Wow: My Coach Pikiell Story From Today...
- Thread starter DirtyRU
- Start date
Pike is the man. What a difference from Ash. You and your son will never forget this day. Pike gets it Ash is clueless.
Super cool. Not surprised either.
Walked past me as I was walking into the Buff. game and I said "Hey Coach Pikel" as he passed. Dude turned around and walked back to me to shake my hand. Told him I thought he was doing a hell of a job and he goes on to say all this nice stuff about the fans.
Walked past me as I was walking into the Buff. game and I said "Hey Coach Pikel" as he passed. Dude turned around and walked back to me to shake my hand. Told him I thought he was doing a hell of a job and he goes on to say all this nice stuff about the fans.
What is the point of this?
He is the best!! Three times I have been to high school classics when several games are being played at the same site that date and each time Coach Pikiell has waved me over to sit with him. He is so friendly and is so appreciative of all the fans. He responds to emails and is just the friendliest coach that I have ever met at RU. Trust me HE GETS IT.
Great story. I remember the open practice last year. Pikiell addressed the crowd with a microphone to explain each drill they were about to do and why they work on it. I walked out of there thinking that has to be one of the toughest practices I've ever watched. There's simply no words to describe the intensity and physical shape you have to be in to endure the practices.
Comparing coaches that are still struggling.
One who is doing all the right things and seems poised for success
One who is showing a lot of flaws and seems to be moving backwards
As far as I am concerned, he already is a success. This was a great story. Roy Williams used to do this when he started at Kansas after Brown got them into trouble and left. I heard Dean Smith would do this as well at times. It is a sign of understanding that relationships with fans are so important to building a strong program. More importantly, he just built a lifelong fan in your son.
Thank you so much for posting this. I love coach Pike, and this is just one more reason to indicate that he gets it.
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anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy
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Ash would think that his son was actually another coach squeezed into a kids body trying to spy on his base defense which is so hard to figure out
What record do you expect Rutgers to have this year in the B1G?
Will you vow to say the same things in February?
I am in full agreement with all the positives about our basketball coach...100%.
It's funny u should say that @kyk1827 ... because for almost the entire time we were there, I took no vid and only minimal stills. Was damn near afraid to pull my smartphone out. My son asked me why I didn't want to take any video. I didn't say this to him but the truth is, I was so paranoid that Pike and staff would get upset that I was "filming" portions of practice. And this mentality of mine... being hypersensitive to it and all... is almost certainly due to Ash's (and Flood's) paranoia about closed practices, prohibited vid etc., ha. Eventually towards the end I recorded some brief vids because it finally dawned on me that I was being ridiculous and that this staff would not give two sh#ts. [pfftt]
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I became a lifelong RU hoops fan because Coach Waters let me sit-in on practices once a month as a 13-year-old. It is awesome to hear that Coach Pikiell ascribes to a similar philosophy. Hope your son is still talking about it, @DirtyRU.
Dan, first off he IS. I think he had a hard time going to school this morning because he wishes we were back at the RAC watching practice, hahaha. That's awesome re: Waters! Another great man indeed. And finally, people in this thread keep saying how I'm sure the experience made a lasting impression on my son, etc. etc. Well all I can say is about halfway through the practice he turned to me and said "Dad, I think I wanna go to school here." :joy:
So happy to hear such a nice story like this @DirtyRU
I took my son to so many athletic events at RU and my memories were relived just reading this!
My so is now 45ish and lives in Georgia. I miss him everyday and we always chat about Rutgers memories. Thanks for sharing...
I took my son to so many athletic events at RU and my memories were relived just reading this!
My so is now 45ish and lives in Georgia. I miss him everyday and we always chat about Rutgers memories. Thanks for sharing...
The comparison is not about wins and losses. Ash’s team looks completely unprepared for every opponent. Not so with Pike. Ash is a defensive coach whose defense gets torched mercilessly. Not so with Pike, also a defensive-minded coach. Ash has coached his team to blowout after blowout. Not so with Pike. Fans of both sports can see the progress and find optimism with Pike. Not so with Ash.
