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Basketball Rutgers Basketball wing Gavin Griffiths enters Transfer Portal

Say his name, it's ru72 and acting like you know it "all" never works
See "in the bank" years ago re Watkins which was just wrong.

As to Griffiths, he got minutes and shots his performance didnt deserve TO BUILD FOR THE FUTURE.

WITH THE PORTAL there is no real future-it's all one year only.

NCAA has to get control of this or else the golden goose will go away (loyal alum/local support-as what are you supporting-mercenaries? just watch G league or NBA)
 
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We could not be any more supportive of GG...I just think he expected to have more success.

Team players play where needed. Selfish players sit on bench and pout.

I thought he was out the door 3/4 through the season when he would go through warm ups and sulk. Surprised coach tried so hard to keep him.

Very replaceable......
 
See "in the bank" years ago re Watkins which was just wrong.

As to Griffiths, he got minutes and shots his performance didnt deserve TO BUILD FOR THE FUTURE.

WITH THE PORTAL there is no real future-it's all one year only.

NCAA has to get control of this or else the golden goose will go away (loyal alum/local support-as what are you supporting-mercenaries? just watch G league or NBA)
Player's who get NILs entering a school must stay at that school for 2 years or lose all college eligibility
 
Lol, whatever. This rubs me the wrong way more so than many other transfers. I don’t begrudge anyone leaving but saying all that stuff about how you will never transfer and then transferring makes you look like an idiot / not a man of your word.

I liked him / hoped he would stay but the bottom line is he wasn’t very good at the moment so whatever. Not that big of a loss and I imagine if he’s worrying about playing time he will be transferring down.

Now cue up all the stupid analysis about how having some 4* guy suck and then transfer is some terrible look in an era where like 65% of every team transfers. Yeah.. I’m sure this will move the needle lol.
 
Been saying this all year. Major changes needed by Pike on the offensive side of the court. Offensive production puts you in the NBA. Top kids don’t want to come to Rutgers to get benched in favor of 1 dimensional players that only play defense.
 
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Pike is closer to being gone than he is coaching in the new arena. The list of excuses can only get to be so long.

Team on the court is trending in the wrong direction and now we have culture problems , kids quitting mid season, and high praised recruits walking away after one year.

Seats hot
I would hope so
 
here is the deal....if Pike cannot CLOSE with who he has and who he WANTED to STAY and who could be a mainstay his junior/senior year, how can anyone be confident he can convince LEGIT not just okay portal player to come to Rutgers

losing your top recruits....like Jones/Gavin amongst huge black hole in depth in recruiting for other seasons is something I hope people start paying attention to instead of slogging off

yes next year is a sugar high with 2 players that fallen into his lap and then gone...and then then what
Jones and Gavin both sucked. Now you can discuss why that is and what responsibility Pike has for recruiting them but the fact that they both left after failing at high level basketball is not the problem.

Remind me where Jaden ****ing Jones plays these days lol?
 
The only potential mismanagement here is that Pike gave this bitch as many minutes as he did given that he was one of the worst players on a bad team and apparently isn’t interested in working on that.
 
Everyone supporting NIL..this is what yall wanted!!!
Not really.. the unrestricted transferring is the problem much more than the NIL itself. And as far as I can tell literally no one (except the players who are transferring I guess) likes it but it’s apparently illegal to even suggest a restriction on anything so 🤷🏻‍♂️

Like last I checked you don’t have half the NBA moving around every season and I’m pretty certain they can get NIL in that league too
 
Assuming Oskar leaves, that's 5 slots open. And two of the players in next year's class are presumed one-and-done talent. So that leaves 7 slots for 2025-26 roster if all of the portal players are seniors with 1 year of eligibility. And we have no commits for that year's incoming class as of now. How many of the 5 spots this offseason will replaced by incoming senior year players?
Let's say next year goes well and we have a Sweet 16 team (or better?). What kind of continuity will be there for the subsequent year, if all 5 of this year's players are seniors in final year of eligibility. Will next year be 1 good season among a series of miserable years?
I hope Pike can bring in a few players this year, maybe two, who are at least juniors. If this year's portal season is giving me angina, what will next year's offseason look like?
And when will be begin to see some class of 2025 commits? Who is trending our way right now?
This year, by having no postseason, we are well situated to attract portal players right away. Next year, if we're in the tournament, it will be harder to replenish through the portal.
 
