What is abundantly clear

[RUDivision]

Nothing is shaping up - at least not yet… if we find out that we offer that pair (Buchanan and Francis) $1M+ of our pot to come play for us it’s time to get worried. If those two sign on for a combined $400k we could be in pretty good shape down the road ironically.

In that case we would have presumably spent only $1.5 M of our ~$5M budget of 4 frosh, 4 returning guys, and 2 transfers (a possible starting wing and a back up PG). That would mean we’d have 10 scholarship players - and no stars yet with $3.5 M to work with. I’d have to believe that’s enough money to buy a very good inside and an outside player after the initial dust settles. We could then use whatever is left over to add one or two more guys.

Francis can’t shoot and is too small we already have JMike to fit that role and NEITHER are players you give money too! They are not NIL players and you don’t buy Francis or pay JMike.

Ogbole not worth a penny! Dortch I would not give a dime too either. Pay Grant 150 k to stay and then get out and recruit actual Power 4 players.

 

[RUDivision]

What is abundantly clear is the neither you nor Ritchie have any clue who will be on the team next season nor how good or bad RU will be

We do know Pike is not a power coach and currently does not have a power 4 level player on the roster.

 

[TRU2RU]

We do know Pike is not a power coach and currently does not have a power 4 level player on the roster.

Climb back under your rock troll

 

[RUDivision]

Climb back under your rock troll

Roster
Power 4 level player?
Ogbole no
Dortch no maybe in 3 years
Grant no maybe in 2 years
JMike no

 

[RexMantlepiece]

We do know Pike is not a power coach and currently does not have a power 4 level player on the roster.

And yet over the years has beaten many ranked ‘power” teams including this year when you all shat on him…he may not bounce back to get it done here but what a dumb thing to say he is not a power coach.

 

[RUich]

If the only players we can get are all pretty much not great, why rush into anything? Seems to me that, other than getting a good one, we can minimize what we end up paying once these players realize there is little real interest and they will take what they can get.
Next season looks to be a really bad one based on what we are hearing.

 

[RUDivision]

And yet over the years has beaten many ranked ‘power” teams including this year when you all shat on him…he may not bounce back to get it done here but what a dumb thing to say he is not a power coach.

Every school beats ranked teams and Pike did have two good years with coaching blunders that cost his teams further success. The last 6 and next year have been far from coaching greatness. Mediocre results which have turned awful. Great man to root for but in a Power 4 business like the Big ten he is WAY over his head

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

Francis can’t shoot and is too small we already have JMike to fit that role and NEITHER are players you give money too! They are not NIL players and you don’t buy Francis or pay JMike.

Ogbole not worth a penny! Dortch I would not give a dime too either. Pay Grant 150 k to stay and then get out and recruit actual Power 4 players.

Thank god you don't make roster decisions with this awful take on player value. Grant and JMike would be gone in a second and get paid more than that at many schools.

 

[TRU2RU]

Thank god you don't make roster decisions with this awful take on player value. Grant and JMike would be gone in a second and get paid more than that at many schools.

Don't feed the troll!!!

 

[RUDivision]

Thank god you don't make roster decisions with this awful take on player value. Grant and JMike would be gone in a second and get paid more than that at many schools.

Stop

What school is paying Jmike?
Take a moment and review the RU players who left and the minutes or impact they had at other schools!
He doesn’t deserve it but Pike will give him starter minutes. If he wants to play high level college hoops with quality minutes. If he wants 200k he can go and sit!

You want to pay Grant on potential ? Ok he’s a year away from being ready . So your thought process we pay him to develop while we lose and then he leaves next year! Great strategy!

You offer kids like Grant big minutes because he will be able to get his value up!

But you keep giving non power 4 level talent and then ask why we don’t win!

 

[RUDivision]

Don't feed the troll!!!

