Shack’s 7 keys to a BiG season for 2021-2022 Rutgers basketball: #5. Lessen the scoring droughts...especially in the last Ten minutes

[Scarlet Shack]

Hey guys

Everyone knows that I think this is OUR year in men’s basketball . I’ll be a little elusive for now on what exactly thsr is until I throw down my “official prediction “

Whether or not you think that’s the case ...I have identified 7 keys to this season for this to be OUR year in hoops. Seven posts (one approx per day, skipping football Saturday )...one for each topic

Key #5.....lessen the scoring droughts...especially late in the game

This is was a quietly very painful trend last year ...there were a few games in defeat thar I look back that we had control of in the second half ....and we didn’t finish in the Lasr 8-10 minutes

-Houston in the NCAA (twice we lost control of the game )
-Iowa at the RAC
-Ohio state on the road
-Wisconsin at the RAC
-and , even in NCAA victory , Clemson

So we have a problem in trend how do we fix it

Couple of things cone to mind

-hoping depth has fresher legs on the court the last 8 minute to have the energy on both ends of the court , and not just the defensive end.

-even though Jacob isn’t here...think we have potentially increased versatility with more guys ( Hyatt and Jones especially, plus a healthy Caleb and Paul ) to go with geo and Ron able to spot and shoot it AND put it in the deck and take it to basket. Something we missed last year with Akawsi .

-more maturity and experience to really know what a good shot is when things are out of whack ...and go and get one. Value the Possession in the end game

- as much as I liked Myles ...he was a huge liability at the end game because you could not dump it down to him with his foul shooting ...and he was zero threat on the high pick and roll except for he cut to the basket on the lob . No spot and shoot threat thar cliff and Ralph potentially offer ...another versality Angle

However we use versatility and experience ...we are going to need to conquer the last 8-10
Minutes of games and avoid those 5-6 possession droughts that cost us games

This is a big improvement piece that we need to show to have a chabvxe to go from a two and out team ...to a team capable of making a deep NCAA run ....

 

[RUDieHard]

Sure will be nice to have a shooting guards who can shoot (i.e. Jaden Jones).

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

While I agree 100% here….what concerns me is that we had Ron and Geo last year, but Pike thought it was best to give the keys to the offense to Jacob.

Will Ron and/or Geo bounce back?
Are Hyatt’s 2 years at LSU not who he is?
Jaden Jones?

 

[richthedentist]

Hey guys

Everyone knows that I think this is OUR year in men’s basketball . I’ll be a little elusive for now on what exactly thsr is until I throw down my “official prediction “

Whether or not you think that’s the case ...I have identified 7 keys to this season for this to be OUR year in hoops. Seven posts (one approx per day, skipping football Saturday )...one for each topic

Key #5.....lessen the scoring droughts...especially late in the game

This is was a quietly very painful trend last year ...there were a few games in defeat thar I look back that we had control of in the second half ....and we didn’t finish in the Lasr 8-10 minutes

-Houston in the NCAA (twice we lost control of the game )
-Iowa at the RAC
-Ohio state on the road
-Wisconsin at the RAC
-and , even in NCAA victory , Clemson

So we have a problem in trend how do we fix it

Couple of things cone to mind

-hoping depth has fresher legs on the court the last 8 minute to have the energy on both ends of the court , and not just the defensive end.

-even though Jacob isn’t here...think we have potentially increased versatility with more guys ( Hyatt and Jones especially, plus a healthy Caleb and Paul ) to go with geo and Ron able to spot and shoot it AND put it in the deck and take it to basket. Something we missed last year with Akawsi .

-more maturity and experience to really know what a good shot is when things are out of whack ...and go and get one. Value the Possession in the end game

- as much as I liked Myles ...he was a huge liability at the end game because you could not dump it down to him with his foul shooting ...and he was zero threat on the high pick and roll except for he cut to the basket on the lob . No spot and shoot threat thar cliff and Ralph potentially offer ...another versality Angle

However we use versatility and experience ...we are going to need to conquer the last 8-10
Minutes of games and avoid those 5-6 possession droughts that cost us games

This is a big improvement piece that we need to show to have a chabvxe to go from a two and out team ...to a team capable of making a deep NCAA run ....

Problem is Myles missed more alley oops than anyone and when he I missed that one against Houston I turned to my daughter and said we lost this game; Cliff will not miss those alley oops

 

[RUChoppin]

While I agree 100% here….what concerns me is that we had Ron and Geo last year, but Pike thought it was best to give the keys to the offense to Jacob.

