I've never

[satnom]

I just shake my head at this stuff...

Another Rutgers fan with expectations at the absolute floor. Team has won 11 games all year with 4 games left to play. We will finish with 12 possibly 13 wins if we are lucky and this dude is saying we exceeded expectations.

Christ, some of you have no concept of what a winning program looks like.

On absolute terms don’t disagree on 11 wins with the season not over but relative to the time period of 1976 to 2016 when Pike was hired you’ve got to be kidding yourself that he’s not been an upgrade to what this program was overall and it’s not even close. Some RU fans act like the RU basketball program was a perennial winner when we were far from that.

Heck during my time on campus RU won 13, 11 and 13 games in the ATLANTIC 10 and 9 games in the Big East.

Some of you have a distortion reality of History. Pike under delivered last season with a couple of 18 yr olds leading the team but the team this season has outplayed expectations heading into the season.

Retain the positive pieces of the roster and bring in upgrades then complain and moan if Pike doesn’t get it done next season.

GO RU

 

[bac2therac]

On absolute terms don’t disagree on 11 wins with the season not over but relative to the time period of 1976 to 2016 when Pike was hired you’ve got to be kidding yourself that he’s not been an upgrade to what this program was overall and it’s not even close. Some RU fans act like the RU basketball program was a perennial winner when we were far from that.

Heck during my time on campus RU won 13, 11 and 13 games in the ATLANTIC 10 and 9 games in the Big East.

Some of you have a distortion reality of History. Pike under delivered last season with a couple of 18 yr olds leading the team but the team this season has outplayed expectations heading into the season.

Retain the positive pieces of the roster and bring in upgrades then complain and moan if Pike doesn’t get it done next season.

GO RU

it hasnt outplayed expectations that were incredibly low to begin with..go to the preseason prediction thread...most had 12-14 wins and 4-7 conference wins

 

[Jerseylegends]

i expected exactly what i am seeing. I predicted 13-18 and 6-14 and the team may equal that or be a game below It will be Pikes FOURTH CONSECUIVE YEAR WITHOUT A NCAA APPEARANCE AND THIRD STRAIGHT SUB 500 RECORD AND ONE OF THOSE WAS WITH 2 TOP 5 DRAFT PICKS

Fire pike today and if what you say is true about not having money for transfers next year, who are you going to bring in? Before pike, when was Rutgers expected to make the tournament? That's a legit question..

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

it hasnt outplayed expectations that were incredibly low to begin with..go to the preseason prediction thread...most had 12-14 wins and 4-7 conference wins

I could care less about the record. It doesn’t matter. Tariq has outperformed reasonable expectation and this point alone is the reason for cautious optimism if we succeed in retaining him. We have not had a single returning player of close to his caliber since the NIL portal era began. I think it could make a difference when trying to build a roster to have an impact player from your system coming back. Having a vision to sell is important. Folks will preach about how great a vision Ace and Dylan were but it’s not the same. They had not yet played in a game for Rutgers. It was all about how guys would be used but no past film to point to. Way more uncertainty in terms of selling a transfer on what their role would be. I think this matters. Having a Tariq back as an anchor would be hugely helpful to Pike IMO. And that’s true in my opinion whether we lose out or win 4 more games. I know it’s hardly a given we’ll keep him, but at least there’s a chance. It’s a chance I didn’t think would be there before the season started.

 

[Jerseylegends]

And the fault of the roster is who....J mike and eo should never even be here...j mike recruited before nil really kicked into effect along with simpson was not a big ten starter...griffiths, jones, woofolk, reiber, jalen plus a buch of players like nwuli and dortsch very one dimensional oh and J Wil too.he was supposed to be the savior..now its dorian jones the savior

This I agree with, I don't understand how these are the best players Rutgers can get. It still scrambles my brain the roster they brought in to play with ACE and Dylan..

 

[Mr. Magoo1]

Improvement compared to what or whom?

Penn State?

Players that dont have alot of talent improving incrementally doesnt mean much vs the rest of the conference

Minnesota was a measuring stick game on MEANIGFUL improvement

Very low ceilings on most of these players. Keep them together next season and we win 13 games instead of 11. Also, We’ve been playing crap teams the last 3, so the minimal improvement is relative.

