We're 3-1 in the B1G with a healthy Harper/Bailey (and 2-0 with a healthy Harper/Bailey and Grant playing). Just sayin'. Make that 6-3/5-2.

[RU848789]

There is truth to this, but there is not enough time to save the season absent winning the Big 10 tournament assuming RU can even get there. But Harper’s illness and injury does debunk the constant whining on here: “How could Pike not win with 2 top NBA draft picks.” Fact is, Pike hasn’t had the 2 top picks healthy together for the last 5 losses.

Exactly. Sometimes shit happens and it's happening to this team. Doesn't excuse losses to Kennesaw or Princeton, but it does help explain the last 5 B1G losses - and I don't think anyone is saying we win all 5 of those with a healthy Harper, but certainly winning 2-3 of them wouldn't have been a surprise. With 2 of those as wins we'd be 12-8/5-4 and needing a 7-4 finish to likely make the tourney, which would be a big challenge but possible. Now, we just have to hope we can pull of a B1G tourney miracle.

 

[combes]

Illinois is having a similar issue. Have only lost one BT game with its whole lineup playing. Jakucionis missed several games with an injury and now Ivisic has missed two games with mono and who knows when he will return. Those are the two leading scorers and the top rebounder. The pick and rolls they run together are things of beauty, and since Ivisic can stretch the floor, it opens up everything for the other players. Going to be a tough go without him.

 

[goru7]

Illinois is having a similar issue. Have only lost one BT game with its whole lineup playing. Jakucionis missed several games with an injury and now Ivisic has missed two games with mono and who knows when he will return. Those are the two leading scorers and the top rebounder. The pick and rolls they run together are things of beauty, and since Ivisic can stretch the floor, it opens up everything for the other players. Going to be a tough go without him.

What is the record with your best guard missing ? Now your center ? Do you miss them ? Is there a difference when they do not play or play still hurt ? Again asking about your great guard and your center as you know we have lost Harper or he has played either ill or hurt and lost our center Ogbole

 

[RU-ROCS]

Illinois is having a similar issue. Have only lost one BT game with its whole lineup playing. Jakucionis missed several games with an injury and now Ivisic has missed two games with mono and who knows when he will return. Those are the two leading scorers and the top rebounder. The pick and rolls they run together are things of beauty, and since Ivisic can stretch the floor, it opens up everything for the other players. Going to be a tough go without him.

Exactly. Maryand blew out Illinois in UI's home arena without the Ilinoins big man. FWIW, that's the same Terps team that lost at Northwestern - who RU beat last night without Harper.

 

[RU848789]

After last night's great win (which could have been much bigger if we hit our FTs), I really want to see how well this team might be able to play with a healthy Harper/Bailey and an improved supporting cast, especially if Pike can keep recognizing who is playing well and who isn't. As per my op in this thread, I think this can be a very good team now that the superstars/freshmen have some experience and the various parts are meshing a bit better especially on D (not great D, necessarily, but better than earlier this year).

Not saying we're going to go on a monster 8-2 run, but I'm excited and think if Harper can make it back healthy after only missing 1 or 2 more games (no idea if this will occur - just hoping it might occur), then 10+ B1G wins are within reach.

 

[MCKnight2004]

Have to win next 2 at home for any real tournament chances, at then 6-6 we can all live February game to game like we did in the Geo and Ron tourney chase years

 

[RU848789]

Huge win over a top 25 Illini team. Remember what I said about wanting to see how good we could be with a healthy Harper and Bailey and the "new" guy Grant playing? Think we just saw it in a convincing win against a talented top 25 team and we're now 4-1 with a healthy Harper in the B1G and 3-0 with a healthy Harper and Grant playing. Was great to see Harper back to early season form with 28/6/5/4 including 11-12 FTs and 7-15/3-5 and Ace playing a quietly good game with 18/11/2 and 3 blocks - and those rebounds were huge late in the game when they were pounding us on the boards. We didn't have a 3rd scorer until late when JW hit a bunch of FTs to finish with 13, but almost everyone contributed, including nice treys for Hayes and Martini, some good boards by LS, good D by JMike (and 4/4/2/1 in limited minutes), 5/7 for Grant (although that 2-10 was tough to watch) and some nice D by Dortch. Derkack and Acuff didn't do much, but that's ok.

