Watched Pikes Tenure Closely

[zappaa]

I’ve seen plenty of poor offensive performances….nothing like last night.

That’s the best defense we’ve ever seen by an opponent.

We were contested the second we crossed center court and could not get open looks for almost the entire 40 minutes.

Seton Hall should be undefeated if they defend that well

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

SHU deserves credit, but we also made them look good.

 

[biazza38]

I’ve seen plenty of poor offensive performances….nothing like last night.

That’s the best defense we’ve ever seen by an opponent.

We were contested the second we crossed center court and could not get open looks for almost the entire 40 minutes.

Seton Hall should be undefeated if they defend that well

Seton Hall sucks offensively and only scored 45 points. They are not a good team. It’s excusable to look that bad on offense. We’re going to see much tougher match ups in the B1G

 

[zappaa]

SHU deserves credit, but we also made them look good.

At times we’ve seen stagnant and what appeared to be uninspired performances over the years.
17 points in the second half goes WAY BEYOND anything we’ve ever seen around here in a winnable, game on the line scenario.

 

[zappaa]

Seton Hall sucks offensively and only scored 45 points. They are not a good team. It’s excusable to look that bad on offense. We’re going to see much tougher match ups in the B1G

We defended well.
The entire point of the thread is we played hard and gave effort…we were not uninspired.
I can’t believe what I saw defensively by them, offensively by us.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Seton hall played good d give them credit but we were horrible offensively. We were happy to walk the ball up rather than attack the press. Our spacing sucked. We didn’t move well or pass well. And we had about 15 unforced turnovers.

 

[RUChoppin]

SHU played very gritty, active, in your face defense, and our guys did not handle it well. Beyond just getting stymied trying to score, I think it flustered them and threw them off their rhythm entirely. So many times players were trying to make eye of the needle passes through multiple defenders, or penetrating deep to the baseline and picking up their dribble, or taking shots outside the flow of the offence, etc

It wasn't just that we were running a good set and getting stopped by better defense... We just started running worse and worse sets, too.

 

[zappaa]

Seton hall played good d give them credit but we were horrible offensively. We were happy to walk the ball up rather than attack the press. Our spacing sucked. We didn’t move well or pass well. And we had about 15 unforced turnovers.

Four in a row at one point.
We played the deliberate walk the ball up the court offense Pike wanted and practiced before the game.
They didn’t allow Paul to direct traffic and he played directly into their hands, they forced him to the baseline countless times and used it as a 6th defender, they put Paul in no man’s land, he’s way to smart to not recognize that

 

[bethlehemfan]

Four in a row at one point.
We played the deliberate walk the ball up the court offense Pike wanted and practiced before the game.
They didn’t allow Paul to direct traffic and he played directly into their hands, they forced him to the baseline countless times and used it as a 6th defender, they put Paul in no man’s land, he’s way to smart to not recognize that

Mentally we weren’t right imo. Not an excuse but shu didn’t have a real game for 10 days. They certainly looked like the fresher team where we looked like a team playing with a hangover at least on offense. We played good d.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

At times we’ve seen stagnant and what appeared to be uninspired performances over the years.
17 points in the second half goes WAY BEYOND anything we’ve ever seen around here in a winnable, game on the line scenario.

We played scares offense . No one was willing to shoot a decent shot , giving up decent shots in lieu of trying to move for a better shot; that didn’t materialize

 

[Loyal_2RU]

We defended well.
The entire point of the thread is we played hard and gave effort…we were not uninspired.
I can’t believe what I saw defensively by them, offensively by us.

We didn't adapt at all well offensively

 

[zappaa]

Mentally we weren’t right imo. Not an excuse but shu didn’t have a real game for 10 days. They certainly looked like the fresher team where we looked like a team playing with a hangover at least on offense. We played good d.

On that note, a very close friend directly behind the bench said our legs were shot from the start.

 

[bethlehemfan]

Nobody wants to hear it but the refs did a bad job down the stretch and it cost us. Mag didn’t foul that guy when tied at 43 and if it was a foul then call the one on cams drive and the over the backs by cadary. Also how does cliff get a shot blocked with no foul where the defender doesn’t touch the ball.

 

[RUJMM78]

Rutgers only needed one player with a pulse on offense and they would have easily won the game.Yes, Seton Hall played outstanding defense and so did Rutgers.Sadly, this game really exposed the Rutgers offensive flaws which are poor passsing and dribbling of the basketball,lack of players that can create and make shots off the dribble and no bench scoring.This woeful offensive performance has to rank as one of the worse seen at the RAC.

