Time to zag: No significant defensive presence at center
- Thread starter NickRU714
- Start date
I think there are plenty of D first teams that aren’t getting much more than clean up points from their center. Look - outside of dunks and put backs, Cliff wasn’t really an effective scorer. But he was more helpful to Rutgers than Lathan because of his D and he did “enough” on offense.
There are more extreme examples though. Bob Huggins is my role model for the pounding nails mantra so I’ll throw out another one of his teams - not a press team, just a solid defensive halfcourt team in 2010-11. Tournament team - round of 32 I think. They had a kid Cam Thoroughman at center who played 20 mpg and averaged like 2 ppg. They had another tough kid John Flowers who played out of position at center too who also was very much a D first kid who got a lot of garbage style baskets. Their team the year before that, by the way (the FF team), didn’t even play a center at all. They used this kid Wellington Smith there who was a tough kid and definitely not a 5 but he played that spot next to that Ebanks kid (who was basically a sophomore version of Ace - less athletic but more experience).
The point is - it’s not true that you have to fill the 5 on a good team with a big time scorer. We could aim to get scoring from other places.
But why should 2026 be any different given Pike's poor track record? It is truly remarkable that just one year ago it seemed like Rutgers had turned the corner with recruiting elite players and it seemed like the program would be an NCAA tourney player or even contender for years to come.
But today , a year later ,we are looking at being the bottom dweller of the conference for the foreseeable future. Remarkable.
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Getting back to the OP this is a great point. If we end up getting a bottom of the barrel C but have to spend a quarter of our budget on them that’s poor spending and we will certainly lose. All for Pike to say “oh well I tried”. Tried to replicate only what worked for him before. Just like the nil environment is new he has to adapt and be flexible. Saw a clinic once where Kevin Boyle talked about his college team and they had five guards on the floor. One of them had to cover the low post. They did it by constantly moving giving them nothing to post up on. Side front side repeat. Is that what I’m suggesting here. Of course not. But press, play a Syracuse 2-3, junk defenses. Be creative. Aren’t we better off spending the money on other positions and getting better quality at those positions.
I don’t either. Markets aren’t always rationale but I do see where you are coming from. If top starting centers are worth $2.5 M and servicable ones are worth $1.5 M, logic would reason that back up pricing would be inflated too. Injuries happen. But look - a good number of coaches would shift to a 2 forward style if their center went down, so maybe it’s not that much.
Yes - exactly. Not every 6-10 guy plays to their height but then, teams don’t always do the proper research either.
The Princeton offense requires players who are skilled shooters, passers, and cutters. It also requires a coach who understands how it works.
Yup. ‘Ol Eddie Jordan was supposed to install it. Instead we got an offense that looked eerily similar to Pike’s.
It takes full commitment. The main issue is that other teams will negatively recruit. No problem, we’re not going to be fighting over 5 star iso-ballers anymore.
