Basketball Rutgers Basketball Suffers Double OT loss to USC in Big Ten Tournament

[BOGDANOVICH]

ESPN had story last night about how Rutgers had two lottery picks yet did not make the NCAA tournament. Pike will never be able to live this down. His career is virtually over . Rutgers will now be forever known as the team that could not do it even with two NBA players on the roster. What a legacy Pike has given us.

 

[BOCA93]

He’s always tired

Pretty sure he has asthma. Constantly winded.

 

[seansherm]

Harper has blown numerous end of game situations. Seton Hall was a mirage

Yup. Made a bunch of really poor plays a critical times this year.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Harper very poor decision maker and not willing to sacrifice his body

Not a great college player..Just a good high volume scorer

1-8 from 3 part of a 6-30 performance. Almost impossible to win against anyone with a pulse shooting like that.

 

[DHajekRC84]

Harper very poor decision maker and not willing to sacrifice his body

Not a great college player..Just a good high volume scorer

Indifferent. Super skilled but you could see his motivation was him and not so much team.

Dylan me
Ace cared

 

[RUinOhio]

Amazing that an 18 year old kid like Harper can be in such bad shape. I get he was sick but that was 6 weeks ago. Does he ever do cardio?

I think a big part of that is he’s going up against a lot of older “men” as Pitino was quoted above. I kinda think that’s why we looked pretty good in Vegas. They were completely fresh. But then the realization hits, they think “we have to do this every night?”. It ain’t HS anymore. No “easy” games.

 

[RUChoppin]

Harper very poor decision maker and not willing to sacrifice his body

Not a great college player..Just a good high volume scorer

He deferred so much this game. Looked gassed and uninterested in shouldering the load.

 

[SBP]

JWill loses more games than he wins. Period. Yes he will get a steal here and there, occasionally a timely 3, or sloppy lucky layup, but will miss big time when needed. Not clutch. Choked on the line, and also is a ball hog.

Please don’t come back. Stick to your podcast.

 

[Degaz-RU]

well the good news is that it saved a drubbing tomorrow

The better news is that we won’t be invited to any post season tournaments. The season has thankfully been killed.

 

[Hondo77]

Why is it so hard being a Rutgers fan.

Always has been. I think Tom Young made some kind of deal with the devil to get to the Final Four.

 

[BOCA93]

Really hope there’s no shot of getting tapped for the Vegas tourney. This season just needs to be over

 

[bethlehemfan]

We had what 2 good years and a couple of decent ones in 34 years. Back to being shit I guess.

 

[Hondo77]

You need to get the right players the right shots and the right players need the ball in crucial situations That’s a coach’s job. Not being able to get the ball to anyone except Williams was brutal. They were guarding Williams so it’s not like his man was double teaming .

If only we had the right players.

 

[RU Mike73]

RHJr >>>> than DH

 

[kt124]

the Pikiell loyalists are out in full force I see, brave after that performance

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Why would we press after makes? It’s not like we’ve forced a turnover pretty much every time we’ve done it.

It made no sense. Not only this - but I’m more convinced than ever that the press is also Pike’s best offense. We couldn’t buy a basket either today until we started making transition shots off their turnovers. That’s how we scored the year Mag got hurt and we ran press too. The issue last year was the guys we had didn’t finish off those steals.

Are they afraid to run the press without ace? He was at the top, no rim protection, no rebounding..the holes on this team get exposed without him in the game. Terrible roster, hopefully they can pull off a w

Maybe - but then at the very end we pressed again. It was already too late, we ran the damn thing with nobody down there at all. I guess at that point we were just done.

Pike blew it with inbounds 2x.. Infuriating

J will was a zero

Harper came up small when it mattered

J Will bricked the FTs and the 3 but he made the comeback possible. I said I hope we commit to the press next year, and now I’m more convinced than ever that’s what would give us the best chance to turn things around. If that’s the direction we go in, I want JWill to be a part of it. If we’re planning to run a halfcourt offense through Somerville and hope we get a few shooters, then yeah, J Will is not a fit with that. But I fear we’ll end up with a record like Seton Hall’s if we go in this direction. Offense will be worse than this year while D will be the same if not worse.

 

[bethlehemfan]

RHJr >>>> than DH

To be fair if Dylan was surrounded by what jr was we’d be saying what a great freshman he is and wondering what our seed would be.

 

[robjknight]

You have to win when you are up 4 with 40 seconds to go

 

[seansherm]

At the very least, it was an entertaining game

 

[Shelby65]

Somerville continues to shoot mid range jumpers and play zero D. Please enter portal tomorrow.

Amen. Spends more time on his belly than a newborn.

 

[Scarlet Jerry]

Terrible decision

I disagree. Harper was exhausted and wasn’t going to hit a three. He could have drove inside and tried to get fouled maybe, but Harper was wiped. He did play a heck of a game.

