our defense when we lost Jay Young but that has not been the problem. I agree 100% with KYK in that its our offense has been the problem our defense of course keeps us in games but you cannot have the type of droughts we have had in all these game we have lost. I know the pundits will say well Maryland also had a long scoring drought last but if we had any semblance of offense we should have been able to open up a much bigger lead during their drought.
What I don't see in our offense is much off the ball movement and back screens set to free players up and we don't work to our players strengths like Ron Harper is tremendous at backing his player up and hitting that 10 foot jumper but we don't get him the ball in that position often enough. I do think though if we can get just one guy who can shoot the 3 pointer our offense will look so much better because many times we do breakdown the defense and send the ball out for wide open 3's but we can just not make those shots with any consistency.

 

[Pancho1939]

Pikiell throughout his entire career has never told a player where/when they could or could not shoot. This is why players love him and play hard for him. He lets them play as long as they defend. This is not the best when you are playing with 3* and the other team has 5*. Hopefully with the practice facility we will see an uptick in recruiting and the the offensive woes will take care of themselves.

 

[Mbash93]

Look at every team in the country, most teams are really good at one side of the ball and bad at the other.

We are elite on offense, bad at scoring. Their are elite scoring teams that can't stop anyone and just hope to outscore you.

The teams that are good at both? Well those are the Duke/Kansas/MSU (usually) of the world.

So yes, Pikiell isn't Coach K, Bill Self, or Tom Izzo.

I for one am shocked by this development

 

[playorbplayd]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

1) I'd expect the big jump to be from So to Jr year with players
2) America East
3) Albany happened in (most of) those AE tournaments
4) Just enjoy this season my man, it's been more than anyone could've dreamed

 

[IL Lusciato]

LOL at this fan base.

 

[knights1212]

Maybe kyk should just find another team to root for. We don't need all of the negativity.

 

[RUsojo]

Look at every team in the country, most teams are really good at one side of the ball and bad at the other.

We are elite on offense, bad at scoring. Their are elite scoring teams that can't stop anyone and just hope to outscore you.

The teams that are good at both? Well those are the Duke/Kansas/MSU (usually) of the world.

So yes, Pikiell isn't Coach K, Bill Self, or Tom Izzo.

I for one am shocked by this development

The problem isn’t that we are built this way. A lot of teams are built in the mold you describe. But for us the problem is throughout the course of the game Pike is putting his players in bad situations when not letting the work it out on their own.

COMPLETELY fine with Pikes mentality of letting them work it out on their own most of the time. But his influence when dictating some sets or offensive emphasis is typically ineffective because of strategy not because the players are really inefficient scorers.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

If you want more offense or offensive players, you have to have players capable of running what you want.

If there is an offense in the B1G that you want to model for, please let me know what system or offense that is.....if Iowa is your answer, please find another example, Fran McCaffery has been running high level offense for 20+ years and recruits a specific (very) type of player at all 5 positions and sacrifices defense and ability to guard people as the downside.

Which B1G team runs good offense?? I watch the games and I think (some) of us watch the other teams and what they run. The offenses are very detailed and are reliant on shooters and playmakers.

I think Michigan runs good offense, Purdue (last year) ran good offense and Iowa does....Michigan State does run excellent sets but is immensely talented 1 through 5 and switches on defense 1 through 5, better than almost anyone in the country, year in and year out.

The larger question is whether the league is better this year than last year....if your answer is NO, that last years B1G was better than this year's B1G, then the numbers don't matchup. Most reasonable people acknowledge that this year's B1G is even better than last year's league.

The league is better 1 through 12, vs last year top to bottom....13th and 14th respectively are very down and we play 3 of 20 games against teams 13 and 14th. The other 17 games are literally a war of attrition.

Maryland barely got to 50 points in 38 minutes of play and has 4 star athletes at every position.....what did Maryland run on offense last night that impressed the fans here....?? I saw a couple of follow up dunks, a run-out and a few threes.....they did very little else, unless I watched a different game.

In a league that focuses on defense, if you don't get stops and allow teams to get offensive rebounds, you will finish in the bottom 1/3rd of the league without a doubt........ Iowa is the best offensive system I've seen in this league in years and they get good shots most possessions.....and they allow "poor offensive RU" to score 86 points and 81 points in back to back years on their home court. You're going to give up something on the other end of the floor, trying to find scorers, especially ones that can't guard anyone.