Funny those advocating for Pike and his ineptness are the true Trolls! You want to keep in place a system that is on a 7 year decline, coming off a historic collegiate disaster. We are a laughing stock and you want to keep fighting for that? Troll hmm


I am advocating for change and a direction that can make us competitive.

Who’s the Troll?

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Thank god you don't make roster decisions with this awful take on player value. Grant and JMike would be gone in a second and get paid more than that at many schools.

J-Mike has the most market value of any of our remaining players despite Grant having more upside potential. He brings a demonstrated skill (primary ball handling) that only a very small sub set of available players offer. Noah Fernandez was a 2 year double digit scoring PG on an A-10 team and J-Mike beat him out as a frosh averaging 23 mpg. His PT was down this year because he backed up Dylan Harper and no other reason. His shooting percentages improved and his turnover numbers way down. Derek was a 30 mpg player for St Joes, an above average mid-major. J-Mike starts at PG for most mid-majors in the least, and is at least as good as the back up PG on most power conference teams except the ones with unlimited NIL funds. He’s far from a stud, but those acting like he wouldn’t play 10 minutes anywhere else are just wrong. It’s not true. He’s not perfect but he’s at least a fringe P4 PG with half his eligibility remaining.

 

[RUDivision]

J-Mike has the most market value of any of our remaining players despite Grant having more upside potential. He brings a demonstrated skill (primary ball handling) that only a very small sub set of available players offer. Noah Fernandez was a 2 year double digit scoring PG on an A-10 team and J-Mike beat him out as a frosh averaging 23 mpg. His PT was down this year because he backed up Dylan Harper and no other reason. His shooting percentages improved and his turnover numbers way down. Derek was a 30 mpg player for St Joes, an above average mid-major. J-Mike starts at PG for most mid-majors in the least, and is at least as good as the back up PG on most power conference teams except the ones with unlimited NIL funds. He’s far from a stud, but those acting like he wouldn’t play 10 minutes anywhere else are just wrong. It’s not true. He’s not perfect but he’s at least a fringe P4 PG with half his eligibility remaining.

He has never been a primary ball handler or a focus of the offense. Noah was and do you feel paying for a Noah Fernades was a smart move or had ROI?

His turnover ratio was down because he never had as the primary ball handler and his assists were 1 per game. Only 1 assist with three prolific scorers surrounding him. Bad at any level!

His shooting numbers definitely increased but that should occur when you’re shooting because no one was guarding him. Defenses were locked on doubling and tripling Ace l/Dyaln. So a player shooting wide open shots got his numbers up to the low 30 percent . What happens when he now has the attention of a defense?!?

I think he would be a good mid major player with smaller teams.

That being said I would not pay for a Noah and definitely not for JMike. I offer him min at a power 4. If he wants to leave losing a fringe player is not a big deal!

 

[ancienthooper]

Funny those advocating for Pike and his ineptness are the true Trolls! You want to keep in place a system that is on a 7 year decline, coming off a historic collegiate disaster. We are a laughing stock and you want to keep fighting for that? Troll hmm


I am advocating for change and a direction that can make us competitive.

Who’s the Troll?

You.

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

Stop

What school is paying Jmike?
Take a moment and review the RU players who left and the minutes or impact they had at other schools!
He doesn’t deserve it but Pike will give him starter minutes. If he wants to play high level college hoops with quality minutes. If he wants 200k he can go and sit!

You want to pay Grant on potential ? Ok he’s a year away from being ready . So your thought process we pay him to develop while we lose and then he leaves next year! Great strategy!

You offer kids like Grant big minutes because he will be able to get his value up!

But you keep giving non power 4 level talent and then ask why we don’t win!

You have no clue but keep lecturing us, it’s quite amusing.

 

[RUDivision]

You have no clue but keep lecturing us, it’s quite amusing.

Yeah JMike running Pikes pick and roll offfense next year will be good! Wake up

 

[RUDivision]

You.

You right I am sorry the program is in such great shape! Are only player w experience is an undersized guard who can’t shoot and gets bullied on defense. Definitely give him 500k ! He will be elite running Pikes pick and roll offense going to the rim.

