When we look back at this season…

[bitnez]

I’m not sure how some here give Pike a total pass on what occurred this year. It’s laughable. In the NIL era, you need to be prepared for players to leave. The problem was no depth beyond Cam from a scoring perspective and that’s on Pike 100%. If we want to take the next step and become a consistent top half of the B1G team, Pike’s philosophy needs to change…we need to evolve on the offensive end and there needs to be recruiting depth. Stocking up on one dimensional players who can only play defense won’t cut it. The recruiting pieces are there next year, now can Pike adjust the philosophy on the court…TBD

So it’s your position that every HC should be prepared for his returning top scorer who has promised him for months that he’s coming back to go back on his word and walk out the door in late May? Of course, as we know, that guy went on to become a first-team all Big East player. And you also think it’s realistic to have some stud who can score 15 ppg simply sitting on the bench waiting for his turn? Come on.

Pike takes a hit on recruiting and even some of his in season work. But, I won’t put Cam on him or planning for Cam to walk when he did. If Cam walked in March/April, maybe Pike could’ve gotten a guy who knew he’d be playing 25-30 minutes per game and being the lead dog. We’ll never know. What we do know is that level of player wasn’t coming here because that was supposed to be Cam’s role.

 

[Mr_Twister]

As a highly compensated leader, Coach didn’t have a Pearl Harbor file ready. If you are involved with Rutgers Athletics, be very prepared for talented players to bail at any time. It wouldn’t be the first time and it will not be the last. Too many variables working against us.

 

[Eagleton96]

As a highly compensated leader, Coach didn’t have a Pearl Harbor file ready. If you are involved with Rutgers Athletics, be very prepared for talented players to bail at any time. It wouldn’t be the first time and it will not be the last. Too many variables working against us.

Were there supposed to be available players inside this file? Emergency player, just add water. Break glass in case of emergency to access your standby starter quality big ten player.

Pike is responsible for not being more proactive, and not anticipating things, in the new NIL reality world. But last year was really the first year this new dynamic was in full effect, and that it hit us like this. So it would have been great kudos to him if he was ahead of the curve on this and it never happened. But it's sort of understandable that he got bit once by the new reality before adjusting. This off season is the real test.

 

[rucoe89]

We’ll never know what happened but there were more than a few games where Mag was practicing, cleared by medical, Pike expected him to play, and he didn’t. And late in the season Pike even mentioned Mag after the Minnesota game hoping that he’d be back. Mag wasn’t talked about after that. Even on Senior Day, watch Pike’s postgame presser. He had great things to say about all of the seniors and made one passing mention of Mag. We all know Pike — if Mag was simply too injured to play — Pike would’ve been praising him for his commitment to the team and effort to get back playing (as he did early in the season). That didn’t happen.

Sounds like those in his ear to him to shut it down for the year to help maximize the bag when the portal season begins. Pure speculation, though.

 

[Eagleton96]

Sounds like those in his ear to him to shut it down for the year to help maximize the bag when the portal season begins. Pure speculation, though.

Seems like bad advice if that's the goal. The final impression he is leaving going into free agency is that of an injury prone, unreliable, and rusty again player. And maybe even a me-first player. Makes me think that he's probably legitimately injured. Because the smart thing to do to max his portal value would be to kick ass right now.

 

[motorb54]

Thank you. Want to add one more thing. Andre Hyatt did not improve one iota this year and his rebounding or should I say his unwillingness to even jump for a rebound hurt us immensely. Not an expectation but just maybe a senior playing his final year and free of Ron and Mag and having the stage to himself , came up so small this year , especially on the road. Your veteran presence on the road was MIA

Hyatt lack of rebounding plus a 3 guard lineup, plus Cliff not the greatest himself at getting boards killed us.

 

[Scangg]

This was still a fun year. Sweeping Michigan was amazing - both games, the 15-pt comeback for our first ever win in Ann Arbor in history, and the blowout at home.

The Indiana game at the RAC was so enjoyable, love smashing those morons.

Many will forget how we beat #11 Wisconsin this year by 22, you can try to rationalize it or diminish it but it happened. They were #6 the week before and were a blown call from beating Purdue at home, it all spiraled from there but they could have easily come in #2 or #3 when we smashed them.

Boo Buie ends his career against us by flopping and missing the game-tying 3 at the buzzer.

Another Big Ten villain, Tominaga misses a game-tying 3 at the buzzer in overtime to lose to us also at the RAC.

I and many were in Newark to watch us drain 3 after 3 and smash Seton Hall and steal back the Garden State hardwood trophy on their court.

It wasnt the ending we all hoped for but there were some great games and memories this year for a lot of fans to enjoy!

Some really fun games this season lost in the overall disappointment

 

[shields]

The offense is just so bad. glad I don't have peacock.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Were there supposed to be available players inside this file? Emergency player, just add water. Break glass in case of emergency to access your standby starter quality big ten player.