I am not sure what path is right, but trying to coach basketball and stopping teams from scoring is purely coaching. RU is short about 3 athletes to compete with a Maryland/Michigan/Ohio State/Michigan most years and 1 of those 3 is named Cliff Omoyuri....who is also a very raw and undeveloped offensive player.....Do we not want him too or should we avoid trying to become the top defensive team in the B1G????

 

[bethlehemfan]

none Of this drivel classifies as analysis. You fight with the army you have, not the army you want.

If you want to criticize Pike’s recruiting, have at it, but to make the claim, at this moment in Pike’s career and even just basic trendline drawing skills, that Pike has peaked is nothing short of disingenuous, imo. It’s a free statement with no downside, and only upside to your ego.
- If Pike soars to great success by recruiting players who can, you know, actually shoot the ball well (look at any FT stats on our players, and report back on their natural shooting ability), then everyone’s happy. No one remembers your audacious “Peak Pike” post because good times are rolling. And if anyone does you can always just claim they are being petty, or any number of other dismissive approaches.
- Pike has peaked. You called it. To the moment in fact. Your ego can’t handle your own brilliance, and you slap yourself on your back. The dopamine in your head is flooding your receptors, and near nirvana is achieved. You demand everyone on this message board bows down to your superior understanding of the nuances of the game, and your obvious ability to predict the future based on a 1 thousandth l, grossly statistically insignificant (to mere mortals) piece of mined data. Moderators of this board consider ways of memorializing your brilliance, and head coaches from all around college basketball seek you out to help them understand where their blind spots are. Even Mr Television is humble enough in your presence to seek your vast understanding of all things basketball. You, brilliant, insightful god, are to be congratulated.

Yep

 

[playorbplayd]

none Of this drivel classifies as analysis. You fight with the army you have, not the army you want.

If you want to criticize Pike’s recruiting, have at it, but to make the claim, at this moment in Pike’s career and even just basic trendline drawing skills, that Pike has peaked is nothing short of disingenuous, imo. It’s a free statement with no downside, and only upside to your ego.
- If Pike soars to great success by recruiting players who can, you know, actually shoot the ball well (look at any FT stats on our players, and report back on their natural shooting ability), then everyone’s happy. No one remembers your audacious “Peak Pike” post because good times are rolling. And if anyone does you can always just claim they are being petty, or any number of other dismissive approaches.
- Pike has peaked. You called it. To the moment in fact. Your ego can’t handle your own brilliance, and you slap yourself on your back. The dopamine in your head is flooding your receptors, and near nirvana is achieved. You demand everyone on this message board bows down to your superior understanding of the nuances of the game, and your obvious ability to predict the future based on a 1 thousandth l, grossly statistically insignificant (to mere mortals) piece of mined data. Moderators of this board consider ways of memorializing your brilliance, and head coaches from all around college basketball seek you out to help them understand where their blind spots are. Even Mr Television is humble enough in your presence to seek your vast understanding of all things basketball. You, brilliant, insightful god, are to be congratulated.

Just for the insanity say he peaked...

Rutgers MBB was in the top 25...

Rutgers...
was...
in...
the...
top...
25...

...sometimes I'd think about it and just laugh in disbelief

Sign me up for that peak

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Just for the insanity say he peaked...

Rutgers MBB was in the top 25...

Rutgers...
was...
in...
the...
top...
25...

...sometimes I'd think about it and just laugh in disbelief

Sign me up for that peak

this fan base as a whole has to stop looking at 30 years of sucking and set the bar there. It's a new age, it's time to raise the bar. We should expect to be in contention for the tourney every single year, frankly it's not that much to ask, 68 teams make the field.

 

[RUChoppin]

this fan base as a whole has to stop looking at 30 years of sucking and set the bar there. It's a new age, it's time to raise the bar. We should expect to be in contention for the tourney every single year, frankly it's not that much to ask, 68 teams make the field.

Last I checked, we're in contention for the tourney in Pike's 4th year. We've reached the bar of tourney contention, and now you immediately want to move the goal posts before we've even been selected.

 

[playorbplayd]

this fan base as a whole has to stop looking at 30 years of sucking and set the bar there. It's a new age, it's time to raise the bar. We should expect to be in contention for the tourney every single year, frankly it's not that much to ask, 68 teams make the field.

RU is in contention for the NCAA's this year when most thought NIT was a realistic ceiling. I guess I just don't understand what you expect out of this team this very second. Where should RU be?

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

Scoreboard: 16-7, 7-5.

 

[Eagleton96]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

We dropped out of the top 25? Fire Pike!

