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Basketball Rutgers Basketball wing Gavin Griffiths enters Transfer Portal

My arguement at the time and still was....

what kind of development is happening in 103 minutes of court time vs. hours and hours practicing against teammates.

When you intend on playing a kid 8 minutes he knows he is getting 5 offensive possessions to stay on the court. If the player doesn't deserve to play there is also resentment from his teammates.
 
Completely fair but if you want the program to the next level you hold Pike to his own expectations of RU is a tournament team every year. He said this not me. When a coach reaches his level you thank him for raising the level of the program and you find a coach who can then take the program to new heights. You don’t wait until they run it back into the ground and then hire the next coach and give them ten years with the same set of excuses. We are not the team or program of 20,30,40 years ago: Thank you Pike! If you can not get us to the next level we move on to the next coach who can. That is why other programs have continued sucesss.
Your memory and basketball knowledge is like a 2 year old. Covid year was an NCAA team , next year an NCAA team that lost to Houston in Round of 32 when Miles missed a dunk with 4:23 to go and we missed a box out at the end ; next year NCAA team lost anOT game to Notre Dane in one of the best games of the tourney and Notre Dame beats TCU thereafter. ; next year 100% of the bracketologists had RU in the tourney and the committee screws us citing Mag’s injury. That was clearly an NCAA team. This year a team that couldn’t shoot straight missing open look after open look and tons of layups.
So your memory of downward projectory when he has recruited 2 of the top 3 players on the country is asinine. Grow up and realize bad seasons happen . A third grade youth team shooting better might have made a difference. Your take on Pike, who does a lot of things I do not like like his defined rotations and subbing , does not warrant your spewing the hate on him. Pathetic fan.
 
Your memory and basketball knowledge is like a 2 year old. Covid year was an NCAA team , next year an NCAA team that lost to Houston in Round of 32 when Miles missed a dunk with 4:23 to go and we missed a box out at the end ; next year NCAA team lost anOT game to Notre Dane in one of the best games of the tourney and Notre Dame beats TCU thereafter. ; next year 100% of the bracketologists had RU in the tourney and the committee screws us citing Mag’s injury. That was clearly an NCAA team. This year a team that couldn’t shoot straight missing open look after open look and tons of layups.
So your memory of downward projectory when he has recruited 2 of the top 3 players on the country is asinine. Grow up and realize bad seasons happen . A third grade youth team shooting better might have made a difference. Your take on Pike, who does a lot of things I do not like like his defined rotations and subbing , does not warrant your spewing the hate on him. Pathetic fan.
why do you have to attack people like that?

If you are spell his name correctly
 
Your memory and basketball knowledge is like a 2 year old. Covid year was an NCAA team , next year an NCAA team that lost to Houston in Round of 32 when Miles missed a dunk with 4:23 to go and we missed a box out at the end ; next year NCAA team lost anOT game to Notre Dane in one of the best games of the tourney and Notre Dame beats TCU thereafter. ; next year 100% of the bracketologists had RU in the tourney and the committee screws us citing Mag’s injury. That was clearly an NCAA team. This year a team that couldn’t shoot straight missing open look after open look and tons of layups.
So your memory of downward projectory when he has recruited 2 of the top 3 players on the country is asinine. Grow up and realize bad seasons happen . A third grade youth team shooting better might have made a difference. Your take on Pike, who does a lot of things I do not like like his defined rotations and subbing , does not warrant your spewing the hate on him. Pathetic fan.
Let’s do us both a favor and not get into basketball IQ because I will leave you at the kiddie table.
Let’s review your summary.

Ok, so Covid year was an NCAA team. Perfect!
Next season. Houston game go back and watch the tape. Pike panicked and went four corners took the air out of the ball and the run we were on. Pike went to what he knows and thought he could rely on his defense to take us home and that lost the game.
ND which was a play in game (not a real tournament game). Pike decided to not let ND beat us from 3. ND used that to go 5 out and expose Cliffs inability to guard athletic bigs in space. Pike NEVER adjusted and late in the game ran the same inbounds play he ran a week earlier against Penn state . Both times turning the ball over .
Next year: Miss tournament melt down. He loses to Minn the only game that he could not lose which kept us OUT of the tournament. His personal decisions that day and rotations were awful. Late in the game Paul turns the ball over in the back court. Pike had time outs left during that MINN come back and he had one on that play and he PANICKED once again and never used them. He went on to lose that NIT game as a 1 seed at home.
Last year sub 500 record ZERO development of his biggest recruit or to date or the team. His offense continues to regress and he just had 5 major contributors leave his program.
He is 30 games under 500 since taking the job and his big ten tournament record is equally bad. So using your summary :
-Covid year tournament team ( best team(
-Made the tournament
-Play in game
-NIT game(was a 5 seed 100% bracketoloists 3 weeks before season ended)
-Losing season
How could anyone say he’s not moving backwards?
Go get another lolli pop! The adults are talking.
 
