Am I reading the tea leaves correctly, re: starters: Geo, Peter, Eugene, Issa, Shaquille D?
Starters
- Thread starter zebnatto
- Start date
A member asked Pikiell at the Court Club meeting last night about the starting lineup for Friday evening. He only committed to Geo and Eugene starting. He said the starting lineup has been under discussion with his staff. He noted "One coach said this guy should start and gave his reasons. Another coach said, 'no' this guy should start and gave his reasons, and the reasons made sense. They were all right."
His funniest line, "When I first got here we had two starters, now we have eight."
His funniest line, "When I first got here we had two starters, now we have eight."
I would guess your 1-4 are spot on. Our 5 may depend on matchups. Really interested in who comes off the bench first. Who's gonna be our 6th-8th, verses 9th, 10th?
Just want to see the team win.
With players with this amount of versatility, I don't think the starting five mean as much.
I suspect, like many others have spoken about, the players in the game for 20+ minutes will be Baker and Omoyuri.
I would not be surprised to see Harper Jr play more as the season goes on. His shooting will be hard to keep off the court. They could easily play Harper Jr in there with Omoyuri. There might be a little drop in defense with the freshman not adjusting as quickly, but it would be worth it offensively.
With players with this amount of versatility, I don't think the starting five mean as much.
I suspect, like many others have spoken about, the players in the game for 20+ minutes will be Baker and Omoyuri.
I would not be surprised to see Harper Jr play more as the season goes on. His shooting will be hard to keep off the court. They could easily play Harper Jr in there with Omoyuri. There might be a little drop in defense with the freshman not adjusting as quickly, but it would be worth it offensively.
Critical as to who is on the floor at the finish of tight games not who is starting.
Fact: Most coaches aren't focused on who starts. (That tends to work itself out during practice)
Fact: Most fans ARE focused on who starts.
I wrote about that in a game preview this morning.
It is a curiosity point for fans, Russ. I believe it’s fans who read the page. And you’d have to be be dopey not to recognize the point about end game which will of course be extremely situational.
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Not necessarily, Williams played a lot down the stretch of games, regardless of who we were playing.
There are a couple of guys coach will always want in at end game but lineup is situational.
Oh, I get it. I wasn't born a basketball reporter. I was that fan who wanted to know who was starting. Heck I'm still a fan (just not of the team I'm covering). One of the first things I'm going to do tonight is find out who is starting for USF so I can post it on the USF message board and then Tweet it about 10 minutes later (gotta give the paying customers the info first).
What team are you actually a fan of? Always wondered how you ended up spending so much time on the Rutgers board. (Love it, just wondering...)
I'm a Maryland alumnus. I ended up on this board years ago when Rutgers began recruiting Jonathan Laurent. I provided updates on him and tried to caution the board that he had small forward size, but wasn't a good shooter and had been playing power forward his entire HS career. Some heeded my warnings, so when he wasn't able to be a significant contributor and transferred, those people were not surprised. Others thought that because Shoes was recruiting him that the kid would turn out fine blah, blah, blah. As much as I like Jonathan, I'd seen enough of him in HS to know that the B1G was about four to six levels too high for him given
I hear he is fairing well at Umass. Good for Laurent.
Russ - You have been a fantastic contributor to this board. I also love your straight talk although I know some here are offended. You don't seem to have an agenda so folks should take that into consideration when they read your commentary. I'm glad you have stuck around here.
Agree. @bdodger3 is another one of my favorite posters. Sometimes I don't like what Russ and bdodger3 have to say, but, more often than not, they're right on the money.
Well if Russ stuck around for the crappy years hopefully he stays around to ride the wave back to success!
Players want to be named a starter. It's also an indication from the coach of who will get the most minutes during the game, all things being equal. So, asking who the starters will be is not a silly question.
I like Coach Pikiell, he's a good guy. Thought he'd be a good hire for Rutgers so I keep an eye on the program.
Laurent starting for UMass.....played about 25 minutes tonight vs UMass Lowell and had 8-10 points. Always liked Laurent but he wasn't a Pike player and a P6 League is too tough for him. Like DJ Foreman, hopefully he finds his niche in the A10.
Don't know if Kiss starts given he missed practice time due to his shoulder injury. Wouldn't shock me to see Mathis start and Kiss come in at the 16 minute mark. Kiss however I expect to be in the starting lineup shortly thereafter maybe like against Drexel on Sunday
Think he might have missed one practice or very few only. But we will see Friday, almost game time.
Thanks for update!Evaluating players and seeing if they can make the jump is hard for some coaches.
It seems like he has improved his shooting. The beauty of a redshirt year.
Looked at Maryland boxscore....they are very young!
As for USF.....Anthony Collins at PG .....I actually remember seeing him a year or 2 on a different team. UCF..what is Tacko up to.
Maryland is young but talented, the coach has to figure out how to use them. Anthony Collins graduated and transferred to Texas A&M I believe. He's from Texas. Tacko is now 7-foot-7.