 

[RUChoppin]

Nobody wants to hear it but the refs did a bad job down the stretch and it cost us. Mag didn’t foul that guy when tied at 43 and if it was a foul then call the one on cams drive and the over the backs by cadary. Also how does cliff get a shot blocked with no foul where the defender doesn’t touch the ball.

The refs mostly were calling the game very loosely, with a handful of headscratchingly tight calls. IMO, that's not the way to call a rivalry game, because it is guaranteed to lead to more chippiness late in the game with a need for the refs to assert themselves and "tighten it up" to regain control.

This sort of loose whistle is an environment we generally thrive in, as our defense can crank up the pressure - but our offense couldn't handle the mirrored physicality at all.

 

[Loyal_2RU]

The refs mostly were calling the game very loosely, with a handful of headscratchingly tight calls. IMO, that's not the way to call a rivalry game, because it is guaranteed to lead to more chippiness late in the game with a need for the refs to assert themselves and "tighten it up" to regain control.

This sort of loose whistle is an environment we generally thrive in, as our defense can crank up the pressure - but our offense couldn't handle the mirrored physicality at all.

True.

And we seen to have no inside out game this year. Cliff or Paul pushing up and passing out of the post.

 

[bethlehemfan]

The refs mostly were calling the game very loosely, with a handful of headscratchingly tight calls. IMO, that's not the way to call a rivalry game, because it is guaranteed to lead to more chippiness late in the game with a need for the refs to assert themselves and "tighten it up" to regain control.

This sort of loose whistle is an environment we generally thrive in, as our defense can crank up the pressure - but our offense couldn't handle the mirrored physicality at all.

That’s fine and I agree with how you saw it. But don’t make that call on mag bailing someone out with the game on the line then

 

[zappaa]

Rutgers only needed one player with a pulse on offense and they would have easily won the game.Yes, Seton Hall played outstanding defense and so did Rutgers.Sadly, this game really exposed the Rutgers offensive flaws which are poor passsing and dribbling of the basketball,lack of players that can create and make shots off the dribble and no bench scoring.This woeful offensive performance has to rank as one of the worse seen at the RAC.

Caleb is 6-7, strong, fast as shit.
He couldn’t get into position to take a non awkward looking elbow stop and jump shot all night, neither could a 6-7 Paul.
Not one!!!!

 

[Scarlet Blind]

Ken Pom offense efficiency rankings,
Nov 30 Miami 114.4 12th
Dec 3rd Indiana 112.8 24th
Dec 8th Ohio St 117.7 3rd

Almost as if they had to prepare for three uniquely different top 25 offenses in a span of 11 days from November 27th to Dec 7th after the CCSU game on November 26th. Rutgers raised their defensive efficiency up in those games and only 2 days to prepare for a completely different team than the last 3 opponents, 8 days of practice in between 3 games, were after a hard pill to take "loss" where Seton Hall had only Lincoln(Pa) since losing @ Kansas on Dec 1st. They played like a mentally drained team last night.

 

[shu67]

As a SHU fan I thought the game was RU's to win having kept SHU in such a low score contest. Keep the opposing team at 45 points was the good news and should have been a win for RU. If RU scored 47 you would all be saying something completely different on this forum.

My take the refs missed some big and obvious calls that would changed the outcome. Ndefo fouled Cliff on the arm (hammered him) and it was called a block on TV and later the play by play guys changed their tune and said Cliff was fouled. That play alone would have changed the course of the game. There were a few other calls that were questionable but the other issue was RU missed too many shots. Yes defense played a role in a lot of it but there were times when there were easy baskets that were missed.

In addition I saw some sloppy passing that resulted in unforced turnovers that then became missed scoring opportunities. Playing better would have resulted in a 10 point or better win.

Give SHU some credit for playing tough "D" and RU credit for tough "D" but in my view RU beat themselves by playing down to the opponent and this game was ripe for the taking.

 

[wheezer]

We defended well.
The entire point of the thread is we played hard and gave effort…we were not uninspired.
I can’t believe what I saw defensively by them, offensively by us.

We threw too many across the court passes that got picked off inbetween
and too many dump off passes under the basket where we either could not handle the pass. Or not being open


We had almost none of that last game

 

[Yeah Baby]

The refs mostly were calling the game very loosely, with a handful of headscratchingly tight calls. IMO, that's not the way to call a rivalry game, because it is guaranteed to lead to more chippiness late in the game with a need for the refs to assert themselves and "tighten it up" to regain control.

This sort of loose whistle is an environment we generally thrive in, as our defense can crank up the pressure - but our offense couldn't handle the mirrored physicality at all.

