Worst Loss of the Pikiell Era
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Yea not wasting my time answering dumb questions. Go start a thread with our record in case we all forgot.
This not a team that will take us to the NCAAs next year.
After the Indiana loss, Pikiell was asked about the terrible defense, and his answer was that he needed to work on it. What exactly happens in practices if they forget to work on defense? How can you not work on it?
Not having his team ready three games in a row to end the season puts into question his coaching ability. Maybe he is not what he has been cracked up to be.
After the Indiana loss, Pikiell was asked about the terrible defense, and his answer was that he needed to work on it. What exactly happens in practices if they forget to work on defense? How can you not work on it?
Not having his team ready three games in a row to end the season puts into question his coaching ability. Maybe he is not what he has been cracked up to be.
Sorry. I take that back. I will erase my comments. It was uncalled for.
I know we improved but how in the world is 14-17
and losing to the last-place team in the B1G tournament “terrific”??? How low is the bar here???
Joe P.
It’s pretty low. If we were doing limbo with this bar, I don’t think anyone on this board would make it to Round 2.
Bog, I was agreeing with you until your last sentence. I agree that Pike $hit the bed tonight. His lack of adjustments was horrible. Probably one of the worst coaching jobs by him. Still, I really like him and think he will take us where we want to go. But don't think I'm happy with what occurred tonight, because I'm not. I am very pissed off at the poor job he did as well as the kids.
I don't think it was lack of effort by the coaching staff but rather the team packed it in after the heart breaking loss to Penn State.The emotion was gone,the ball handling was atrocious and the shooting was abysmal.
Sorry JMM78, I can't agree with this. I usually agree with all of your posts, but this was IMO, a poor job not just by the kids, but by Pike. He never adjusted in the second half when we went up by 7 points. I think he coached one of his worst games since he's been here.
Only RU fans consider 14-17 a terrific season ... better than 7-25, but terrific? Yes, there were good moments and only a few blowout losses.
This year is OK with 7-14 in conference because of the teams youth. But if they go 15-18, 14-17 next year then that is what I expect with Pike at the helm.
But better than 7-25 ...
I'd lose a ton of respect for Pike if he blamed this on the Thiam incident, even if it were true - coaches just won't answer questions like that truthfully He'll take responsibility as he should and so should the players. Doesn't mean it might not have been a factor - insights like that usually only come from players and are often off the record. My guess is we may never know if it was a factor, but anyone who's been on sports teams in turmoil or closely observed them knows that team psyche can be a fragile thing.
At this point, it's done, season's over, and I just hope Young is as good as he is reported to be, Mulcahy comes in and plays well, the rest of the guys get stronger and stay in good shape, and we can get another decent big man and a real shooting forward (maybe a grad transfer who sees an opportunity to help us get over the hump) for next year. A winning season is a must for me next year.
Then why would you even mention it if you’re willing to concede it’s “done” an hour later ?
I can recognize that the season's over and done with, while still being curious about what happened the last 2 games and if the Thiam incident had an effect. But I have no intention of belaboring it either, since the season's over and it's time to start thinking about next year.
I find it a bit amusing that this is considered a "horrible loss" and there are no excuses for losing to a team with "6 scholarship players" (luckily you only play 5 at a time). We led practically the whole game and we played like garbage especially our most important player who was god awful.
But Nebraska was actually FAVORED if people have forgotten. And what happened to "ESPN says Nebraska has a 73% chance of winning"? Maybe Pike actually did a GREAT job by actually having us in the lead with 4 minutes to play. People need to chill out. Every team but 2 ends the season with a loss. Some losses are worse than others. I've seen worse. MUCH worse.
But Nebraska was actually FAVORED if people have forgotten. And what happened to "ESPN says Nebraska has a 73% chance of winning"? Maybe Pike actually did a GREAT job by actually having us in the lead with 4 minutes to play. People need to chill out. Every team but 2 ends the season with a loss. Some losses are worse than others. I've seen worse. MUCH worse.
apparently very low, too much to ask to beat the then 13th place team on senior night..yes comeback but gee down by 20 to start the game and unprepared to play and then its too much to beat a 6 man 13th place team
dont worry all is well
then what does that say about where the program is. Yes for Rutgers we have improved but the reality is this team will be picked 13th next season maybe even 14th......just when will we move up
If I told you in November we'd win 7 league games (damn close in others) with a chance to finish as high as 8th on the last game of the regular season, you and I would've signed up for that in a heartbeat. We were much more competitive than anyone could've predicted. That is progress. What else are your going to ask for in Year 3 for this program? Does that mean we're going to finish 5th and make the NCAAs next year? No, who is saying that? But you're giving up on the 2019-20 season already because we played 1 bad half (out of 2) against Penn State, lost at Indiana, and blew a game against Nebraska today. And, I'm sorry, call it an excuse or not. the Thiam situation had to have had some effect on the entire athletic department not just the people that know him well. How much effect it had on the players on the court none of us on this board probably know but you cannot just dismiss it out of hand.