Your memory and basketball knowledge is like a 2 year old. Covid year was an NCAA team , next year an NCAA team that lost to Houston in Round of 32 when Miles missed a dunk with 4:23 to go and we missed a box out at the end ; next year NCAA team lost anOT game to Notre Dane in one of the best games of the tourney and Notre Dame beats TCU thereafter. ; next year 100% of the bracketologists had RU in the tourney and the committee screws us citing Mag’s injury. That was clearly an NCAA team. This year a team that couldn’t shoot straight missing open look after open look and tons of layups.
So your memory of downward projectory when he has recruited 2 of the top 3 players on the country is asinine. Grow up and realize bad seasons happen . A third grade youth team shooting better might have made a difference. Your take on Pike, who does a lot of things I do not like like his defined rotations and subbing , does not warrant your spewing the hate on him. Pathetic fan.

I seriously doubt rudivision is an RU fan. If he is he’s amongst the most miserable RU fans out there. Dude needs help - just constant ridiculous negativity
 
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I was a huge GG proponent all year. I saw a very clear role for him next year as a 3 pt floor spacer jumping to an 8-10 ppg player with a logical development to a 13-15 ppg player as a junior. I have no doubt that would’ve happened here, and I’m pretty sure that’s what will happen somewhere else now. But, he tapped out here, which is lame. And it is different than Cliff who stayed for years or even Derek who although younger was handed the keys and realized he had to drop down in competition to be successful.
 
My arguement at the time and still was....

what kind of development is happening in 103 minutes of court time vs. hours and hours practicing against teammates.

When you intend on playing a kid 8 minutes he knows he is getting 5 offensive possessions to stay on the court. If the player doesn't deserve to play there is also resentment from his teammates.
You are not wrong, but my biggest criticism of Pike is he had extra time this season to get the team ready, yet the entire team, not just Gavin, looked completely unprepared to start the season. The contrast to Princeton in the opener was stark, we were completely out hustled and outcoached, and you saw one team where everyone understood their role, and another team were everyone looked lost. We then proceeded to sleepwalk through the next several games, culminating in a near loss to Stonehill, which was only fielding six scholarship players. This was not the first time a Pike team got off to a poor start, I really hope he learned something from this year and has a better game plan for getting the team ready next year.
 
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Let’s do us both a favor and not get into basketball IQ because I will leave you at the kiddie table.
Let’s review your summary.

Ok, so Covid year was an NCAA team. Perfect!
Next season. Houston game go back and watch the tape. Pike panicked and went four corners took the air out of the ball and the run we were on. Pike went to what he knows and thought he could rely on his defense to take us home and that lost the game.
ND which was a play in game (not a real tournament game). Pike decided to not let ND beat us from 3. ND used that to go 5 out and expose Cliffs inability to guard athletic bigs in space. Pike NEVER adjusted and late in the game ran the same inbounds play he ran a week earlier against Penn state . Both times turning the ball over .
Next year: Miss tournament melt down. He loses to Minn the only game that he could not lose which kept us OUT of the tournament. His personal decisions that day and rotations were awful. Late in the game Paul turns the ball over in the back court. Pike had time outs left during that MINN come back and he had one on that play and he PANICKED once again and never used them. He went on to lose that NIT game as a 1 seed at home.
Last year sub 500 record ZERO development of his biggest recruit or to date or the team. His offense continues to regress and he just had 5 major contributors leave his program.
He is 30 games under 500 since taking the job and his big ten tournament record is equally bad. So using your summary :
-Covid year tournament team ( best team(
-Made the tournament
-Play in game
-NIT game(was a 5 seed 100% bracketoloists 3 weeks before season ended)
-Losing season
How could anyone say he’s not moving backwards?
Go get another lolli pop! The adults are talking.
Your opinion is really not shared by a majority of real Rutgers fans. It is pretty obvious you have never played a minute of competitive basketball because God
forbid you give another team credit for something. Great teams lose games in the tournament and lose games in a tough league. Every game is not perfect.
Your disingenuous citing of Pike’s first years record in the BiG 10 when he was digging us out from hell is simply not fair nor honest. What is the record the last 5 years ?
This year sucked and was a function of players who decided to shoot the worst % in the nation and guards that did not understand how to make the team better. They got open plenty and missed every open look over and over again. No one saw that coming or that Gavin was mostly struggling his freshman year. Almost the whole team played much worse than expectations except maybe JMike. Losing Ndongo , Cam and Paul hurt much more than was expected. Those are just facts you refuse to see.
Come back next year and watch how our team does with basically the same philosophy and see how things change. Not too much because of the coach but because of the players.
 