This sums it up perfectly. Both sides mugged each other and the refs let them grab, hold, etc. Both teams can point to bad calls by the ref so I won’t. But the foul line disparity was a major reason we lost. While they only made 10 they got there for 19 shots and we only took 11 FT’s. If we didn’t make all of our front end of our one and ones (like those they missed) we may have only take 7, 8 or 9FT’s to their 19. I do have a problem with that on our home court.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

At times we’ve seen stagnant and what appeared to be uninspired performances over the years.
17 points in the second half goes WAY BEYOND anything we’ve ever seen around here in a winnable, game on the line scenario.

When our fans complain we don't run an offense or get in to our sets usually that comes from the other team's defense. I think I probably am not giving enough credit to SHU defense.

Unfortunately we are very easy to guard when we have 4 guys on the court who are below average shooters and the guy who is the above average shooter is afraid to shoot. Compound that with no one that can beat people off the dribble.

To score 43 points a lot has to go wrong. Shockingly we didnt miss free throws or else we could have stayed in the 30s!

 

[RUChoppin]

This sums it up perfectly. Both sides mugged each other and the refs let them grab, hold, etc. Both teams can point to bad calls by the ref so I won’t. But the foul line disparity was a major reason we lost. While they only made 10 they got there for 19 shots and we only took 11 FT’s. If we didn’t make all of our front end of our one and ones (like those they missed) we may have only take 7, 8 or 9FT’s to their 19. I do have a problem with that on our home court.

Hard to get shooting fouls when we kept passing the ball to the other team.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Nobody wants to hear it but the refs did a bad job down the stretch and it cost us. Mag didn’t foul that guy when tied at 43 and if it was a foul then call the one on cams drive and the over the backs by cadary. Also how does cliff get a shot blocked with no foul where the defender doesn’t touch the ball.

I don't think it was a foul, but at the same time it wasn't outrageous. His arms were not straight up and down and that cost him.

 

[bethlehemfan]

I don't think it was a foul, but at the same time it wasn't outrageous. His arms were not straight up and down and that cost him.

Apparently the announcers watched the replay and it was a foul. Edit sorry I guess you were referring to mag. His hands were straight up and never made contact. Thought you were talking cliff getting hacked

 

[RUChoppin]

Apparently the announcers watched the replay and it was a foul. Edit sorry I guess you were referring to mag. His hands were straight up and never made contact. Thought you were talking cliff getting hacked

The Mag foul was one of the later "gotta tighten this up" fouls. That was after the double tech, no? Can't remember.

We knew what kind of game this was going to be when Spencer got hit on the arm on that inbounds play with no call. Bruising, physical, don't-rely-on-the-refs-to-bail-you-out basketball - with the expected sprinkling of "wtf" ticky tack calls.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Spencer needs to be careful of his acting when penetrating to the basket. At some point it has the opposite effect.

 

[biazza38]

We defended well.
The entire point of the thread is we played hard and gave effort…we were not uninspired.
I can’t believe what I saw defensively by them, offensively by us.

We made it easy to defend. That’s an average team and we didn’t take advantage of our mismatches.
I can’t believe what I saw from us offensively

 

[4theknights]

Tip of the hat to Holloway and his game plan against us. His team played harder and tougher than us. Taking clock off by pressuring us full court with tons of energy and shortening our half court offense time of possession. Paul’s dribbling worked in their favor. Time for Pike to step up and make adjustments ( maybe more Simpson) because Big 10 teams will watch this tape and game plan accordingly against us. Again, having nobody to create space and score like Ron and Geo especially at crunch time could be an ongoing theme this year. We can offset some of that by playing harder, defending and rebounding but when you play have little effort like last night, we get lazy with our passes and shots will not fall. We played last night like we felt sorry for ourselves from the Ohio state debacle and didn’t come close to showing the resiliency we needed. Pike has alot of adjustments to make starting with the mindset of this team.

 

[Yeah Baby]

Hard to get shooting fouls when we kept passing the ball to the other team.

Agree both teams were sloppy. They turned it over too but we were worse. That’s what happens when you let teams grab and hold. We like it when we do it so it’s fine. But I saw a few missed calls for us and for them to get more on our court is wrong. Overall refs called it pretty even. Charge on Hyatt early and around 3 blocks against us that could have gone either way is a discrepancy. Cliff getting mugged at the end is a missed calll we could have used. But we had our chances. We missed some open shots too. One at the end that was rushed.

 

[MadRU]

College basketball is all about guards. We don’t have a break you down point guard. These type of games it costs you.

Paul tried to do his usual back down move and he was continually bullied off his spot. After that he made the same move to dribble to the end line, pick up his dribble and get stuck.

We were physically moved off our comfort spots all game.