The lack of knowledge and understanding never amazes me

 

[ancienthooper]

You right I am sorry the program is in such great shape! Are only player w experience is an undersized guard who can’t shoot and gets bullied on defense. Definitely give him 500k ! He will be elite running Pikes pick and roll offense going to the rim.

The lack of knowledge and understanding never amazes me

Response suggests stroke. Hope you’re ok.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

He has never been a primary ball handler or a focus of the offense. Noah was and do you feel paying for a Noah Fernades was a smart move or had ROI?

His turnover ratio was down because he never had as the primary ball handler and his assists were 1 per game. Only 1 assist with three prolific scorers surrounding him. Bad at any level!

His shooting numbers definitely increased but that should occur when you’re shooting because no one was guarding him. Defenses were locked on doubling and tripling Ace l/Dyaln. So a player shooting wide open shots got his numbers up to the low 30 percent . What happens when he now has the attention of a defense?!?

I think he would be a good mid major player with smaller teams.

That being said I would not pay for a Noah and definitely not for JMike. I offer him min at a power 4. If he wants to leave losing a fringe player is not a big deal!

J-Mike handled the ball a lot last season as well as his frosh year with or without Dylan in the game. In my view, he was probably the most reliable ball handler on the team in terms of not getting his pocket picked or throwing and errant pass. And yes, that includes Dylan who was shaky at this one particular skill (lost the ball in several key spots last year).

Go back and look at Noah’s stats from UMass. Then, think of what the market value might be for someone today with that profile.
Double digit A-10 PG scorer who shot well from 3.

Again - I’m by no means saying J-Mike is this elite PG, only that the price tag on a Noah type relative to him is likely inflated. Davis doesn’t have pretty looking stats but neither would most of the mid-major PGs out there if the played in the BIG. He’s just as good as most of the mid-major options and almost certainly a better defender than most of them. A good, established starting PG from another major conference team is likely way out of our budget considering we also need an established 2 guard who doesn’t play Jaden Jones level D and a post player.

J-Mike will come at a discount because for him, returning to Rutgers has a lot of potential upside. From his view, if he can lead the team to a turnaround - not necessarily even a tournament birth but a even a competitive season, he’ll have an opportunity to make good money as a senior. I’d like to believe that if ever a Rutgers kid that sticks with us 3 years became desirable as a rising senior, we’d be able to come up with legitimate NIL through brand recognition outside of the allocation the would meet the Deloitte standards (Jersey Mikes and such). It’ll be rare that we ever get to that point though.

 

[RUDivision]

J-Mike handled the ball a lot last season as well as his frosh year with or without Dylan in the game. In my view, he was probably the most reliable ball handler on the team in terms of not getting his pocket picked or throwing and errant pass. And yes, that includes Dylan who was shaky at this one particular skill (lost the ball in several key spots last year).

Go back and look at Noah’s stats from UMass. Then, think of what the market value might be for someone today with that profile.
Double digit A-10 PG scorer who shot well from 3.

Again - I’m by no means saying J-Mike is this elite PG, only that the price tag on a Noah type relative to him is likely inflated. Davis doesn’t have pretty looking stats but neither would most of the mid-major PGs out there if the played in the BIG. He’s just as good as most of the mid-major options and almost certainly a better defender than most of them. A good, established starting PG from another major conference team is likely way out of our budget considering we also need an established 2 guard who doesn’t play Jaden Jones level D and a post player.

J-Mike will come at a discount because for him, returning to Rutgers has a lot of potential upside. From his view, if he can lead the team to a turnaround - not necessarily even a tournament birth but a even a competitive season, he’ll have an opportunity to make good money as a senior. I’d like to believe that if ever a Rutgers kid that sticks with us 3 years became desirable as a rising senior, we’d be able to come up with legitimate NIL through brand recognition outside of the allocation the would meet the Deloitte standards (Jersey Mikes and such). It’ll be rare that we ever get to that point though.