Your opinion is really not shared by a majority of real Rutgers fans. It is pretty obvious you have never played a minute of competitive basketball because God
forbid you give another team credit for something. Great teams lose games in the tournament and lose games in a tough league. Every game is not perfect.
Your disingenuous citing of Pike’s first years record in the BiG 10 when he was digging us out from hell is simply not fair nor honest. What is the record the last 5 years ?
This year sucked and was a function of players who decided to shoot the worst % in the nation and guards that did not understand how to make the team better. They got open plenty and missed every open look over and over again. No one saw that coming or that Gavin was mostly struggling his freshman year. Almost the whole team played much worse than expectations except maybe JMike. Losing Ndongo , Cam and Paul hurt much more than was expected. Those are just facts you refuse to see.
Come back next year and watch how our team does with basically the same philosophy and see how things change. Not too much because of the coach but because of the players.
Have played a lot and other teams do deserve credit no doubt especially when they capitalize on our mistakes.

Who brought in the talent , recruits, transfers to build on his culture for last years team? A lot of “Real RU fans “ were the same ones who supported every bad coach that came before Pike. The same fans who have us in a 40 plus year hole. Last years team was built, developed, and coached by Pike. So excusing the bad year on players who he is responsible for is lazy and uneducated. Next year any success the boards will be quick to give Pike all the credit and not simply the talent upgrade. Thats completely fair because that is the job. All the success when your good AND the criticism when your bad.

No doubt Pike deserves credit for digging RU out of a tremendous hole. Pike is arguably top 10 defensive coaches in all of college basketball. Pike is a top 5 human being . Next year’s recruiting class is a HUGE step for the program.

However, We just finished second to last in the conference in his 9 season. 7 major minute players/starters left in the last 2 years. One starter quit mid season. All facts and not how after 8/9 years you build a winning program or culture.

I am trying to be fair but critical just as I would for any other coach or program. The goal is to build a winning program and culture for a place I love. If holding a coach to his own self proclaimed standards is negative then I apologize.

These boards use 40 years of history as an excuse, modern day basketball (portal when it does not work), talent as excuses. NIL even when we pay for top 2 recruiting classes and portal talent. Every excuse has been debunked.

The game has changed and we have a top notch school, great location, facilities, media, surrounded by unbelievable deep HS talent. I just believe we can and should be better.

It’s not negative to recognize when a player has reached his level. Power 5 , mid major, starter , bench player. Etc It’s also not negative to recognize when a coach has reached his level as well.

Next year we will be better no doubt but let’s focus on a winning program and culture. Sustainable success. No more excuses. We actually will play a season after next year.
 
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Have played a lot and other teams do deserve credit no doubt especially when they capitalize on our mistakes.

Who brought in the talent , recruits, transfers to build on his culture for last years team? A lot of “Real RU fans “ were the same ones who supported every bad coach that came before Pike. The same fans who have us in a 40 plus year hole. Last years team was built, developed, and coached by Pike. So excusing the bad year on players who he is responsible for is lazy and uneducated. Next year any success the boards will be quick to give Pike all the credit and not simply the talent upgrade. Thats completely fair because that is the job. All the success when your good AND the criticism when your bad.

No doubt Pike deserves credit for digging RU out of a tremendous hole. Pike is arguably top 10 defensive coaches in all of college basketball. Pike is a top 5 human being . Next year’s recruiting class is a HUGE step for the program.

However, We just finished second to last in the conference in his 9 season. 7 major minute players/starters left in the last 2 years. One starter quit mid season. All facts and not how after 8/9 years you build a winning program or culture.

I am trying to be fair but critical just as I would for any other coach or program. The goal is to build a winning program and culture for a place I love. If holding a coach to his own self proclaimed standards is negative then I apologize.

These boards use 40 years of history as an excuse, modern day basketball (portal when it does not work), talent as excuses. NIL even when we pay for top 2 recruiting classes and portal talent. Every excuse has been debunked.

The game has changed and we have a top notch school, great location, facilities, media, surrounded by unbelievable deep HS talent. I just believe we can and should be better.