And while we've lost Ogbole, we are now playing Dortch some, too, and he's contributing, especially on D. Still baffled on why Pike didn't start playing Grant and Dortch from the beginning of the season, especially since they're more athletic than most of the other supporting guys (at least vs. Hayes, Martini and Acuff; JMike, JW and Derkack are fairly athletic) and Pike is a D guy. I always thought we needed better defenders playing with Harper/Bailey as they're capable of carrying most of the offense - and we're certainly seeing much better D, IMO, the past few games (especially Michigan and tonight).

Anyway, now let's go on a serious run. We're not out of it until we're out of it. Thinking we finish at least 5-3 to get to 17-14/10-10, which isn't enough for the tourney, but is certainly enough to play in the B1G tourney (I assume we'd need to finish 7-1 to get to 19-12/12-8 to make the tourney) and maybe we'll see a miracle.

 

[rpiseman]

I would think 18-13…11-9 in the Big Ten and 1-2 wins in the BTT would get us in

 

[Knight Owl]

Huge win. Remember what I said about wanting to see how good we could be with a healthy Harper and Bailey and the "new" guy Grant playing? Think we just saw it in a convincing win against a talented top 25 team and we're now 4-1 with a healthy Harper in the B1G and 3-0 with a healthy Harper and Grant playing. Was great to see Harper back to early season form with 28/6/5/4 including 11-12 FTs and 7-15/3-5 and Ace playing a quietly good game with 18/11/2 and 3 blocks - and those rebounds were huge late in the game when they were pounding us on the boards. We didn't have a 3rd scorer until late when JW hit a bunch of FTs to finish with 13, but almost everyone contributed, including nice treys for Hayes and Martini, some good boards by LS, good D by JMike (and 4/4/2/1 in limited minutes), 5/7 for Grant (although that 2-10 was tough to watch) and some nice D by Dortch. Derkack and Acuff didn't do much, but that's ok.

And while we've lost Ogbole, we are now playing Dortch some, too, and he's contributing, especially on D. Still baffled on why Pike didn't start playing Grant and Dortch from the beginning of the season, especially since they're more athletic than most of the other supporting guys (at least vs. Hayes, Martini and Acuff; JMike, JW and Derkack are fairly athletic) and Pike is a D guy. I always thought we needed better defenders playing with Harper/Bailey as they're capable of carrying most of the offense - and we're certainly seeing much better D, IMO, the past few games (especially Michigan and tonight).

Anyway, now let's go on a serious run. We're not out of it until we're out of it. Thinking we finish at least 5-3 to get to 17-14/10-10, which isn't enough for the tourney, but is certainly enough to play in the B1G tourney (I assume we'd need to finish 7-1 to get to 19-12/12-8 to make the tourney) and maybe we'll see a miracle.

18-13/11-9 and 2 wins in BIG Tournament would be a tough team to leave out of the BigDance at 20–14. RU currently 4-9 in Quad 1 and should jump up in the NET into the 60’s. By comparison a team like SMU is currently 40 in NET but 0-4 in Quad 1.

 

[Scangg]

Kyk and some others trying to say missing Dylan didn't matter. Wild take

 

[RU848789]

Kyk and some others trying to say missing Dylan didn't matter. Wild take

Kyk is and always has been an idiot.

 

[goru7]

Kyk and some others trying to say missing Dylan didn't matter. Wild take

You mean BAC.

 

[bac2therac]

You mean BAC.

lol I didnt say it didnt matter...i said that RU lost to bad teams without him..the early part of the season is part of the resume..its frigging 14 games....8-6....the play was so inconsistent and not tourney worthy early that it left them no margin for error for later and unfortunately RU ran into bad luck. No one feels sorry for injured players...illinois had another guy out tonight and big guy only went 4 in the 2nd half after going down...bottom line they didnt get it done. In Rutgers case they needed to find ways to overcome the injuries and sickness of Dylan and were not good enough to get it done

Obviously a full strength Rutgers would be better after OSU but until they developed a resiliency and thicker skin and got it done on the win loss column you cannot assume anything. 14 games is half the resume, that to me is where the season got lost..not just on wins losses but because they team didnt develop and the supporting cast did not show. They came around but too late especially given the Harper stuff. RU is 12-11 right now

 

[Plum Street]

I would think 18-13…11-9 in the Big Ten and 1-2 wins in the BTT would get us in

18-13/11-9 and 2 wins in BIG Tournament would be a tough team to leave out of the BigDance at 20–14. RU currently 4-9 in Quad 1 and should jump up in the NET into the 60’s. By comparison a team like SMU is currently 40 in NET but 0-4 in Quad 1.

