Not if Pike can do what Williard did at Maryland where he found 3 guards that were 2 way players from non Power 5 conferences and hit a home run.
Sustain and retain …Pike’s and Rutgers basketball way forward to rebuilding the program
- Thread starter Scarlet Shack
- Start date
Big Ten
Somerville (RU) - 7.4/4.2 efg .507 20.7mins
Isvic (Illinois) - 12.7/8.5 efg .587 27mins
Queen (Maryland) - 16/8.8 .553 29.4 mins
*Jacobsen (Purdue - 6.5/3.5 .667 13mins *2G
SEC
Cyril (Arkansas) - 4.5/4.2 efg .632 14.5mins
Newill (Arkansas) - 15.3/6.8 efg .586 28.6min
Bol (Ole Miss) - 1.1/.7 efg .636 3.9 mins
Marshall (Mizzou) - 1.0/1.1 efg .467 4.5 mins
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Stats? What does that even mean. His points this year generally meaningless in terms of producing wins
His decision making awful along with his defense
He takes step back 3s
Except we probably need Willard to coach too. Most transfers come here to die, unfortunately.
forget high school. no win situation.
most frosh can’t play. Those that do, will soon be out the door chasing the cash.
portal or bust!
most frosh can’t play. Those that do, will soon be out the door chasing the cash.
portal or bust!
Disagree. I think that team can be good given the two transfers can be solid starters and one of the freshman can be a decent Big 10 contributor. To have a competing team in the Big Ten, I'd say you need 8-10 players that will be effective in conference play, with 2-3 of those players being true impact players.
I think Grant has already started to prove he can be an impact player, and Lathan has had some moments as well. I think one of the freshmen can hopefully be a solid contributor right away, and JMike, Ogbole and Dortch will improve. The key is Pike being able to get two good transfers that can be viable to solid starters. They don't have to be elite, just have to be Big 10-caliber.
It's too early to say where RU will compare to other Big 10 teams for next season before transfer portal departures/additions, but if Pike can retain the right guys and get a couple nice portal additions, it can be a solid team.
Hope you are right. You have a lot more confidence in Pike as a coach than I do.
It's more of confidence in the roster's potential and hoping Pike is actually able get good transfers. I think his game-day coaching needs a lot of improvement and RU needs a new philosophy on offense.
Queen , Newell and Isvic are potential lottery picks. Crowl is a senior , nice try though. Jacobsen has hardly played for Purdue who happen to have one of the best centers in the country if you didn’t know who is a junior now but his freshman stats not great. So your list is a joke . Lathan matches up just fine with a great majority of freshmen centers in the country. How disingenuous posting those players. ? I guess you couldn’t find too many other freshmen centers doing what Lathan is doing.
Pike v Williard coaching is pretty even and I think Pike has a slight edge. If you do not think Williard knows he stepped in shit , then you are naive.
Wrote bad code that picked up crowl. You brought it up the topic was just trying to answer
Correct, and Newell isn't even a Center - he's a stretch 4 guy more in the mold of Ace Bailey.
For a freshman "big," Sommerville had a good year on the offensive end (7ppg, 4 rpg). His defense has been bad, although I think he did a pretty decent job against senior Nate Bittle the other night.
We see 2 different games. Just take Oregon . You focus on a step back 3 at the end of a shot clock, I see someone who converted down low , was 6-8 shooting with 14 points , so if ACE and Dylan showed up like normal , we had our 3rd scorer we need for wins. He had only 3 rebounds as there were not a lot of defensive rebounds and he blocked Biddle not once but twice on defense. If you didn’t like some things he did on defense , then you are purposely choosing to be blind.
He is the best offensive center since Echneiqui and is only going to get better. He surely can kick it out more but that will come with experience as early on coming off the bench , with Dylan and ACE taking every shot , he probably thought he never would get the ball again. But since he has been in the starting lineup , he is setting better screens , using his handle and getting up good shots on the lane. His pick and roll defense needs work like our entire defense but he needs more experience to get better on the defensive end.
So essentially you found no one other than lottery picks to compare him to ?
“I found” lol.
No, you said to “go look at the stats” and this is simply a list of freshman centers (in big ten and sec, playing more than 5mins or 5 games)
He's taken 8 threes this season. I don't remember all of them but I am confident that the majority of them were not stepbacks. The kid shoots 82% from the line it isn't that absurd to believe he could hit a wide open three.
The 8 threes taken by Lathan are honestly less concerning than the 36 taken by JWill (25% career) and the 40 taken by Derkack (26% career).
Hell, Grant, who everyone is in love with (and for the avoidance of doubt I want to keep him too) is 8/34 from beyond the arc.
Sorry if it get's mentioned further along in thread, but who knows? Chol was a top 5 JUCO this year, averaging 20+ and rebounding well. Could he have given us a longer, better shooting option than Derkack? Could he have given what Hayes has? A team won't have 13 stars. The portal doesn't guarantee you Big Ten players either.
He may have stepped in shit with his current transfers and they do have Under Armor money but I’d still take him over Pike any day.
There is a funny Family Guy clip where Peter is offered a boat or “the mystery box” (the size of a shoe box).
He picks the box saying “A boat is a boat. The box could be anything. Maybe even a boat!”
The box did not have a boat.
It’s the devil we know or the devil we don’t.
Lathan is also shooting less than 20% from the midrange where is also taking 20% of his shots from. That's worse than JWill and Derkack taking three's.