 

[Rokodesh]

Thank the lord this shit is over.

Have 7 months to prepare for a 5 win season next year.

 

[bethlehemfan]

At the very least, it was an entertaining game

I haven’t been watching live live cause the team sucked but figured I’d try again tonight. Not entertaining to me. Annoying as hell though.

 

[bitnez]

The press worked when Harper was on the bench. Once he came in we had to pull it off because he doesn’t have the legs to play it well.

 

[robjknight]

Time for Spring football!

 

[RU848789]

Brutal end to a brutal season. Was our monthly on-line poker night (scheduled before we knew the RU tourney schedule - 5 of the 8 of us in our group have RU hoops season tix and the other 3 are fans), so we half played poker and half watched the game, until there was under 8 minutes left and just stopped playing poker to focus on the game. Really nice comeback, but we blew it at the end again after being up with the ball and 1 minute left. JW, who played really hard, simply missed that layup and the 2 FTs and if he hits any of those we likely win. And wtf was that last shot by Harper in regulation? He has to drive that to the hoop and either miss or get fouled. 2nd OT we ran out of gas. Hurt not having Ace out there. Oh well. Now I'm pretty sure we're out of the NCAAs. See ya next season.

 

[seansherm]

I haven’t been watching live live cause the team sucked but figured I’d try again tonight. Not entertaining to me. Annoying as hell though.

All depends on your expectations I guess. I said in the very beginning that it was two bad teams and no result would surprise me.

 

[Caliknight]

At least we weren't a national embarrassment during the Eddie j years. People just ignored our team.

I for sure had more fun watching Hill and Rice teams vs the team this year

Yea we were. We could barely win a 1 conference game

 

[dbegleiter]

Amen. Spends more time on his belly than a newborn.

Not sure what game you were watching. Played hard, scored and rebounded. He will get paid next year

 

[Caliknight]

Brutal end to a brutal season. Was our monthly on-line poker night (scheduled before we knew the RU tourney schedule - 5 of the 8 of us in our group have RU hoops season tix and the other 3 are fans), so we half played poker and half watched the game, until there was under 8 minutes left and just stopped playing poker to focus on the game. Really nice comeback, but we blew it at the end again after being up with the ball and 1 minute left. JW, who played really hard, simply missed that layup and the 2 FTs and if he hits any of those we likely win. And wtf was that last shot by Harper in regulation? He has to drive that to the hoop and either miss or get fouled. 2nd OT we ran out of gas. Hurt not having Ace out there. Oh well. Now I'm pretty sure we're out of the NCAAs. See ya next season.

Everyone was wondering what you were doing

 

[bethlehemfan]

All depends on your expectations I guess. I said in the very beginning that it was two bad teams and no result would surprise me

That’s how I started out but they sucked me in haha. Saved us a blowout tomorrow. This soft as shit season is over finally.

 

[seansherm]

That’s how I started out but they sucked me in haha. Saved us a blowout tomorrow. This soft as shit season is over finally.

We hope

 

[AshCatchEm]

Yea we were. We could barely win a 1 conference game

That's just not true. When nobody was talking about Rutgers, we were not a national embarrassment. We were ignored and forgotten. When people talk about how we couldn't even make the tournament with 2 generational 5 star recruits, we are a national embarrassment and there will be headlines about it

I'd rather we be ignored than lose with top talent like this

 

[bethlehemfan]

We hope

Well it’s over for me regardless haha. (Need to keep that promise to myself).

 

[BOCA93]

I disagree. Harper was exhausted and wasn’t going to hit a three. He could have drove inside and tried to get fouled maybe, but Harper was wiped. He did play a heck of a game.

Didn’t need him to hit a three. His game is getting into the paint and making things happen. Which he did, but then decided to kick it out to a career 26% 3pt shooter. Not to mention JWill is the least clutch player out there. Mussleman couldn’t have hoped for a better sequence. He’s the best player on the court and it was time to step up - that was a poor decision

 

[Shelby65]

Didn’t need him to hit a three. His game is getting into the paint and making things happen. Which he did, but then decided to kick it out to a career 26% 3pt shooter. Not to mention JWill is the least clutch player out there. Mussleman couldn’t have hoped for a better sequence. He’s the best player on the court and it was time to step up - that was a poor decision

Acuff should have been where JWill was.

 

[BOCA93]

Acuff should have been where JWill was.

Agreed. But There’s a reason he was open. Same reason USC wanted him to get every inbounds.

 

[Shelby65]

Agreed. But There’s a reason he was open. Same reason USC wanted him to get every inbounds.

Acuff would have been open too due to the focus on Harper. Or, screen for Acuff to get to that spot.

 

[Hondo77]

I don’t even want to hear Pickell at the post game press conference.

 

[bethlehemfan]

I don’t even want to hear Pickell at the post game press conference.

He’s gonna say we had good looks.