 

[bac2therac]

This I agree with, I don't understand how these are the best players Rutgers can get. It still scrambles my brain the roster they brought in to play with ACE and Dylan..

it didnt make sense that Pike would bring in guys like acuff and hayes...i think he needed to raid some maac tough guys not mousy types who would disappear into the wallpaper...part of the problem was j Will was a HUGE HUGE disappointment last year

 

[BillyC80]

it didnt make sense that Pike would bring in guys like acuff and hayes...i think he needed to raid some maac tough guys not mousy types who would disappear into the wallpaper...part of the problem was j Will was a HUGE HUGE disappointment last year

What pissed me off with Pike last year is that he couldn’t find a way to bring in a legit center. Pike makes $4 million per year. People with money know people with money. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to put RU in contention for a deep NCAA tourney run, and he blew it. He needed to sell the hype of our program, with two superstars in his hip pocket, and he couldn’t do it.

 

[scarletrat99]

So RU isn't as bad as we thought, and somehow that vindicates Pike? This is the team he and his staff brought in, on the heels of last year's utter embarrassment, as others have mentioned. Pike the recruiter, roster builder, fund raiser, etc...is killing Pike the coach then.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

What pissed me off with Pike last year is that he couldn’t find a way to bring in a legit center. Pike makes $4 million per year. People with money know people with money. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to put RU in contention for a deep NCAA tourney run, and he blew it. He needed to sell the hype of our program, with two superstars in his hip pocket, and he couldn’t do it.

I hated our portal haul last year, but I sort of understand it. Think about what Pike was put there trying to sell. Go back in time to this point of last season. We stunk “slightly less” in absolute terms but relative to expectations we were a bust of epic scale. There was no future to think of as we all new our two main pieces on offense were gone. Lathan was horrendous on D but he was our third best piece and left the day the portal opened. We had no foundation to build on so Pike was forced to (as Sean said) basically put that on Dylan Grant. But it’s hard prop a kid as the face of your program who makes a living by exploiting defenses “not worrying about him” and focusing on stopping others. That’s basically Grant’s game at the high major level and it was our centerpiece selling point of what we were trying to do. It had to be as we brought back literally nothing else on offense.

Think of how Cliff turned down the highest bidder to go where he thought he could be best developed / used and would play for a winner. I think our fans overestimate just how much more money we’d of had to offer last year to get someone to come play for a program starting with nothing. With so many choices and undoubtedly good offers - what big would’ve chosen us?

I think (hope) we could do better this season. If Pike succeeds early with retention, there’d be a foundation to point to on offense and a clear needed role that we’d be looking to fill.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

So RU isn't as bad as we thought, and somehow that vindicates Pike? This is the team he and his staff brought in, on the heels of last year's utter embarrassment, as others have mentioned. Pike the recruiter, roster builder, fund raiser, etc...is killing Pike the coach then.

It doesn’t vindicate anything. It only means there’s hope for a path forward where we might put together a significantly better starting roster next season. last offseason, in contrast, felt completely hopeless.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

lmfao..most of the kids are deep bench players here...we need 3 IMPACT PLAYERS

Saying you want to keep most of them is going to ensure you are wasting money on bottom 4 league talent

do you think Oregon is going to not spend more after this years disaster...Maryland has a top class coming in and they will spend more than RU

that leaves RU to wallow around with PSU and NW in terms of talent and $$$

It’s more like 2.5 vs 3. We need a real center, a forward who plays tough defense and rebounds, and a taller ball handling guard (Tariq is improving as primary, but he can’t be our only ball handler outside of a back up). Theoretically - this last “need” could be filled in combination with the second need. A point forward type with handling skills would suffice.

Your also overreacting a bit to one game IMO . just because Minny had a bunch of guys shoot lights out against us, let’s not go crazy. Minny shot an insane 58% from 3. Their season average is 34%. We all know the holes we have on defense - when we run into a team that’s on fire from 3, we simply have no answer because overplaying perimeter D means lay up lines inside (that’s how bad our frontcourt D is). It sucks - but we know this is something that needs yo be addressed. Pike must realize too. At least it’s a need that should be on the cheaper side relative to needing to pick up guys with 12 ppg type stats. We don’t need to focus on scoring other than making sure the Big we bring in can finish the easy ones. MJ level offense would be fine.

 

[RUInsanityToo]

It doesn’t vindicate anything. It only means there’s hope for a path forward where we might put together a significantly better starting roster next season. last offseason, in contrast, felt completely hopeless.

This is where I'm at. There's little hope that money will be found in the near term to pay out Pike and bring in a new staff......and as a fan I'm not the type to constantly complain about hopelessness......so my focus is on the glimmer of hope regarding progression of some of the younger players and with additional NIL (per Zinn, but not specified how much).

