What improvement have you seen from the team, or individual players? The mantra of many, including myself, was that game by game the freshman and the new incoming transfers would get better and better as they gelled. I’m not being snarky, at least that’s not my intention, I’m asking genuinely, can you point to areas of improvement from that scrimmage to today?
Since the scrimmage v St. John,‘ s . . .
- Thread starter zebnatto
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Unfortunately, I don't think there has been much improvement, both individually or as a team.
Individually, I'd say Ogbole has improved a bit. And Harper seems a little more comfortable with the ball in his hands. Bailey's rebounding has improved as well. But Martini looks lost, Derkack seems about the same, Davis has his moments here and there, Williams is up and down, Acuff hasn't shown much, Hayes can't get many good looks, and Sommerville has not figured out the defense.
As a team, the same problems exist, such as not closing out games, defensive rebounding, giving up points in the paint, late turnovers, etc.
The 7-5 record answers the question.High hopes but big disappointment in performance.
The best perimeter defense displayed all year was in the first half of the St. Johns game. We had a 20-0 run because of it. Could you imagine this team going on such a run against any team at this point? What happened?
All the flaws that were super obvious in the St. John’s game are still the EXACT reasons this isn’t a good TEAM.
Yes we have uber talent. Yes we can score .
But defense is far below average. Especially Interior defense.
And rebounding is bottom tier. Especially the amount of offensive rebounds we surrender.
So it all comes down to roster construction. It was an absolute head scratcher in the offseason that we didn’t add an experienced mature big man (center) to this roster. If we missed because of NIL then that is the most penny wise pound foolish example we’ve ever witnessed. We should’ve backed the truck up for somebody to compliment these 2 NBA talents. But I never even heard of names that we courted and were turned down for center position this offseason.
So that tells me that Pike miscalculated the importance or gap . The staff should’ve been in an all out mode to get one. Instead they got a bunch of “supposedly great 3 point shooters” but in reality they’re not that and they’re hardly even playable due to all other aspects of their game.
Yes we have uber talent. Yes we can score .
But defense is far below average. Especially Interior defense.
And rebounding is bottom tier. Especially the amount of offensive rebounds we surrender.
So it all comes down to roster construction. It was an absolute head scratcher in the offseason that we didn’t add an experienced mature big man (center) to this roster. If we missed because of NIL then that is the most penny wise pound foolish example we’ve ever witnessed. We should’ve backed the truck up for somebody to compliment these 2 NBA talents. But I never even heard of names that we courted and were turned down for center position this offseason.
So that tells me that Pike miscalculated the importance or gap . The staff should’ve been in an all out mode to get one. Instead they got a bunch of “supposedly great 3 point shooters” but in reality they’re not that and they’re hardly even playable due to all other aspects of their game.
Ogbole has improved a little and Somerville’s D has gone from zero to about a 3. Hayes, Martini, and Williams have gone backwards. Ace and Harper are about the same (but Harper has been consistently above my expectations). Derkack and Davis are about the same and Acuff is at least playing now, but not providing anything. So really, marginal improvement from Ogbole and that’s about it since then.
They started going inside because they realized we have no center. Same thing PSU did and almost came back down 17 to beat us. Same thing Princeton did to us all game scoring 44 points in the paint,
Ball movement too.
I rewatched when Ace got hot in the second half and we have multiple possessions where the ball was whipping around with four of five passes and then came to him and he finished. Significantly less of that going on now.
Who should have backed up what truck? And what would have been in the truck? IOUs for the money we didn’t have?
Also if you want the names of centers we wanted but don’t have due to $$$ you don’t need to look far… one of them was on our very roster last season.
Contrary to the beliefs of many posters, our
“Friends of the Program” have always been there to back up the truck.
GS part 2 was financed by that truck.
And had a viable center wanted to be here or stay here, that truck would have magically backed up again….imo
Cliff did not always live up to expectations around here, but he would be very useful on this years’ team. But we didn’t back it up for him, or Alloco, or the guy we wanted before Hayes (Jones?). I’m forced to conclude that the truck wasn’t available. Not sure why exactly, though I could imagine it being because the truck people think the market values are getting out of hand ($1mm for a single year of Cliff seems insane).
To be fair I am similarly surprised that people weren’t willing to go more all in on this season but it doesn’t seem like it happened and i doubt it’s because Pike didn’t want to.