 

[Groz]

Hayn was a laughable hire. That hire should've either been A) recruiting stud or B) a guy who knows offense. So yes, my solution is replace Hayn with a coach who knows offense

You are a moron. Steve Hayn has forgotten more basketball than you ever will know. I know, you scored 5 points in your 5th grade rec game 15 years ago.

Why are you picking on him because he isn't a big name? Go check out the resumes of the top 20 coaches in the country and you would see that half of them started their careers as a manager in college and did not play. Steve was a captain in college and I have talked with him a bunch of times and he knows basketball inside and out.

Would you still be complaining if most of the 15 up close shots that we missed the last 2 games went in and we won both games? Is that the coaches fault also?

You are partly right that we have not drawn up great plays in the end of both the Michigan and Maryland games, but you are basically throwing away the great defense that was played to get us the lead or getting us back in the games. Steve Hayn has been a major part of the defense being really good this year. Everyone thought that when Jay Young left to go to Fairfield that our defense would crumble. Did you know that Jay Young was not a basketball player, but was a Lacrosse player in college at Marist?

Come to a practice and you would see how hard Steve Hayn and the rest of the coaches work.

Best of Luck,
Groz

 

[RU848789]

Not by much but we have gotten ever so slightly worse. Last year in B1G play we averaged .987 points per possession, this year we've averaged .986 points per possession. This is extremely concerning when you consider we returned everyone of consequence, team got "older" and replaced Eugene with a more efficient offensive player in Yeboah. Your core is supposed to make their biggest jump between freshman to soph year and we just haven't seen that.

Here's the problem, pike is a horrendous offensive coach. His entire system just relies on motivation and playing hard and hoping you can turn the other team over and convert it into transition buckets. If teams can slow down Steve Pikiell teams, we're screwed because he simply cannot be teaching a half court offense because we run the half court offense similar to that of a middle school jv team. Yes, that sounds harsh but it's honestly true unfortunately.

In Pike's 11 years in the American East he only won the conference tourney once, his 11th year. Now some would say, that's not fair to judge him on because between 2009-2016 he either won the regular season or made it to the american east title game. Then to me the question begs, if you were the 1 for 8 in the conference tourney when you won the regular season or made the title game what happened? To me I think what happens is pikes entire program is based on motivating guys and getting them to play hard. Come march EVERY team is motivated and playing hard, so he falls on his face because he can't out coach his opposition. In that conference he had talent no par with his peers, here he doesnt.

I've had concerns over Pike and personally, I think we're seeing his ceiling before our eyes. He's going to be very limited in what he can do because he simply doesn't coach offensive basketball. 11-9 is probably our absolute ceiling in years when the big ten is full of good teams, not great teams, which is this year. Down the stretch, 6 of our 8 remaining opponents will be highly motivated to secure tourney position, the two that won't are NW (out) and Maryland who's comfortably in at this point. We're about to see a collapse and an NIT and no, to me that's not an accomplishment.

You clearly know nothing about statistics.

 

[RUJMM78]

Rutgers is a over achieving team that plays good to very good defense in most games giving the team a realistic chance to successfully compete.On the other hand the half court offense has been mediocre in most games even when Rutgers has won.There has been vert little consistency game to game by any player.At crunch time the offense really takes a downward spiral. The pressure to make shots seems to be overwhelming as seen with failure to finish around the basket ,shooting air balls and a inability to get to the foul line like other teams do at crunch time.

I am happy because Rutgers finally has broken the consecutive losing seasons streak.The team still has enough remaining games to justify post season play but it will require a far better performance on both ends of the court.

 

[Treeman]

Peak Pike!

You heard it here first! Facts

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

RU is in contention for the NCAA's this year when most thought NIT was a realistic ceiling. I guess I just don't understand what you expect out of this team this very second. Where should RU be?

I fully expected a tourney bid coming into this season and I posted pre-season that anything other than a tourney birth was a failure. But we have people celebrating that we're even in contention for the tourney. We've set a low bar. Tourney or bust this year especially considering how we started B1G play

 

[playorbplayd]

I fully expected a tourney bid coming into this season and I posted pre-season that anything other than a tourney birth was a failure. But we have people celebrating that we're even in contention for the tourney. We've set a low bar. Tourney or bust this year especially considering how we started B1G play

I don't know so even if your expectations were higher than mine they're currently right where you think they should be at 29th in the NET. Agree with your sky is the limit mentality, but the timeline is just tough. Gotta keep building and this year has been huge for that.

Took a broken down car, turned it into a reliable car over the past couple of years, finally got a luxury car this year...hopefully a supercar is in the future.