It’s not negative to recognize when a player has reached his level. Power 5 , mid major, starter , bench player. Etc It’s also not negative to recognize when a coach has reached his level as well.

Next year we will be better no doubt but let’s focus on a winning program and culture. Sustainable success. No more excuses. We actually will play a season after next year.
You sounded rational for 2/3 of it until you got to the part where you talked about the practical realities of our situation as excuses. And then blithely said that they all have been debunked. All those circumstances that you call excuses are the crux of the matter. It’s the actual context that surrounds and informs any judgment. And, if by “debunked “you are referring to the half baked garbage arguments that you have been offering, then I have to beg to differ.
 
Your opinion is really not shared by a majority of real Rutgers fans. It is pretty obvious you have never played a minute of competitive basketball because God
forbid you give another team credit for something. Great teams lose games in the tournament and lose games in a tough league. Every game is not perfect.
Your disingenuous citing of Pike’s first years record in the BiG 10 when he was digging us out from hell is simply not fair nor honest. What is the record the last 5 years ?
This year sucked and was a function of players who decided to shoot the worst % in the nation and guards that did not understand how to make the team better. They got open plenty and missed every open look over and over again. No one saw that coming or that Gavin was mostly struggling his freshman year. Almost the whole team played much worse than expectations except maybe JMike. Losing Ndongo , Cam and Paul hurt much more than was expected. Those are just facts you refuse to see.
Come back next year and watch how our team does with basically the same philosophy and see how things change. Not too much because of the coach but because of the players.
Spot on - except I’m guessing they didn’t consciously “decide” to be the worst shooting team in the country. Lol
 
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RUDivision, You are totally wrong on Steve's record being 30 games under .500. In his 8 years coaching at RU he has won 132 games and lost 123. Please do not post something that is way off base. I don't see how your math is that much off. You are just trying to make him look horrible. He inherited a team from Eddie Jordan that was 7-25 under Eddie and was rated # 279 in the country. You are trying to make Steve and the team look much much worse than they have been. At least be fair and don't make comments that are absolutely false. It seems like you have forgotten what the RU records were for years under Jordan, Hill, and Littlepage etc. Steve has improved the team so much more than where we were. He is not perfect but I appreciate what he has done for us. At least be fair in your comments.
 
nit picking….. I’d have a higher FT % than Davis with my eyes closed.

Let’s hope we upgrade production with next year’s team but so far I don’t see that happening.
You wouldn't see that even if Michael Jordan in his prime was on our roster. You just hate Pike and by extension his teams. What a fan.
 
RUDivision, You are totally wrong on Steve's record being 30 games under .500. In his 8 years coaching at RU he has won 132 games and lost 123. Please do not post something that is way off base. I don't see how your math is that much off. You are just trying to make him look horrible. He inherited a team from Eddie Jordan that was 7-25 under Eddie and was rated # 279 in the country. You are trying to make Steve and the team look much much worse than they have been. At least be fair and don't make comments that are absolutely false. It seems like you have forgotten what the RU records were for years under Jordan, Hill, and Littlepage etc. Steve has improved the team so much more than where we were. He is not perfect but I appreciate what he has done for us. At least be fair in your comments.
I was referring to his 63-93 BIG TEN conference record. Yes he is a 500 % coach when you factor in the soft out of conference schedule. Yes he inherited an absolute mess but I was not wrong.
 
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I was referring to his 63-93 BIG TEN conference record. Yes he is a 500 % coach when you factor in the soft out of conference schedule. Yes he inherited an absolute mess but I was not wrong.

He started out 13-43 in conference and started turning the corner in his 3rd season with the absolute mess he inherited. You've accentuated "soft" for his overall record but note in conference he's also .500 since that time. Most of us are rooting for even better performance and hoping for great things in the future, but curious why some seem to go out of the way to accentuate the negative.
 
He started out 13-43 in conference and started turning the corner in his 3rd season with the absolute mess he inherited. You've accentuated "soft" for his overall record but note in conference he's also .500 since that time. Most of us are rooting for even better performance and hoping for great things in the future, but curious why some seem to go out of the way to accentuate the negative.
Was is it negative to just state facts? The numbers are what they are. Obviously has a huge opportunity to impact them this year.
 
He started out 13-43 in conference and started turning the corner in his 3rd season with the absolute mess he inherited. You've accentuated "soft" for his overall record but note in conference he's also .500 since that time. Most of us are rooting for even better performance and hoping for great things in the future, but curious why some seem to go out of the way to accentuate the negative.
It’s called “trolling”.
 
Have played a lot and other teams do deserve credit no doubt especially when they capitalize on our mistakes.