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1. Gavin questions why we don’t run a college level competent offense and his “open” shots are 30/35 ft out!

Good point, he was probably extremely shocked by the offensive style of the coach who recruited him. I mean, how could he possibly have known Pike was a defensively focused coach? Prior to this season it was practically unknowable. I was SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU.

also you may have noticed none of our other players had to launch from 35 feet out to get a look and last I checked they played on the same team in the same offense. I mean they bricked them all but that’s another issue entirely
 
No players left from either Classes of 2021 and 2022 on team. 1 of 3 already gone from Class of 2023. Wish it were Ndongo who stayed, instead of GG. When Ace committed, I wondered if GG would stay. Did he commit thinking he would be the centerpiece? Wished he would have stayed. Think he could have developed into something special. And even if he didn't start next year, he would have been a core player in rotation on a team that could have made a run.
 
So, someone in your ear for a year questioning their use and the staff's competence isn't going to have an effect? Pike allowed Mag to fester around the program for months eventually someone will listen. Why is Gavin now suddenly questioning his role and demanding playing time? Obviously, Gavin and Mag had some sort of friendship, otherwise he wouldn't have gone public with his defense of him. I didn't read any other players doing so.
Seems a lot more likely the playing time thing came because of his post season convo with Pike rather than anything to do with Mag.
 
Pike can coach diamond in the rough, lower tier recruits and get them to win. The track record is pretty bad with all of his higher rated recruits (when they committed). This is why i am not in love with Harper and Bailey coming here.

With the portal and NIL things have changed so much so i dont know where that leaves is with Pike.

Will be very interesting to watch. Also keep your eyes on Bennett at Virginia. Can he make the transition to a new environment?
I mean, Cliff was his highest recruit pre-Gavin and was definitely not a failure.

Jones and Griffiths certainly seem to be recruiting failures more than coaching failures so not really sure how that is supposed to translate to Dylan/Ace
 
Good point, he was probably extremely shocked by the offensive style of the coach who recruited him. I mean, how could he possibly have known Pike was a defensively focused coach? Prior to this season it was practically unknowable. I was SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU.

also you may have noticed none of our other players had to launch from 35 feet out to get a look and last I checked they played on the same team in the same offense. I mean they bricked them all but that’s another issue entirely
He wasn’t told that we would run an uptempo offense this year and that Pike designs his system around its players and talent? I know we were all told that pre season. Stick to spreadsheets were you competent. Or practice your trombone
 
He wasn’t told that we would run an uptempo offense this year and that Pike designs his system around its players and talent? I know we were all told that pre season. Stick to spreadsheets were you competent. Or practice your trombone
I don’t know what he was told but this year’s team actually had the highest tempo of any Pike team ever (including Stony Brook)
 
I don’t know what he was told but this year’s team actually had the highest tempo of any Pike team ever (including Stony Brook)
He’s leaving because we were and still our a pathetic coached offensive team. Unless he unlocks his offensive game has no shot at playing the next level. He knows there is NO SHOT at becoming better offensively playing for Pike.

Has nothing to do with competing for minutes as he was starting next year
 
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For everyone concerned with the number of players in the portal, let’s just look at them:

1. Chol — no surprise, landed at Howard.
2. Wolf — bummer he didn’t develop from a few nice glimpses we saw freshman year, but clearly was not adding much value.
3. Mag — talent for sure, but decided protecting his market value was more important than going to war with his guys — I’m fine letting someone else deal with that type of player.
4. Simpson — clearly wasn’t hacking it at the B1G level, statistically at the bottom of any P5 offensive metric BY A LOT.
5. Cliff — sucks for sure and I’d love to have him back for his defensive presence alone next year, but guy gave us 4 years. I think the general sentiment around the fan base is respect.
6. GG — stings for sure given the expectations we all had, but also there are indications that he was being told his role might not be guaranteed next year. Fact is: we don’t know how much of this is due to Pike telling him what to expect next year

I’m with everyone else — this NIL/portal era absolutely sucks, it’s deflating, and it has the potential to really change the way a lot of people feel about their college team. But when you evaluate each one of our departures, there are arguments to be made that they all make some sense for Rutgers going forward.