2 key experienced scoring guards , one at point, are desperately needed to be back in middle of pack of the league next year. That alone will eat up all NIL money. Unless we’re gonna take another swing at low level Merrimack type guys again which I’d advise against. Have to sell them on starter minutes… which is something Pike does not do apparently, as documented in his recruiting pitch. He will have to change that tune fast
I’m aware …
I’m also aware our defense is 17th out 18th on kenpom among big ten teams
So…my hunch is we will be focusing on defense and rebounding a bunch next season in the hope the class of 2026 adds more offensive backcourt threats
I like to see one portal player …spend the money on a 2 year swing guard that is good for 12 plus a game and can shoot 37% plus from three …..
Then roll with mark and powers in the back court and add class of 2026 kids
So 80% of his shots are coming from where ? Do you think Lathan will improve his less than 20% of his mid range % ? You think he is not a viable productive 5 going forward after his freshmen year ? What are really trying to say citing this random stat without telling # of shots ?
That should equate to about 2 conference wins with that roster.
I'm saying he's been useless more than two feet from the rim thus far. Its a fact, no need to get upset about it.
You can do the math if you want to know how many shots it is, probably somewhere between 25-30 would be my guess. So similar to the 3 pt attempts that were mentioned that I responded to.
I'd like to think he'd improve, yeah. He has some offensive skill, needs a lot of improvement at all other aspects of the game. He'll always be his height and an under the rim player, can't do much about that though.
I like what you’re saying, but the portal cannot be ignored. It’s a tool that should be used, to get the best players we can afford.
If Pike is even remotely in the hot seat now, he won’t survive another season by abandoning the portal altogether and not qualifying for postseason play.
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You took my post as being upset . Really. Just asking you fact questions.
You seem to have a very negative view about Lathan and not just about lamenting about his pick and roll defense. Your takes are overly negative. Saying Lathan has been useless more than 2 feet from the rim when you know he made a big shot down the stretch against Illinois is just 1 example. Not everything is in the stat sheet and winning plays never show up on stat sheets a good deal of the time. Lathan is really coming along the last 5-6 games. Sorry you are not seeing it. He is being trusted by ACE and passed to a lot more than earlier on the year. His rebounding is not great but really improving . His blocked shots are starting to occur more frequently. Just suprised you are so down on Lathan.
Why? As a freshman big in the B1G - what did you expect? Bigs take time to develop: he's ahead of where I thought he would be.
I don't think down on him is the right description of how I feel on him. He's probably exceeded my expectations, and did a great job getting himself closer to the shape he needs to be in. I do also agree he has made some strides towards improvement. I'm not sure I see a smart/winning basketball player there yet though. His defense is pretty bad, but I do think he puts in effort. I've been pretty clear I want him, and all players back next year too.
Not sure where you're getting your data from.
Sommerville's shot breakdown:
100% (5-5) - Dunks
65.5% (38-58) - At the Rim
42.3% (30-71) - Other 2P
12.5% (1-8) - Threes
Got it from cbbanalytics. They have him at 68.4% at the rim (under 4.5 ft), 54.4% in the paint, 19.2% mod range 2's, and then the three's.
That's an odd stat "in the paint" - it counts a 14 footer from just inside the FT line, but not a 7 footer to the side of the basket? I feel like distance stats should be in concentric rings centered on the hoop - it's not like there isn't shot mapping being done out there.
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Also, comparing freshman seasons, on a per 100 possession basis, here are Myles Johnson, Cliff Omoruyi, and Lathan Sommerville (not in that order)
20.6 pts (.507 eFG%, .573 TS%), 11.8 rb, 1.6 ast, 1.3 stl, 1.7 blk, 2.9 tov, 6.7 pf
16.0 pts (.555 eFG%, .536 TS%), 19.2 rb, 3.7 ast, 2.5 stl, 2.5 blk, 3.8 tov, 8.9 pf
14.9 pts (.640 eFG%, .599 TS%), 15.5 rb, 0.7 ast, 1.5 stl, 2.7 blk, 1.7 tov, 7.7 pf
20.6 pts (.507 eFG%, .573 TS%), 11.8 rb, 1.6 ast, 1.3 stl, 1.7 blk, 2.9 tov, 6.7 pf
16.0 pts (.555 eFG%, .536 TS%), 19.2 rb, 3.7 ast, 2.5 stl, 2.5 blk, 3.8 tov, 8.9 pf
14.9 pts (.640 eFG%, .599 TS%), 15.5 rb, 0.7 ast, 1.5 stl, 2.7 blk, 1.7 tov, 7.7 pf
The portal is only useful if you have the resources to add impact players. Otherwise it’s a waste of time.
You might be better off taking a freshman and developing as opposed to adding someone who can’t play. Too many of these were taken this past year.
Adding freshmen and taking your lumps next year wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
But then again, if we add impact transfers , we might have a chance at the tournament next year.
Next season the only upperclassmen we may have returning are Ogbole, Derkack, Davis, and Williams, with maybe only one of them being a legitimate B1G starter.
Even if you keep Lathan and Grant, we still need at least one or two veteran starters from the portal, either from a power conference or a rising star from a mid-major (like Cam was for us).
Very unlikely we’ll make the tournament by playing primarily freshmen and sophomores as starters.
AND, those freshmen and sophomores, if they’re any good, will either become unaffordable to RU the following year or will seek greener pastures elsewhere.
So, you need a MIX of developing players as well as portal veterans. But, as with any good team, it has to be the RIGHT mix.
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