 

[RUChoppin]

Agree both teams were sloppy. They turned it over too but we were worse. That’s what happens when you let teams grab and hold. We like it when we do it so it’s fine. But I saw a few missed calls for us and for them to get more on our court is wrong. Overall refs called it pretty even. Charge on Hyatt early and around 3 blocks against us that could have gone either way is a discrepancy. Cliff getting mugged at the end is a missed calll we could have used. But we had our chances. We missed some open shots too. One at the end that was rushed.

But we also frequently dribbled to turn nowhere and picked up the ball, tried to pass through multiple defenders, tried to squeeze passes into tiny openings, etc.

 

[Yeah Baby]

But we also frequently dribbled to turn nowhere and picked up the ball, tried to pass through multiple defenders, tried to squeeze passes into tiny openings, etc.

So did SHU. We played great D.

 

[RU#1fan]

Seton hall played good d give them credit but we were horrible offensively. We were happy to walk the ball up rather than attack the press. Our spacing sucked. We didn’t move well or pass well. And we had about 15 unforced turnovers.

The passing was suspect all night. Couldn’t believe what I was watching.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Seton hall played good d give them credit but we were horrible offensively. We were happy to walk the ball up rather than attack the press. Our spacing sucked. We didn’t move well or pass well. And we had about 15 unforced turnovers.

YES... it should have been obvious to anyone that this was not a case of their defense being so good. Yes.. it was good.. but we made so many unforced errors and I put Pike in that pile of blame as well. So many times you could see we were not even trying to run any offensive set... call a timeout and fix that ASAP. It is like our guys looked for a teammate who would just force up a shot one-on-one.

It took most of the game for Cliff to get the ball and PASS it after drawing the double.

This game reminded me of the Rutgers FOOTBALL offense.. unable to execute a feed to Cliff is like being unable to execute a screen pass... so you stop doing it. SHU fronted Cliff pretty effectively.. why didn't we go over the top on those passes.. especially after Samuels was on the bench? We tried it once and it was short.. then never again. And I am getting tired of seeing Cliff pushed under the basket and him trying to get boards from there. He needs to stop taking the bait and getting into worse rebounding position. He needs to play better with his LEGS and stop reaching.

 

[goru7]

By far the worst offensive game by an experienced bunch. Paul , Caleb , Cliff and Cam have played enough games to have figured out what was happening on this game and never did. Also Pike allowed Paul or anyone else to dribble forever into the baseline get cut off and either throw the pass away for a run out or throw it to the feet of our bigs. They played directly into Seton Hall’s game plan and not one adjustment was made. That was the critical error.
We never went inside out and never set a screen or a pin down for anyone to curl and shoot. If only One time Cliff was to be told to get it and throw back out and it never happened where he threw it to one of our players only to the other team. 19 turnovers are unforgivable when most are unforced. How it wasn’t corrected after 1 or 2 was a failure of the players Paul , Cliff or whoever but also a failure by Pike to realize he wasn’t going get the ball to the hole easily and more shot attempts and screens and double screens and pin downs needed to be set up instead of the mindless endless dribbling into bad spots.

What made it worse was the team got so tight and refused to shoot and instead our possession was a turnover instead of a shot attempt where we would at least have a chance at a rebound. Ironically , Hyatt was the only one who could hit an outside shot and Pike had him on the bench for 8-10 minutes when we desperately needed someone to make an outside bucket. I guess he would justify it by hoping Cam would have hit 1 of his 5 missed threes but things were not going down for him and when he saw that he should have made the adjustment. That doesn’t excuse Hyatt missing another game tying layup but Hyatt was the only guy with a shooting pulse yesterday.

One of the more frustrating games ever at the RAC considering what was at stake and the disparity between the teams.

 

[RUChoppin]

So did SHU. We played great D.

Difference is it felt like SHU kept composure and kept running good sets to get looks - while we folded and spiraled into bad decisions. Both teams played harassing, swarming defense - but I felt they had more mental toughess to push through it.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

..
We never went inside out and never set a screen or a pin down for anyone to curl and shoot. If only One time Cliff was to be told to get it and throw back out and it never happened..

Not true.. it happened ONCE.. which might be worse than it never happened because they did not repeat it.. Cliff has 2 assists in the box score.. that was one of them. And once I saw Paul do a masterful job of drawing attention from a 2nd defender and getting an assist on a 3. That's what's maddening.. they know what to do.. they have the skills and experience to do it.. just a WTF game that I hope we never see again this season.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Difference is it felt like SHU kept composure and kept running good sets to get looks - while we folded and spiraled into bad decisions. Both teams played harassing, swarming defense - but I felt they had more mental toughess to push through it.

Hmmm.. did not think of it until now.. but it was that timeout by Holloway that corrected things for SHU. Good coaching there... Pike missed his moments to do the same.