With that said, Pike NEEDS to win the offseason now.
Pretty spot on with all of your analysis:

1. Chol - Honestly don't care - I'm indifferent and hope everything works out for him.
2. Wolf - I really liked him and his character, but he really is an end of the bench guy here at this point. His ideal place is elsewhere - rooting for him!
3. Mag - The poster child for everything wrong with NIL. Will be interesting to see how a guy who tried to work Rutgers and the NIL system for everything he could turns out in life. He may hold some cards now, but that's not how things work in the real world. Either way I hope he never steps foot on this campus again.
4. Simpson - I'm not mad at him and think it was time for a change of scenery/coaching for him. There is a kink in his game that makes him just miss and miss and miss. Anyway wouldn't be surprised if things turn out nicely for Simpson and definitely rooting for him.
5. Cliff - Thank you for your times on the Banks Cliff. Maybe you could of done this and maybe you could have done that, but you are a loyal son as far as I'm concerned and a huge fan favorite. Rooting for you and hope things work out....BUT if they don't give you the NIL deal you want you are always welcome back - only guy I'll donate to.
6. Gavin - I don't know what to say other than that this leaves a bad taste in my mouth the same way as Cam and Paul did last year. This one hurts because you could see the potential - you could see him starting to blossom. You could see the fit with Ace and Dylan and how that would free him up to shoot the lights out. I know people are mad because he fell in love, got caught up in his emotions and said something his 2nd week of dating about never leaving that would come back to haunt him. If it was about money maybe I could live with that. If he's quiet kid and this is all just too overwhelming maybe I could live with that. But that's not what is being reported - it's his role on the team. Kid, your 18-19 years old and sound like a total idiot with no clue - and that's with you getting guidance from people who should know better. Gavin is in the Mag bucket for me - I don't ever want to see him on this campus again unless its for us to Boo him unmercifully. Handled poorly by him and the people around him - bad start to his adult life.
 
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I don’t know what he was told but this year’s team actually had the highest tempo of any Pike team ever (including Stony Brook)
Oh and side note not directed you but on why I hate analytics. There was Zero resemblance of an uptempo offense this year. Just another example of why numbers are not always gospel.
 
He’s leaving because we were and still our a pathetic coached offensive team. Unless he unlocks his offensive game has no shot at playing the next level. He knows there is NO SHOT at becoming better offensively playing for Pike.

Has nothing to do with competing for minutes as he was starting next year
Ok but counterpoint: that’s all stuff you made up.
 
Oh and side note not directed you but on why I hate analytics. There was Zero resemblance of an uptempo offense this year. Just another example of why numbers are not always gospel.
Well to be clear, I said fastest. Not fast. We were #152 in adjusted tempo.
 
I mean, Cliff was his highest recruit pre-Gavin and was definitely not a failure.

Jones and Griffiths certainly seem to be recruiting failures more than coaching failures so not really sure how that is supposed to translate to Dylan/Ace
Cliff was the only one
 
Cliff was the only one
I mean Cliff and Gavin are really the only two recruits he’s had that were all that highly ranked. So 1/2 i guess. Jones wasn’t rated that much higher than someone like RHJ (a rivals four star as well) and he was obviously a success as well.
 
He wasn’t that good. Overhyped prospect. Couldn’t even shoot feee throws well. Good luck to him but move on. Not the first and not the last big time recruit to not make it here
 
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I wonder if the reaction here is totally different if he had 3 stars next to his name rather than 4.

He was bad last year. And he got plenty of time. That said I think it's OK for some guys here to say it still wasn't enough time and why are we playing Oskar etc. But clearly he was given enough time to judge.... that he wasn't great. Could he take a leap? I guess... but can somebody point me to a historical comparison that suggests GG taking a leap that warrants the agita some have due to him leaving?

Finally - I don't know Gavin and I don't know why he's leaving. But to me it's not a major leap to conclude that we are looking at upgrades and he was concerned about PT. Just IMO.
 
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I wonder if the reaction here is totally different if he had 3 stars next to his name rather than 4.

He was bad last year. And he got plenty of time. That said I think it's OK for some guys here to say it still wasn't enough time and why are we playing Oskar etc. But clearly he was given enough time to judge.... that he wasn't great. Could he take a leap? I guess... but can somebody point me to a historical comparison that suggests GG taking a leap that warrants the agita some have due to him leaving?

Finally - I don't know Gavin and I don't know why he's leaving. But to me it's not a major leap to conclude that we are looking at upgrades and he was concerned about PT. Just IMO.
PT is dead on. Does he even start next yr. Likely no when everything shakes out.
 
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