Pike is responsible for not being more proactive, and not anticipating things, in the new NIL reality world. But last year was really the first year this new dynamic was in full effect, and that it hit us like this. So it would have been great kudos to him if he was ahead of the curve on this and it never happened. But it's sort of understandable that he got bit once by the new reality before adjusting. This off season is the real test.

If you’re saying Pike had a tough year all the way around, I’m in agreement. He is not blameless. It‘s his job to stay ahead of the curve. And he has a long way to go from an offensive standpoint as a coach and recruiter.

 

[ScarletLongIsland]

So it’s your position that every HC should be prepared for his returning top scorer who has promised him for months that he’s coming back to go back on his word and walk out the door in late May? Of course, as we know, that guy went on to become a first-team all Big East player. And you also think it’s realistic to have some stud who can score 15 ppg simply sitting on the bench waiting for his turn? Come on.

Pike takes a hit on recruiting and even some of his in season work. But, I won’t put Cam on him or planning for Cam to walk when he did. If Cam walked in March/April, maybe Pike could’ve gotten a guy who knew he’d be playing 25-30 minutes per game and being the lead dog. We’ll never know. What we do know is that level of player wasn’t coming here because that was supposed to be Cam’s role.

That’s exactly my point. He decided to roll with Cam and a bunch of role players who can’t put the ball in the hoop if their life depended on it. That’s not the way to assemble a D1 roster. You need more than one option on the offensive end.

Cam wasn’t stupid. He’s thriving because of the offensive talent around him at Uconn. That’s why he is on some draft boards. Cam wouldn’t have put up the same numbers if he stayed.

 

[RUHouston]

I would have a hard time accepting any player who is healthy but refusing to play, if that is what is happening
If he is injured, that's a different c story

Agree 100% and we may never know....

 

[ScarletR30]

I get the others but your vitriol towards Mag is a little over the top imho.

If the rumors are true about mag, it might not be enough. Clogging a roster spot and quitting on team?

 

[Eagleton96]

If the rumors are true about mag, it might not be enough. Clogging a roster spot and quitting on team?

There is no clogging. If we had some hope to achieve something then I might agree with you.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I think the expectations were clearly not in line with what this team could accomplish. I think you have to look at the hits that the program took before the season even started:

1. Our assistant head coach leaves for big money, and takes Ndongo. The guy goes on to average 12 and eight at Georgia Tech.

2. Cam Spencer leaves for greener pastures late in the process.

3. Paul Mulcahy leaves late in the process for reasons known only to him.

And then, when we finally get Mag back, it turns out that he has not had full healing, and we really only had him at 100% for a few games this season.

Those are four big hits to a program when you consider what those players have to offer when they are 100%. And the only positive against those hits was the inclusion of Jeremiah Williams, who gave us a four game spark before the Big Ten figured out how to slow him down.

And we also need to look at the fact that as much as everyone wants to attack our coach, these things were not within his control.

When I look back at the season….to me, three things really derailed from my thought process for the beginning of the season

1.) with how he was being rated in the “portal rankings “… I was really expecting Fernandes to be legit big ten level point guard for us and help our offense flow . That didn’t happen

2.) I felt the mag would settle down and be a legit big ten starter ar the four and a glue guy on the team…hungry to get out there…. total miss on that

3.) I really thought Austin would be that gritty off the bench veteran guard that could
Help glue things together …and reality is his injury made him a shell of what we was previously

When I combine all three of those things …i think that knocked us down from being a bubble team to 15-16. The diffeenxe between 12-8 and 7-13 in this league isn’t much and had two of those three things above happened , I think we would have been 10-10/18-13…..even without Jwill coming in

The portal didn’t yield much for us and mag didn’t pan…that’s where I went wrong fron what I thought we could do this year …..

 

[RUbacker]

We also thought Griffiths would score in bunches. He was not shy in shooting. Got to give him that. He did seem to have much more fight in him the last half dozen games or so and that was encouraging. A year in the weight room should help but his shootin' eye wasn't lookin that good.

Hope he’s in the weight room right now

 

[RUbacker]

So it’s your position that every HC should be prepared for his returning top scorer who has promised him for months that he’s coming back to go back on his word and walk out the door in late May? Of course, as we know, that guy went on to become a first-team all Big East player. And you also think it’s realistic to have some stud who can score 15 ppg simply sitting on the bench waiting for his turn? Come on.

Pike takes a hit on recruiting and even some of his in season work. But, I won’t put Cam on him or planning for Cam to walk when he did. If Cam walked in March/April, maybe Pike could’ve gotten a guy who knew he’d be playing 25-30 minutes per game and being the lead dog. We’ll never know. What we do know is that level of player wasn’t coming here because that was supposed to be Cam’s role.

