JMike is the equivalent of two BIG starters. Walking mismatch. Worry not.
We watched Latham for an entire season
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He was a frosh that any decent coach would be able to correct, mold over the course of a season. Nothing new.
He played the coach for what he wanted and got ..
Somerville is a loss because our roster stinks. But he’s not very good in my opinion. He’s short for his role, plays below the rim, cannot shoot from outside (balloon shots). I hated watching him play.
It was mentioned on a recent TKR podcast. You guys should try listening to them.
Somerville’s Torvik rankings were pretty low, and he was not a fit with our defense scheme. Could he develop into a time protector? Hard to say
Sommerville was our third best player and better than Grant, After LS there was a pretty big drop off. Not saying Grant doesn't have more upside, but LS is the more established Big 10 player right now, and if he didn't enter the portal would not be a bench player for THIS Rutgers team.
You’re basing it on scoring not overall play. Grant has far more potential to be a complete player than Sommerville.
Balloon shots - that's a good one. He had more offensive skills around the rim than both Myles and Cliff, and he was only a freshman. Defensive skills are also easier to develop than offensive skills, especially if Pike is the defensive guru that everyone believes he his. The kid will never become a rim protector, but can be developed into a good help defender. He will probably start next year or play 20+ minutes for a team better coached than we are.
Read again what I said - "Not saying Grant doesn't have more upside." I also take it as kind of an insult (probably shouldn't because you don't know me) that I would rate a player simply on the points he was scoring - spent a good part of my life evaluating overall play of kids. Anyway, other than Ace and Dylan, who do you think was better than him and why? Just interested.
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Here's the bottom line: people are fooling themselves into believing having Lathan leave is good for RU. Saw same posts about Cliff last year, even a few crazies thought Cam leaving was good. Captain Obvious: not good. He is talent we need to retain, particularly how young he is. Saying he is "too expensive" doesn't cut it. That's the market now in college ball. Just another name to add to sad state of affairs with Rutgers and this NIL/portal BS.
He was always about “his “ brand and his eyes were always on his future. The team means nothing to him in my opinion.
Just curious - what do you think he was good at exactly, besides scoring points (FT shooting counts as part of those 8 ppg)? He’s a poor rebounder for his position. He’s bad at every aspect of defense. The scouting report on him said he’d be a good passer but we didn’t see that at Rutgers. And he’s not a good perimeter shooter from 3 at this point. So when you say your not only basing it on scoring - what then? He actually wasn’t even overly efficient at scoring for a BIG.
Ignore any attempts at quantifying defense with individual stats
Somervillle is a loss for us because our roster is bad. He’s not a starter for a real program with a real roster. He’s small big that can’t jump when he has the ball. Or he’s a big small that has no small skills. He can shoot FT but his jump shot is ridiculously bad. I sometimes think he might hit the rafters with his jumper. He’s not fun to watch and looks like he miserable every minute of the game. It’s a loss only because we are so bad. Time to build a new roster and hope Grant will stay. Also hoping Bryce will continue to develop because he’s athletic.
You can’t conclude anyone is good based on good numbers, but the data is certainly useful in identifying major defensive red flags like PJ.
I’ll take it a step further, in general, I want guys who played for teams that collectively did well on defense in a man system and on a relative basis, the guy we’re considering wasn’t an individual outlier to that efficiency wise (meaning the team D didn’t drop off when that guy was playing). Does that make sense? Thats the context that I hope this info is considered in.
Because I’ve seen guys like Mag play in Pike’s system. Two forwards who play that style would be much more effective in place of a center like Sommerville. And the market for forwards with that type of profile isn’t higher than $500k.
One player like that in combination with Ace also would’ve been better. We sucked because we couldn’t stop anyone - not because we couldn’t score without Lathan’s 8 ppg. It’s mind boggling to me that so many don’t see this.
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This just illustrates why recruiting freshman is pointless in the current climate.
Freshman may be cheaper to recruit from an NIL perspective but we should not be concerned with a player's potential anymore.
We should only be concerned with their current value. The minute a good young big shows anything on the court like Lathan did, he will be immediately moved into the over paid category. So we end up playing with inexperienced freshmen that are often ineffective because of their lack of maturity and losing them when they are ready to really contribute.
Even Dortch and Grant are at least another year away from being legit Big Ten starters but each will get paid handsomely if they show anything next year. Again, we suffer from their inexperience and lose them as they mature.
We need to be finding mature players so that we eventually end up getting what we pay for and not over paying for some future potential.
Freshman may be cheaper to recruit from an NIL perspective but we should not be concerned with a player's potential anymore.
We should only be concerned with their current value. The minute a good young big shows anything on the court like Lathan did, he will be immediately moved into the over paid category. So we end up playing with inexperienced freshmen that are often ineffective because of their lack of maturity and losing them when they are ready to really contribute.
Even Dortch and Grant are at least another year away from being legit Big Ten starters but each will get paid handsomely if they show anything next year. Again, we suffer from their inexperience and lose them as they mature.