 

[RUDivision]

it didnt make sense that Pike would bring in guys like acuff and hayes...i think he needed to raid some maac tough guys not mousy types who would disappear into the wallpaper...part of the problem was j Will was a HUGE HUGE disappointment last year

Acuff made sense because he wanted his brother. Similar to Dercack. Acuff Jr having a monster freshman season

 

[RUDivision]

It doesn’t vindicate anything. It only means there’s hope for a path forward where we might put together a significantly better starting roster next season. last offseason, in contrast, felt completely hopeless.

Francis on a sweet 16 team is your third option off the bench.

The supposed improvement is fools gold. The last 3 games were against horrible competition. Fools gold!

People says this was an expected down year after losing the talent we did. (Epic failure year). Although, Pikes one promise “Get back to his style tough defense “.
Failure that has not happened. Hell even the portal guys he brought in to get back to “his style” with that mindset can’t guard.

There is no improvement just bad competition. If you want to give Pike credit for finally starting Francis? Ok improvement by the coach. Zrno finally 24 games in is making some shots. Ok, improvement. Powers and Mark each one stand out game, ok Freshmam!

Pike unfortunately gets next year but then it’s Definitely over.

 

[RexMantlepiece]

How about the improvements from Tariq???

He’s not going to shoot lights out every single game, but to me, this is a kid who has steadily improved all season long at every facet of the game. He’s not a world beater on defense, but he’s worked hard to learn the schemes, is rarely out of position and is much better than he was at the beginning of the season. His assist rate has improved, along with his ball handling overall. 10 straight double digit games - all against power conference opponents. 14 out of the last 15 games - double figures and only dropped less than 15 points 3 times during that stretch of 15 games.

Consider than in the 6 games before that starting with the trip two Vegas he only scored in double digits twice - that’s massive in-season improvement. I get that he’s a junior so everyone assumes the frosh have so much more development potential than the upper class players, but TF and J Mike are not the same situation. TF is only playing at this level one season. I think there’s reason to hope he can grow as a player significantly in the offseason (whereas a player like J Mike probably is what he is at this point in contrast).

Same dudes who preseason said Francis would get killed in the big ten and he wasn’t a big ten guard who would only score in non league games.

Season isn’t a good one which is definitely true but kids have absolutely developed there is no question of that. Adding on top my comment above there were plenty of “we have zero big ten players on roster” and even a few “the kids quit/ Pike lost the team” after a few blow out losses roster and this group may wind up 6 big ten games.

 

[Jerseylegends]

Francis on a sweet 16 team is your third option off the bench.

The supposed improvement is fools gold. The last 3 games were against horrible competition. Fools gold!

People says this was an expected down year after losing the talent we did. (Epic failure year). Although, Pikes one promise “Get back to his style tough defense “.
Failure that has not happened. Hell even the portal guys he brought in to get back to “his style” with that mindset can’t guard.

There is no improvement just bad competition. If you want to give Pike credit for finally starting Francis? Ok improvement by the coach. Zrno finally 24 games in is making some shots. Ok, improvement. Powers and Mark each one stand out game, ok Freshmam!

Pike unfortunately gets next year but then it’s Definitely over.

Nah, you can see the improvement in the players. I'm not just talking about the wins. It's the improvement in the players and the team not quitting that is a testament to coaching and provides hope for what the staff can do with some talent.
Where I agree with you guys is on who the staff brings into the program, if I can look recruits highlights and available footage on YouTube and have doubts what is going on in regards to scouting or whatever? I thought for sure if they're going all the way to Europe to bring in professional players , they must have found a couple of ringers. Lol zrno is one of the guys I've seen huge improvement from but when he first got here he was almost unplayable. It's like Badalou has missed every shot he's taken. He has that one game where he couldn't miss and I thought to myself ok here we go, hasn't made a basket since...
Also, you're rolling the dice if you fire pike and bring in a new coach. Idk who you guys think would be replacing pike but it would have to be someone that isn't proven because I doubt anyone with cache or options would take the job. See what pike can do with a little financial support and rev share and if he still builds these limited rosters then you go ahead and see if you can find someone else. In the meantime, it's encouraging to see guys playing better

 

[Jerseylegends]

And to people in the know, how was Mike rice able to get high level recruits? Did he have a bagman or something? Just a charismatic guy I guess lol

 

[dpwhite]

And to people in the know, how was Mike rice able to get high level recruits? Did he have a bagman or something? Just a charismatic guy I guess lol

I mean I’m sure he played the game a little bit and there was a lot of initial hope that RU was going to care about hoops. If I remember correctly, he was about to bring in an even bigger class but word about the tapes leaked out on the AAU scene.