NCAA tried to help kids make money but now it’s produced a lot kids saying FU to loyalty , coaches or teammates. A monster has been created and we are just starting to see what happens when you let young kids chase the almighty dollar at all costs.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I’m not sure how some here give Pike a total pass on what occurred this year. It’s laughable. In the NIL era, you need to be prepared for players to leave. The problem was no depth beyond Cam from a scoring perspective and that’s on Pike 100%. If we want to take the next step and become a consistent top half of the B1G team, Pike’s philosophy needs to change…we need to evolve on the offensive end and there needs to be recruiting depth. Stocking up on one dimensional players who can only play defense won’t cut it. The recruiting pieces are there next year, now can Pike adjust the philosophy on the court…TBD

ScarletLongIsland

Just posted this on another thread

“We got into this mess by recruiting issues. Plain and simple

two classes that should be seniors and juniors next year

Jaden jones -not here
Jalen miller -not here
Antonio chol-not here
Antoine Wolfolk-TBD
Derek Simpson -TBD

I have said for THIRTY years our biggest problem was recruiting and getting those kids through SENIOR day. Until Pike, the low number was startling , and now it’s coming back again

We started possibly reversing the trend in the class of 2023 , and hopefully continuing with 2024…and I specifically mean Latham , Dylan G and Bryce ….

Need to add 2-3 players a year in the class of 2025 and 2026 and then
It will be fixed

Harder than ever in the portal ans NIL era …but you have to recruit four guys a year so that two will stick for four years…and then you have to that ir every year so you regularly have a roster with hopefully 4-5 upperclassman to compete

Watch 2025
And 2026 recruiting …that will tell you of next season will be a flash in the pan …or the stsrt of another run of sustained ncaa tournament bids….

That’s what I’m doing…watching it very closely”


This year is a direct result of the above ..we had two Sub par recruiting classes …and unless you hit a grand slam in the portal…it’s still going to be a stop gap

Recruit frosh in numbers every year because 1/2 won’t make it for 4 years …and make sure you recruit enoogh to keep two players for four years in each class and combine that with pike receipe of defense and rebounding …we will be there

Forget the age of the players …we had the following the year

3 4th year guys (cliff, mag, oskar)
1 3rd year guy (Hyatt )
3 2nd year guys (Derek , wolf, chol)
6 1st year guys (Jwill, Awill, noah, Ogoble, Jmike and Gavin )

On paper ..we had a nucleus of upper classmen to lead as my receipe suggests …but NONE in the backcourt …and none the vocal leader ..

If miller and jones were the juniors and the players we hoped for when we recruited (Miller a 15 minute role player off the bench , and jones a 12 ppg shooting guard starting )….how much different woukd this season Likely have been ???

It starts with recruiting …and we had two classes in a row where we struck out …..

 

[ScarletLongIsland]

Yep exactly Shack. The 2024 class is a START but will the momentum carry through to subsequent classes.

Even the year before, pulling Cam out of the portal allowed Pike to cover up the issues on the recruiting trail. The very thing that bit Pike in the ass is the very thing that gives him a chance to turnaround the recruiting…NIL. We shall see.

 

[RUJMM78]

That’s exactly my point. He decided to roll with Cam and a bunch of role players who can’t put the ball in the hoop if their life depended on it. That’s not the way to assemble a D1 roster. You need more than one option on the offensive end.

Cam wasn’t stupid. He’s thriving because of the offensive talent around him at Uconn. That’s why he is on some draft boards. Cam wouldn’t have put up the same numbers if he stayed.

Cam averaged 14 points at Rutgers which is the same as at UConn.The difference is that at Rutgers he was the only outside scoring threat.UConn starting five has scorers at every position which translates into a championship team.

 

[fluoxetine]

That’s exactly my point. He decided to roll with Cam and a bunch of role players who can’t put the ball in the hoop if their life depended on it. That’s not the way to assemble a D1 roster. You need more than one option on the offensive end.

Cam wasn’t stupid. He’s thriving because of the offensive talent around him at Uconn. That’s why he is on some draft boards. Cam wouldn’t have put up the same numbers if he stayed.

This roster plus Cam Spencer is a bubble team.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Yep exactly Shack. The 2024 class is a START but will the momentum carry through to subsequent classes.

Even the year before, pulling Cam out of the portal allowed Pike to cover up the issues on the recruiting trail. The very thing that bit Pike in the ass is the very thing that gives him a chance to turnaround the recruiting…NIL. We shall see.

Yes…the short term fix is the portal with NIL

The long term fix is recruiting and NIL

I know we recruited 4 front court players and Ace is a one and done …but I want to see us recruit at least ONE front court class of 2025 player. You need players in the back court and front court in every class …and the reality in March 2024 in the portal era is that one or more of Latham , Bryce and Dylan G won’t make it senior day …and we need players behind them for who doesn’t make it

On rhe same front ..I would LOVE pike to give out another shooting guard scholarship to a class of 2024 frosh in the spring because Dylan won’t be here for 4 years …..and most likely ,.only ONE