If you don't see that we were much more competitive this year and that the roster is much better with some players that have the ability to build on this year's improvements, then maybe you need to step away from the keyboard for a few days. I am NOT a pollyana, rose-colored glasses fan (I've seen way too much to expect a lot) but I am encouraged by what I have seen this year. A disappointing couple of days does not wipe out the progress this program has made.
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True . And if I told you that we would stink it up in the postseason , be a 12 seed, lose to a crappy team, and be out of the tournament before it even starts? No one would sign up for that, including pike . Right?
I didn't even bother reading any of the responses, once I got the gist of the original post. I have been all in on Pikiell since day one and I'm still all in now. At the end of the day the team has continued to improve and we are light years ahead of where any reasonable person expected we would be. Let's see what happens this offseason.
We are one hell of a fickle fanbase that's for sure.
Worst loss of the Pikiell era...yeah ok.
We are one hell of a fickle fanbase that's for sure.
Worst loss of the Pikiell era...yeah ok.
Thank you. There are many elements for me that made this season terrific, from the improvement in the record, to the respect the program now gets from outside RU (which didn't exist before the season began), to the excitement from the fans (which also didn't exist before the season), to the performances by the freshmen, to the expectation for improvement next year. There's no law that says you have to be miserable.
if someone said that after the Iowa game, they would have been called an idiot and laughed off the board as a negatoid
thats right I did say I would sign up for 7-13....but you get better by building off your wins not by losing. That we played so poorly down the stretch cannot just be dismissed, you have no idea how next year will shake out, we could start 1-9 in league. The season showed improvement, the finish however sucked and there was alot about tonight that brought up red flags.
Again alot of the venting tonight is about this loss and poor play in last 3 games, you are confusing that with trying to defend the season overall. Its okay to expect wins down the stretch.
Would I sign up for losing a game? No. But that's all it is, one game. You had already declared in advance that the entire season a failure if we lost today so you're consistently idiotic takes were on the record before the game. Not sure why I'm actually responding to you to be honest. You're probably the worst poster on this forum, with all due respect of course.
Three games, three games, three games. We lost by ONE FREAKING POINT to one of the hottest teams in the league in one those games and almost pulled off one of the most memorable wins in a long time. The second half was awesome. Why doesn't that count in the equation? I wish we had won all three. We didn't. One was a blowout. One was a 1 point loss. And one we blew a late lead to a team that ended their season by scoring over 90 points in beating Iowa.
Geo sucked and his play cost us today's game IMO. Two of our other guards fouled out. Next year, we have reinforcements coming in to replace any of those guys if the same situation arises.
Disappointing ending to the season. It does not erase what was tangible progress.
You didn't even read my op. I also said, "Doesn't mean it wasn't a successful season with 7 B1G wins and it doesn't mean the future isn't bright, but man, it's a horrible way to go out." C'mon if you can't admit it was a horrific loss you have your head in the sand. I'm still a huge Pikiell fan, but this was not a high point for him or the team.
2nd half was awesome you are forgetting how awful it was to see the team get down by 20 on its home court....nice mindset to have, I cannot give them credit for a 2nd half comeback that produced a loss..they didnt win, they didnt come to play in the first half..that makes what happened in the 2nd half more infuriating..you do not get credit for losses. and Penn State was a bottom team..as was Indy as was Nebby...and Indy may be going to NCAA, it underscores how far we still have to go..winning a few games here and there isnt going to cut it next year,.
i have never argued we did not see tangible progress, does not mean that the last 3 games were a regression so that is how we are heading into off season whether you like or not...the team will once again by a 13th/14th place projection
...at the end of the day and after 3 seasons I really don’t favor using ‘almost wins’ vs. losing teams as some sort of high-water mark.
Joe P.
We won less games this year than the previous two seasons. Sure we won more B1G games but we also lost to Fordham, struggled with some shit teams, lost to a bad NW team and frankly finished poorly going 3-8 over last 11 games. Our big win over Iowa was a team missing their coach and also in a slump.
exactly...it was not a stretch of Maryland, Wisconsin and Purdue we just faced
there has to be some level of expectations
when you are 14-14, 7-10 with a 500 season and NIT possiblities as goal as well as a first round bye...that is alot to play for.
and now there are people rushing to stop criticism because they went 0-3 against 3 teams all around RU in the standings...and if the argument is that Indy and PSU are hot, then what does it say for RU and their chances of moving by them next season.
Improvement or not, its going to be very tough
Horrific...maybe...
Worst loss of the Pikiell era...sorry...that's 5th grade little girl drama right there.
Agreed, not every loss has to be labeled the worst of the Pikiell era. Big picture, in all likelihood we weren't beating Maryland anyway and it had zero impact on our post season chances. Bottom line for me is all the good mojo we experienced last month was washed away by ending on a three game losing streak.
Agreed. Totally embarrassing effort tonight. Only Eugene and Myles came to play. I’m still bullish on this team next year, but tonight was uncharacteristicly bad. By all accounts, this is a very close knit team. I have to agree that the Thiam incident must have taken its toll on this team.
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