We need to be finding mature players so that we eventually end up getting what we pay for and not over paying for some future potential.
Again, your'e not reading what I said. I never said he was good at anything, only that he was our third best player and then there was a big drop off, and that he had upside as a help defender. It was pretty easy to be the third best player on our team and still not be great.
There was no such thing. The team full on stunk besides Ace and Dylan. You realize that without those 2 we would’ve been Eddie Jordan level bad - right? As in probably under 10 total wins.
Outside of stud difference makers, classifying one guy as 3rd best and another as 4th or 5th on an otherwise terrible team with 2 stars is a useless exercise. Lathan isn’t a starting 5 on a halfway decent team. His defense just isn’t good enough, and mostly it’s physical limitations IMO. He’s not a guy we should be paying a million to keep around. None of the other possible returning guys are getting more than 250K anywhere. Most a lot less. It’s a different discussion regarding whether to convince them to stay here because the cost will be much lower and we have a roster to fill out. Apples and oranges. There is certainly value in having spent time in a system vs not all else equal.
You're so incorrect it's like you've never watched a game. He doesn't stink and his poor defense is more due to positioning than physical limitations, unless you believe that defense is only about blocking shots, which you might. I don't know what halfway decent teams you're talking about in terms of him starting next year, but in his junior or senior years he'll be starting for one of them. He's starting for a Big 10 team now that finished what, 2 games under .500. If we would have won 3 more games even we might have been considered decent. The kid is going to become a very good college player, and the reported interest in him as a transfer from more than one name school is almost proof of that. And once again, whether the team was void of talent or not, he was the third best player and had potential as a help defender - pretty much all I ever said.
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It does suck we only get him for what should be his worst year, but that is going to happen pretty often if we bring in a bunch of freshman each year moving forward.
He has the agility and moves of a 5 in the body of a 4. Maybe I’ll be wrong but he will be a role player at most unless he develops athletically a lot.
I didn’t say anything about his junior or senior year! Next year he is not a starting caliber player on a decent team. We had 2 NBa players who could go off on any given day. Thats the only reason we won 15 games. Lathan played only 20 mpg. He is not worth $1 M next season to Rutgers. He’d only be worth it to a team who can afford to pay more than 5 players that and we certainly can’t. So you get it now???
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I never said he was worth a million bucks. And now for the fourth time I said he didn't stink, was the third best player on our team, and has potential as a help defender. So you get it now twit?
Exactly. If we had double that, a million makes sense. But we have a budget that needs to be optimized and a defense first center that forms the backbone of the D is what we had for the last 7 years and is critical to success.
100%. We are going to need outside scorers to replace the 40 ppg we just lost to the draft.
Nope sorry, as a starting center on a major conference team, he still stunk in 2024-25. To conclude otherwise, you have to add “for a frosh, to even render an argument”. The trouble is you have to ignore his grade because future potential years down the road is now irrelevant as each year there is a new recruitment process. There’s no investing in the future. I don’t know if he’s 3rd best or not, but as I said, all of the others stink outside the 2 NBA players.
He’s not physical enough to be a big center even as a sophomore and he’s not athletic nor a capable shooter outside of the paint. He won’t be that next year either. His peak is 2-3 years away. We can’t afford a million dollar 7th 8th man.
Fifth time, but whatever. It's is amazing that none of the transfers stunk at their prior programs. With all of the attention Dylan and Ace got it should have actually helped their games.
Two way players who can shoot aren’t going to come cheap but yeah, we’re going to need at least one above average one like that along with a center.
Since we’re only going to be able to afford a maximum of 3 expensive guys - I really hope we go for defense and gritty thrashers to fill out the rest of the roster from the bargain bin. I will scream if we start adding guys like PJ, Noah F, etc. who grade out as projects on the defensive end. I get that we need scoring, but those types do not work out for us ever - if can’t defend you don’t play for Pike unless you have 4 or 5 stars next to your name like Gavin did (and he still didn’t play that much). We already have one offense only recruit coming in Kaden Powers. Kid who the scouting report says can really shoot it but is a project on D.
Biggest issue with sommerville in a Rutgers fans eyes isn’t even him, it’s why would the coach think he was the guy for Rutgers.
It was gross negligence in all sorts of facets. And the root cause of all the negative feelings around here is that there is little reason to believe coach can right the ship after 3 straight below expectations and no sign of a leader willing to materially adapt any part of his program or process.
It was gross negligence in all sorts of facets. And the root cause of all the negative feelings around here is that there is little reason to believe coach can right the ship after 3 straight below expectations and no sign of a leader willing to materially adapt any part of his program or process.
Any guy that can shoot 85% from the line has potential. And I never suggested we should pay ANYTHING like that to keep him.
Add only mature players is a one year solution that will have mixed results with our lack of NIL. You still need HS recruits to try and reestablish the foundation so that the program is more attractive because it's winning again.