Who brought in the talent , recruits, transfers to build on his culture for last years team? A lot of “Real RU fans “ were the same ones who supported every bad coach that came before Pike. The same fans who have us in a 40 plus year hole. Last years team was built, developed, and coached by Pike. So excusing the bad year on players who he is responsible for is lazy and uneducated. Next year any success the boards will be quick to give Pike all the credit and not simply the talent upgrade. Thats completely fair because that is the job. All the success when your good AND the criticism when your bad.

No doubt Pike deserves credit for digging RU out of a tremendous hole. Pike is arguably top 10 defensive coaches in all of college basketball. Pike is a top 5 human being . Next year’s recruiting class is a HUGE step for the program.

However, We just finished second to last in the conference in his 9 season. 7 major minute players/starters left in the last 2 years. One starter quit mid season. All facts and not how after 8/9 years you build a winning program or culture.

I am trying to be fair but critical just as I would for any other coach or program. The goal is to build a winning program and culture for a place I love. If holding a coach to his own self proclaimed standards is negative then I apologize.

These boards use 40 years of history as an excuse, modern day basketball (portal when it does not work), talent as excuses. NIL even when we pay for top 2 recruiting classes and portal talent. Every excuse has been debunked.

The game has changed and we have a top notch school, great location, facilities, media, surrounded by unbelievable deep HS talent. I just believe we can and should be better.

It’s not negative to recognize when a player has reached his level. Power 5 , mid major, starter , bench player. Etc It’s also not negative to recognize when a coach has reached his level as well.

Next year we will be better no doubt but let’s focus on a winning program and culture. Sustainable success. No more excuses. We actually will play a season after next year.

"Holding a coach to his standards." All you are doing is complaining on the internet. You aren't giving him any consequences. Has Steve been perfect? No. Is he our best coach in years here? Yes.
 
"Holding a coach to his standards." All you are doing is complaining on the internet. You aren't giving him any consequences. Has Steve been perfect? No. Is he our best coach in years here? Yes.
Nonsense. Everyone worth knowing knows that if you are a true man of accomplishment you display the self discipline and sense of responsibility of a true master by.. um.. whining on this message board when the team you support but do not directly control in any way loses.

I don’t make the rules.
 
"Holding a coach to his standards." All you are doing is complaining on the internet. You aren't giving him any consequences. Has Steve been perfect? No. Is he our best coach in years here? Yes.
Absolutely agree has been our best coach. My questions have been is he the guy to take us all where we want to be?

If I told you a coach had his team go from a 5 seed to out of the tournament in 3 weeks. Followed that season by being 2nd to last in the conference with a losing record. In that same time he had 5 and 7/8 high min rotation players leave via portal. One significant starter quit mid season, lose his highest rated recruit after a non developed freshman year. Every sound minded basketball fan would question that coach and program.

It’s ok to ask questions
 
Absolutely agree has been our best coach. My questions have been is he the guy to take us all where we want to be?

If I told you a coach had his team go from a 5 seed to out of the tournament in 3 weeks. Followed that season by being 2nd to last in the conference with a losing record. In that same time he had 5 and 7/8 high min rotation players leave via portal. One significant starter quit mid season, lose his highest rated recruit after a non developed freshman year. Every sound minded basketball fan would question that coach and program.

It’s ok to ask questions
You can ask the questions and we have the answers or partial answers.

The same problems are happening all over the place.

What exactly is the solution for making us better?
 
If there is a flow chart.....get rid of pike, dont get rid of pike.

What the heck does get rid of Pike look like? that would be russian roulette

if the flow chart says Pike needs to change/adapt what does that look like?

Want to argue focus more on O and let D slide? that's an argument...ONE THAT I THINK IS BAD
Want to argue Pike needs to forget high rated recruits and one and dones? THAT IS AN ARGUMENT

Pointing out what went wrong and saying it is unacceptable isn't really adding anything, just complaining
 
If there is a flow chart.....get rid of pike, dont get rid of pike.

What the heck does get rid of Pike look like? that would be russian roulette

if the flow chart says Pike needs to change/adapt what does that look like?

Want to argue focus more on O and let D slide? that's an argument...ONE THAT I THINK IS BAD
Want to argue Pike needs to forget high rated recruits and one and dones? THAT IS AN ARGUMENT

Pointing out what went wrong and saying it is unacceptable isn't really adding anything, just complaining
Pay Hurley $30mm per year. I propose you finance it. I'll have to close my eyes so I don't see the whining but I can listen to the natty on the radio. You might need to pony up for players too. Get to work.
 
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