You’re forgetting the committee hasnt taken conference tournaments into account in years

 

[Salvi's Headband]

Oh what could have been

 

[S_Janowski]

Oh what could be

FIFY

 

[soundcrib]

You’re forgetting the committee hasnt taken conference tournaments into account in years

Penn State 2023. Most likely took our bid too.

 

[RU848789]

You’re forgetting the committee hasnt taken conference tournaments into account in years

Maybe they'll feel sorry for snubbing us 2 years ago and/or factor in the Harper Ogbole absences and the showtime element of an exciting RU team with two future superstars to give us a bid at 18-13/11-9. Ya never know. Of course finishing 6-2 to get to 18-13/11-9 will be a tall order even with a 100% healthy team that's using its roster better and playing better together now.

If only we hadn't completely blown the Kennesaw and Princeton games, as we'd be 14-9/5-7 with just those wins, such that we'd be 19-12/10-10 with a 5-3 finish (vs. 17-14/10-10 with a 5-3 finish with our current record) which would've had us on the bubble. Losing those two games has given us no margin for error, but the whole season counts.

 

[RU848789]

Huge win over a top 25 Illini team. Remember what I said about wanting to see how good we could be with a healthy Harper and Bailey and the "new" guy Grant playing? Think we just saw it in a convincing win against a talented top 25 team and we're now 4-1 with a healthy Harper in the B1G and 3-0 with a healthy Harper and Grant playing. Was great to see Harper back to early season form with 28/6/5/4 including 11-12 FTs and 7-15/3-5 and Ace playing a quietly good game with 18/11/2 and 3 blocks - and those rebounds were huge late in the game when they were pounding us on the boards. We didn't have a 3rd scorer until late when JW hit a bunch of FTs to finish with 13, but almost everyone contributed, including nice treys for Hayes and Martini, some good boards by LS, good D by JMike (and 4/4/2/1 in limited minutes), 5/7 for Grant (although that 2-10 was tough to watch) and some nice D by Dortch. Derkack and Acuff didn't do much, but that's ok.

And while we've lost Ogbole, we are now playing Dortch some, too, and he's contributing, especially on D. Still baffled on why Pike didn't start playing Grant and Dortch from the beginning of the season, especially since they're more athletic than most of the other supporting guys (at least vs. Hayes, Martini and Acuff; JMike, JW and Derkack are fairly athletic) and Pike is a D guy. I always thought we needed better defenders playing with Harper/Bailey as they're capable of carrying most of the offense - and we're certainly seeing much better D, IMO, the past few games (especially Michigan and tonight).

Anyway, now let's go on a serious run. We're not out of it until we're out of it. Thinking we finish at least 5-3 to get to 17-14/10-10, which isn't enough for the tourney, but is certainly enough to play in the B1G tourney (I assume we'd need to finish 7-1 to get to 19-12/12-8 to make the tourney) and maybe we'll see a miracle.

Just updating this thread. Since the Illinois game, we've gone 2-3, but Ace was out for most of the Maryland game, so we're 2-2 in games with a healthy Harper/Bailey and Grant playing, since the IL game. That brings us to 6-3 in the B1G with a healthy Harper/Bailey and 5-2 with those guys healthy and Grant also playing. That's pretty good. A shame it couldn't have been all season.

Even if we just went 3-5 instead of 1-7 in the 8 games without a healthy DH/AB, that's 9-8 in the B1G, plus I have to think we would've won at least one of the two bad losses with Grant playing since the start of the season, which would put us at 17-11/9-8, which would probably be just on the right side of the bubble (and tied for 8th in the B1G right now).

Sucks that we didn't get to see a healthy team all year. Yes I know teams have to deal with injuries, but given our lack of talent in the supporting cast, we just weren't good enough to win games with even one of those guys out. Now we're stuck with having to win our last 3 to get to 17-14/10-10 and then perhaps 3 B1G tourney wins gets us back on the bubble at 20-15/13-11. That's a very low probability, obviously, so winning the B1G tourney is likely our only real chance at dancing and that's an extremely low probability, but not zero and I'll be rooting for that until I can't root any more.