Your premise keeps comparing Davis to Fernandez. Fernandez was a failure and not worth a penny at this level. Would you pay Fernandez again?(he is a far better shooter). So, why pay for Davis? Davis was never a primary ball handler. Primary ball handler will be the one running the offense looking to create shots for others or himself. Davis absolutely would bring the ball up the court and dribble out the clock in Pikes “offense”. However, he would hand it off to Dylan, Jwill, Ace etc to then initiate the offense and go to the rim. If he was a primary ball handler how do you AVG 1 assist with scorers like Dylan Ace and Lathan surrounding you???

You want to pay a player you compare to mid major guards who may or may not be successful against power 4 competition ?
If Pike paid for a PG this year and they came in shot low 30 percent, average 1 assist, couldn’t score at the rim, and was bullied on D we would think it was a failure.
So pay the PG on the team because he’s a great kid and you have some sentimental connection?

Look any coach or GM would not!

I politely disagree

 

[RUDivision]

Response suggests stroke. Hope you’re ok.

Tuba or Trumbone?

 

[Salvi's Headband]

I heard the Trump tariffs are causing NIL costs to skyrocket. A player you could once get for 200k is now worth 750 easy. Thanks trump

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

I heard the Trump tariffs are causing NIL costs to skyrocket. A player you could once get for 200k is now worth 750 easy. Thanks trump

You're confusing inflation with tariffs, these are mostly American born players so wrong administration.

 

[SirScarlet]

Gonna be a long offseason

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Your premise keeps comparing Davis to Fernandez. Fernandez was a failure and not worth a penny at this level. Would you pay Fernandez again?(he is a far better shooter). So, why pay for Davis? Davis was never a primary ball handler. Primary ball handler will be the one running the offense looking to create shots for others or himself. Davis absolutely would bring the ball up the court and dribble out the clock in Pikes “offense”. However, he would hand it off to Dylan, Jwill, Ace etc to then initiate the offense and go to the rim. If he was a primary ball handler how do you AVG 1 assist with scorers like Dylan Ace and Lathan surrounding you???

You want to pay a player you compare to mid major guards who may or may not be successful against power 4 competition ?
If Pike paid for a PG this year and they came in shot low 30 percent, average 1 assist, couldn’t score at the rim, and was bullied on D we would think it was a failure.
So pay the PG on the team because he’s a great kid and you have some sentimental connection?

Look any coach or GM would not!

I politely disagree

I want to pay rising junior Davis what we would pay a mid-major kid of Noah’s profile as a rising super senior. No more. I don’t believe Noah was this major outlier. Davis was better than him at Rutgers as a frosh. As a rising junior I believe he’s better than or as good as most of the double digit mid-major guards we would be shopping around for. There are more Cam Spencers in the pool at SG. It’s harder for PGs to make the step up. Not impossible, but less likely.

 

[RUDivision]

I want to pay rising junior Davis what we would pay a mid-major kid of Noah’s profile as a rising super senior. No more. I don’t believe Noah was this major outlier. Davis was better than him at Rutgers as a frosh. As a rising junior I believe he’s better than or as good as most of the double digit mid-major guards we would be shopping around for. There are more Cam Spencers in the pool at SG. It’s harder for PGs to make the step up. Not impossible, but less likely.

Fair! We definitely view Davis differently!
Would you be ok if Pike brought in a portal transfer with Davis stats, struggles shooting, and being undersized ?

If you’re ok with Pike signing that transfer then Davis makes sense for you.


I believe if we signed a portal transfer with his size and stats line there would be a revolution against Pike.


We’ agree to disagree

 

[29PAS]

Gonna be a long offseason

It already is.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Fair! We definitely view Davis differently!
Would you be ok if Pike brought in a portal transfer with Davis stats, struggles shooting, and being undersized ?

If you’re ok with Pike signing that transfer then Davis makes sense for you.


