My son and I watched the game versus MSU and we were both very impressed with the discipline, rebounding, and hustle of the Rutgers team. Great effort and tremendous fundamentals, your team reminded me of one of Tom Izzo's early teams. When he took over the Spartan program 23 years ago his team didn't have any good shooters so he had them focus on defense, rebounding and hustling for 40 minutes no matter the score. It proved a great foundation to build upon. I was very impressed with your team.
Spartan Fan Impressed....
- Thread starter BoldSpartacus
- Start date
Thanks Bold! I think our fan base is excited to keep seeing improvement with the Pikiell players. He preaches this kind of ‘grind’ to games. Can’t wait to see how well this team can do when a few more pieces are added!
Tom Izzo is a class act that has total control of his players....rare in college coaching these days.
It is nice to see someone comment on the progress that RU is making under the guidance of Steve Pikiell and his staff.
Izzo went out of his way to speak at length about how impressed he was with the job Pike has done. I'm not sure I've ever heard a coach go on to compliment an opposing coach to such lengths during a post game presser. It seemed much more than simple lip service.
I didn't hear what Izzo said but I am not surprised by your account. Izzo is a very gracious guy generally but the job the Rutgers staff is doing getting their team fixated on rebounding, defense and hustling has to really resonate with Izzo because it is how he built his program and rebounding, defense and hustle remain the core of Izzo's program.
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