Every indication from the mods was that the money was there if we wanted to go all in. Lathan threatened Pike and Pike stood down. He also whiffed on all his transfers. And considering last year's roster essentially mutined on him, there was zero carryover from season to season. This is a bad roster. With close to no coaching. Pikes ceiling and floor are both about 500, take or give a couple of games.
I’m not sure what the communication lines are or how it works Flux.
Technically the school cannot be involved in paying players.
Is Pike allowed to speak to generous donors directly and ask them to personally contribute to the collective who pays the players, can he ask the donors to specifically give money aimed at a single player?
Who does the prospective player speak with to make his monetary demands, and does that person have the ability to meet directly with high level donors?
Love the mods but I think it’s fair to say they exactly been lighting it up with team predictions and inside content.
I have no idea what we did or didn’t have but I did see Alloco this offseason and ask him if he was gonna come to RU and his response was
“Nah. Ace and Dylan took all their NIL money”
So take that FWIW. Maybe he just had no interest and we had plenty of money but it sure seems like based on what we got (offseason hype aside) that we might’ve been shopping in the discount isle.
Very well the case. Just relaying the primary message delivered by those limited people who got to follow and see the team actually play. You can debate where that all went wrong and what they were seeing with them, not me.
Almost none. Whatever improvement you have seen is from time on the court and not from teaching IMO.
I think more kids than we think have left the program because they've lost respect for Pike.
Ah, ok, so you were just repeating baseless speculation and presenting it as if you knew something.
I'm telling you what the mods said. Beyond that I have no idea what you are even trying to say.
What elite center was coming here to split minutes with 2 other centers including a highly ranked one?
Those are good points. We have at least a top 150 range group of centers. You would have to be crazy to want to compete against that. And it's not like anyone questioned this elite group or ever said a word that anything more should be done going into the season. I'm honestly shocked we are having these issues now. Who could have seen it coming?
I'm not the guy getting paid to figure that part out. I'm just here as an observer who saw it as an obvious need both then and now. Whether Pike couldn't understand that or couldn't muster the resources to make it happen, both are really scary options to ponder (I do acknowledge there is a potential third option in that Pike just really sucks at player evaluation and thought this roster was good enough - that one might be even scarier). (Another edit, perhaps he was right on all the above but just can't coach them up as many including the mods have now pivoted to since it's the only excuse left).
Our first Omoruyi, and Spencer to some extent for starters. I personally think it played a small role in the mass exodus last year, and may play a similar role after this season if things keep going the way they are.
Our judgements about success and expectations are the problem. A middle of the Big Ten finish predicted by most outsiders, at best.
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The mass exodus last year was because most of those guys couldn’t hack it at this level. If someone left because they lacked respect for Pike, you’d expect them to end up at a program at this level. Eugene was the only surprise move.
If Spencer didn’t respect Pike, he would have left when the portal opened - not after his brother worked out a deal with the top program in the country.
Makes a little sense, but you can drop down a level and lose respect for your coach at the same time.
So your posts are just empty whining, correct? You want to fire the coach, but you don’t really know what he should have done differently. You didn’t really pay much attention to the program before, jumped on board with the recruiting class, and now you’re just whining because it’s harder to get 9 new guys on the same page than expected?
This isn’t fantasy sports - there are several hundred CBB programs who are competing for talent in the portal. The best shot at a transfer C was Aaron Bradshaw.
Yeah. 6k posts and I just started following the program. I've explained it all to you multiple times....you are just beyond help. Whatever you want to think, I honestly don't care.
And yet we’ve had very few players leave via the portal with the exception of this past offseason - and really none of those guys are missed (except Cliff - but he was using his 5th year to get a bag - as he should!).
Ndongo flipping and Gavin being a bust are part of the reason we have an entirely new roster.
I think most of those 6k posts have come in the last week lol.
I’m disappointed with the start, but also think there are encouraging signs. But the runway is definitely getting shorter.
Mag would have been nice on the defensive side this year. Pike is on a steady decline that I hope he corrects.
His X and O’s had been awful this year.
The staffs inability to run offensive sets has been and continues to be embarrassing.
The NIL excuses are old and tired . Those same excuses were used about signing 5 star top tier players.
Pike has to get this fixed this year or he will be back at a lower tier job or more likely retired.