I believe if we signed a portal transfer with his size and stats line there would be a revolution against Pike.


We’ agree to disagree

No - I wouldn’t. but that’s kind of the point. Davis is at Rutgers and has played in our system already for 2 years. Why would I opt for someone else’s 20 mpg utility guard who first has to learn our system over just keeping Davis? The point is we don’t have the money for a top tier PG if we’re also getting a starting SG and post player (which we better be). If not that, my view is we may as well just keep Davis because knowing the system does matter at least a little all else equal.

 

[rutgersal]

Washington hasn’t just secured one player. They keep landing players which means it isn’t about playing in the NCAAs. It’s the money. You can’t have it both ways.

All the pessimism out there still fails to explain why we won’t be able to afford 2 very good players. We should be able to with $5M. That might not be enough to build a winning program, but right now the podcast basically implies that Buchanan and Francis are the best of who are in our budget which I simply can’t understand. Nobody has provided much explanation that makes sense except possibly if we are waiting for official confirmation of the allocation.

We don’t have $5M until the court case is settled.
What we can offer is the amount we have in NIL.
Any offer that relies on rev share would be a contingent offer, which puts us at a big disadvantage.

 

[rutgersal]

No - I wouldn’t. but that’s kind of the point. Davis is at Rutgers and has played in our system already for 2 years. Why would I opt for someone else’s 20 mpg utility guard who first has to learn our system over just keeping Davis? The point is we don’t have the money for a top tier PG if we’re also getting a starting SG and post player (which we better be). If not that, my view is we may as well just keep Davis because knowing the system does matter at least a little all else equal.

I’ll settle for a SG and Center and call it a day.
I’ll go to battle with Angelino and Davis.

 

[RUJMM78]

We do know Pike is not a power coach and currently does not have a power 4 level player on the roster.

Not true.Pikiell is the head coach of a team in the B1G Ten and has achieved some prior success at Rutgers.The talent on the projected roster,however,will be no better than 15th in league rankings ,The Rutgers coaching staff has failed to react in a positive manner to the N1L and the transfer portal which might be their undoing.There is no high roller donor like at St.Johns to get them out of the current mess.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I’ll settle for a SG and Center and call it a day.
I’ll go to battle with Angelino and Davis.

Let’s call it a SG and a post player. It may not end up being a traditional center, but in the least let’s hope it’s not someone who is soft on D. But yeah - those are the two most critical spots to fill where we have to shell out the money we do have. Hopefully we’re just quietly shopping behind the scenes. There was no talk about Cam Spencer and all of a sudden we just landed him.

 

[rutgersal]

Let’s call it a SG and a post player. It may not end up being a traditional center, but in the least let’s hope it’s not someone who is soft on D. But yeah - those are the two most critical spots to fill where we have to shell out the money we do have. Hopefully we’re just quietly shopping behind the scenes. There was no talk about Cam Spencer and all of a sudden we just landed him.

True, we can’t afford to be choosy these days. So I’ll say post player, ideally a Center who can play above the Rim.

 

[darkcheck]

We don’t have $5M until the court case is settled.
What we can offer is the amount we have in NIL.
Any offer that relies on rev share would be a contingent offer, which puts us at a big disadvantage.

Why are other schools using that money already. Also, apparently we don’t magically get $5mm. $1mm if that won’t be earned til Vegas. Almost half the remainder is spoken for by returnees and frosh. That leaves us about $2-2.5mm to spend.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

True, we can’t afford to be choosy these days. So I’ll say post player, ideally a Center who can play above the Rim.

Sure - ideally a center but the type your describing sadly might cost $2.5M. That’s why I thought of the Bob Huggins press teams. He had success with lengthy, physical forwards in that system and Pike has historically ran a solid press. I could at least see a path to respectability with that approach. I don’t want to see us overpay for a mid-major classic center just because he’s 7 foot tall. The physicality is most important.