Will Ron and/or Geo bounce back?
Are Hyatt’s 2 years at LSU not who he is?
Jaden Jones?

My biggest question is what can this team look like with a healthy Baker/Harper in the lineup together? We haven't seen that often, and we didn't really see it much last year until later in the year. Baker went down minutes into the season on a fluke rolled ankle and missed the next 3 games, and Harper became a different player after missing a game with a leg injury.

There are always injuries, and that's where depth comes in... but I really hope that we can have a bit lighter bite from the injury bug this year than last.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Problem is Myles missed more alley oops than anyone and when he I missed that one against Houston I turned to my daughter and said we lost this game; Cliff will not miss those alley oops

Look up his FG%. This is so wrong.

The guy suffered 2 different injuries vs Clemson and was questionable for the Houston game.

 

[winfield102]

Our offense in the last 5 to 7 minutes of a game seems to be to just drain the shot clock and get a bad look or have geo shoot something off the dribble without penetrating.

I'd love to see us just run our offense and look for a good shot at any point during the possession. With willing passers, we should be able to get some real quality looks.

 

[willisneverrana43]

Until their play in the B1G shows otherwise, I expect shooting to be a problem yet again and D and rebounding to be the key to potentially getting RU to the dance.

 

[Eagleton96]

While I agree 100% here….what concerns me is that we had Ron and Geo last year, but Pike thought it was best to give the keys to the offense to Jacob.

Will Ron and/or Geo bounce back?
Are Hyatt’s 2 years at LSU not who he is?
Jaden Jones?

Yup, those are the questions.

RHJ shot 35% from 3 in 2019-20 shooting 1 less shot per game than 2020-21 where he was 31% from 3. Will better PG play and ball movement, and more scoring options on the team generally, help RHJ get better shots and up his shooting percentage? Sure if it pans out that way. It might it might not.

Is Hyatt going to have some kind of a breakout?

Is Mulcahy ready to be a more consistent scoring threat, play better D, and handle the ball more?

Is Jaden Jones ready?

Is Cliff taking a big jump?

It's a lot that needs to break right to have a strong season. And, law of averages,, you shouldn't count on everything breaking right. HOWEVER, sometimes it does break right, and the early reports are good. More than anything else, I think I will learn a lot this season about how seriously to take early reports from Pike and Carino.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

RUhoops asked how my predictions have been under Pike. When looking back at 2019-20 I saw that I revised my prediction right before the season. We were hearing a ton of good reports of how good Montez looks.

 

[willisneverrana43]

Yup, those are the questions.

RHJ shot 35% from 3 in 2019-20 shooting 1 less shot per game than 2020-21 where he was 31% from 3. Will better PG play and ball movement, and more scoring options on the team generally, help RHJ get better shots and up his shooting percentage? Sure if it pans out that way. It might it might not.

Is Hyatt going to have some kind of a breakout?

Is Mulcahy ready to be a more consistent scoring threat, play better D, and handle the ball more?

Is Jaden Jones ready?

Is Cliff taking a big jump?

It's a lot that needs to break right to have a strong season. And, law of averages,, you shouldn't count on everything breaking right. HOWEVER, sometimes it does break right, and the early reports are good. More than anything else, I think I will learn a lot this season about how seriously to take early reports from Pike and Carino.

I think the question of how to take practice reports and coach-speak was long ago decided. So was the notion of revising how good the team is based on the pre-B1G season of games against the sisters of mercy teams. I'm excited to watch the team though, and particularly interested in what Cliff can become and what Jones may look like.

 

[knight82]

While I agree 100% here….what concerns me is that we had Ron and Geo last year, but Pike thought it was best to give the keys to the offense to Jacob.

Will Ron and/or Geo bounce back?
Are Hyatt’s 2 years at LSU not who he is?
Jaden Jones?

I think part of the reason why Geo and Ron werent as productive as we might have wanted at the end of the year was the fact that they were coming off injuries and they werent really quite themselves. Hopefully they both stay healthy the whole season this time around.

 

[Eagleton96]

I think the question of how to take practice reports and coach-speak was long ago decided. So was the notion of revising how good the team is based on the pre-B1G season of games against the sisters of mercy teams. I'm excited to watch the team though, and particularly interested in what Cliff can become and what Jones may look like.

Not all sources of hype are created equal.