This is a little bit of revisionist history, or rose colored glasses, or something.
Pikiell has embarrassing losses to rival Eastern Michigan (Stony Brook and Hartford) and he's been blown out plenty of times (six losses of 20+ points last year, five losses of 20+ points in 2016-2017 plus three more 19-point losses).
I obviously agree that Pikiell seems like he's on a better trajectory than Ash but we've gotten torched plenty on the hardwood too.
Here are last year's 20+ point losses:
@ #12 Minn 12/03/17 89-67
@ #13 Purdue 01/03/18 82-51
vs Ohio St 01/14/18 68-46
@ Illinois 01/30/18 91-60
vs Indiana 02/05/18 65-43
@ #15 Ohio St 02/20/18 79-52
3 losses against top 20 teams at the time on the road.
I get it, Pikiell also has been blown out. Don't you get a sense of progress with the basketball program? Our recruiting is night and day different than the football program. We have a young basketball team ( 9 freshman & sophmores and only 1 senior ), but I bet you, Pikiell will not use that as an excuse. Don't you think there is a huge difference in assistant coaches between football and basketball? What about head coaching experience or should I say the lack of in football?
It just seems the basketball program is on the cusp of turning the page where the football program has fallen off the cliff. NIT might be a good possibility for the basketball program this year.
I agree that the direction of the program is way better. I disagree that the NIT is a possibility. We'd probably have to get to 10-10 or maybe 9-11 in conference and I don't see that kind of jump happening.
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being an Ash/Eddie-level job, 5 being a Mike Rice-ish job (on-court only) and 10 being an amazing job, I'd put Pikiell at a 7 or 7.5.
I think we surprise, we have ball handlers, shooters and rebounders, with a guy that can coach and coach defense.
Playing devil's advocate right now. Please understand! Go back in a time machine to November 10, 2012. We are weeks away from season 3 of the Mike Rice era. We are coming off a year where we almost went .500 and were 6-12 in Big East playing all freshman except a sophomore and a junior. 5 star Wally Judge was being added to the mix. The future was ridiculously bright and making the NCAA tournament in the next 2-3 years was about a given by the fanbase. Mike Rice landed the best recruiting class ever.
Let's see how this plays out.
Player development has been the missing link forever. That and player retention. How many guys have gotten a lot better in their time here? Who was the last senior we had that put it all together? Myles Mack's best season came as a sophomore. Kadeem Jack's was as a junior. Mike Williams never developed into a reliable shooter. DeShawn Freeman took a step back last year, IMO. Corey Sanders' 3-point percentage went down every year. Judge didn't really get any better while he was here. Dane Miller disappeared too often. Gilvydas Biruta was better as a freshman than as a sophomore. Mike Rosario never lived up to expectations here and was basically the same player as a sophmore that he was as a freshman.
You basically have to go back to guys like Hamady and Jonathan Mitchell to find someone who built a career and flourished as a senior.
How many guys have gotten a lot better in their time here? Who was the last senior we had that put it all together?
I'll name one - John Battle.
I'll name one - John Battle.
You read my mind. Loved that kid. He almost single handedly beat Pitt one year.
Back in the Stone Age, I used to sit upstairs at the Barn and watch practice every night. But I do get why much of practice has to be closed. I also think that the secrecy is overdone. Why not invite fans (or at least, allow fans) to attend the first portion of practice and leave at the “x’s and o’s.” After we’re two games into the season, opponents are gonna have much more to work with than could be gleaned from watching do sprints and take uncontested jump shots.
I’m 35 minutes away (recently retired) and would drive to it once a week.
I’m 35 minutes away (recently retired) and would drive to it once a week.
Biruta, of the guys you mentioned, is the one makes me shake my head. Believe the kid could have been a player for us but stones heads (Rice’s, his family/managers, probably Gil’s) collided.
And then Pike and team got revenge for 2 of those blowouts (and almost for a third one), in the B1G tourney the same year. Anyone think Ash could pull that off, playing those blowout teams a second time in the same season?
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