 

[RUChow]

Francis can’t shoot and is too small we already have JMike to fit that role and NEITHER are players you give money too! They are not NIL players and you don’t buy Francis or pay JMike.

Ogbole not worth a penny! Dortch I would not give a dime too either. Pay Grant 150 k to stay and then get out and recruit actual Power 4 players.

If JMike were playing down a level and averaging 15 ppg. teams would be all over him. He shot 33.3% from 3-pt. range, exactly the same as one of our lottery picks, and he is still only a sophomore. Now, he's not Dylan Harper, but he is quicker, has a better handle, can keep his man in front of him, rarely turns the ball over, and makes other players better. If anything, we win fewer games last year without him. I think he'll have a good year. And of course you give him some money.

 

[darkcheck]

Sure - ideally a center but the type your describing sadly might cost $2.5M. That’s why I thought of the Bob Huggins press teams. He had success with lengthy, physical forwards in that system and Pike has historically ran a solid press. I could at least see a path to respectability with that approach. I don’t want to see us overpay for a mid-major classic center just because he’s 7 foot tall. The physicality is most important.

This an excellent idea. Huggins was a master at getting five guys to eventually only having to defend a 1/4 of the court if his teams didn’t turn it over first. Many on here say Pike has to adapt but then they’re like “Pike back to defense, Pike need center for his specific defense, pay C even if division 3 center”. Cavemen. He better play a different style of chaotic defense because you’re right the style of C he used 4-5 years ago that can hang in the big east will blow our entire budget.

 

[darkcheck]

If JMike were playing down a level and averaging 15 ppg. teams would be all over him. He shot 33.3% from 3-pt. range, exactly the same as one of our lottery picks, and he is still only a sophomore. Now, he's not Dylan Harper, but he is quicker, has a better handle, can keep his man in front of him, rarely turns the ball over, and makes other players better. If anything, we win fewer games last year without him. I think he'll have a good year. And of course you give him some money.

Also he’s 2” taller than Francis, has a great vertical and has a great assist to to ration. With our budget, in my mind, JMike already your starting point. Start EO because we can’t afford a c better than him without using all our budget. Of course start Grant. Now use almost all your money on a quality Sg and sf both of whom can score and play d.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

This an excellent idea. Huggins was a master at getting five guys to eventually only having to defend a 1/4 of the court if his teams didn’t turn it over first. Many on here say Pike has to adapt but then they’re like “Pike back to defense, Pike need center for his specific defense, pay C even if division 3 center”. Cavemen. He better play a different style of chaotic defense because you’re right the style of C he used 4-5 years ago that can hang in the big east will blow our entire budget.

I’m hoping the decision to showcase the press in the last 2 games was a preview for the direction we’re going to move in. A lot of fans questioned why we didn’t press much before that but the reality was Dylan just isn’t a good fit to run that type of system regularly. He looked physically exhausted out there and the last thing Pike was going to do was showcase a strategy that made Dylan look bad. It’s not an excuse for how the season went down, but if there’s any reason at all to have at least a little hope that things could improve next season under Pike despite almost certainly having less paper talent, this is it.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Also he’s 2” taller than Francis, has a great vertical and has a great assist to to ration. With our budget, in my mind, JMike already your starting point. Start EO because we can’t afford a c better than him without using all our budget. Of course start Grant. Now use almost all your money on a quality Sg and sf both of whom can score and play d.

Yeah - exactly. I can’t imagine how anyone would even consider the possibility that a kid who played for a team that only won 5 games against D1 in one of the worst conferences in America would be an upgrade over J-Mike. As a back up, maybe, if he’s cheap enough. But that 307th ranked NJIT D screams for us to stay away from this kid in my opinion. I know he’s only one of 5 players, but still. It’s the American East. One BIG level defender in a conference like that alone and no team would be that bad. Think of Rutgers - we clogged in at 118th or something like that. At 307th, it’s hard to imagine any kid playing the bulk of the minutes to be a plus (or even average) defender.