 

[Simce91]

And to people in the know, how was Mike rice able to get high level recruits? Did he have a bagman or something? Just a charismatic guy I guess lol

I know it would never be able to happen,

however Mike Rice on Pike's staff............................................

 

[BillyC80]

What we’re missing this year is an identity.

What was great about the previous glory years of this Pike era was that we were feared for our defense. And at the RAC, fuggeddabout it.

Even last year at least we had two offensive players our opponents had to gameplan for.

This year every opponent is so confident playing us. Just shut down one guy, play a zone defense and fire away from three on offense.

Against MN, about the only thing we could have tried is using our depth (poor as it is) to press them on D and race the ball up court on O before their defense was set (which is why Lino was our leading scorer while Tariq was too content, imo, to try and “set up our offense” before making a move).

But we shied away from doing that for some reason, even though we played 10 guys. Why?

 

[Simce91]

Good post, especially the identity, as much as he is "bashed" now by some, remember how Mulcahly spearheaded the RU is not going to be pushed around anymore mentality. Caleb was gritty as helll too, and to a lesser extent RHJ. The next year was Mag ( who bailed) Cliff and Hyatt, neither were really that "leader" type of mentallity

RU doesn't have that this year, of course its hard to with what RU returned, Grant for sure is not that guy, can Francis be that guy next year? Is Powers or Mark the guy that can succeed Francis?

I too was puzzled by the lack of a FC press, especially being down to start the 2nd half and was extremely disappointed in Pike. ( he is starting to remind me of JMike, has a great game, then a so-so game, then a shite game) He spoke about Nwuli in the pregame and plays him 2 minutes, Dortch got a couple of minutes and was sent to Siberia for the rest of the game.Play those 2 together with Mark and see if you can turn over Minnesota, and make them expend some energy


Once he plays Badalau its almost like he is waving the white flag.

 

[RUfrom NJ]

IMO, Pikiell's final crest was walking off the MSG floor following the win over MSU on 2/4/23. That victory got RU to 16-7 (8-4) and well on it's way to the Dance. Since that day, he's led this program to a 41-58 (22-45) record.

Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 for a HC in this conference are about wins, losses and little else. This fanbase's below-ground expectations for this program have allowed him A LOT of grace. But the arrow has been pointing down for years now.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Francis on a sweet 16 team is your third option off the bench.

The supposed improvement is fools gold. The last 3 games were against horrible competition. Fools gold!

People says this was an expected down year after losing the talent we did. (Epic failure year). Although, Pikes one promise “Get back to his style tough defense “.
Failure that has not happened. Hell even the portal guys he brought in to get back to “his style” with that mindset can’t guard.

There is no improvement just bad competition. If you want to give Pike credit for finally starting Francis? Ok improvement by the coach. Zrno finally 24 games in is making some shots. Ok, improvement. Powers and Mark each one stand out game, ok Freshmam!

Pike unfortunately gets next year but then it’s Definitely over.

That’s a pile of garbage dude and you know it. First of all, Francis isn’t an 8 man anywhere.

He may not be a good fit for every program, but there are plenty of NCAA teams he would help tremendously. If you’d like an example, strong argument could be made actually that a player like him would’ve elevated our 2021-22 from First Four to Sweet 16 caliber. In the least, we would’ve won enough games to comfortably make the field. I think it’d be hard to argue this point.

 

[BillyC80]

IMO, Pikiell's final crest was walking off the MSG floor following the win over MSU on 2/4/23. That victory got RU to 16-7 (8-4) and well on it's way to the Dance. Since that day, he's led this program to a 41-58 (22-45) record.

Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 for a HC in this conference are about wins, losses and little else. This fanbase's below-ground expectations for this program have allowed him A LOT of grace. But the arrow has been pointing down for years now.

That’s eye-opening, and as a fan I have definitely felt the frustration in every bit of that 3-year downward slide.

 

[RUDiddy777]

How about the improvements from Tariq???

He’s not going to shoot lights out every single game, but to me, this is a kid who has steadily improved all season long at every facet of the game. He’s not a world beater on defense, but he’s worked hard to learn the schemes, is rarely out of position and is much better than he was at the beginning of the season. His assist rate has improved, along with his ball handling overall. 10 straight double digit games - all against power conference opponents. 14 out of the last 15 games - double figures and only dropped less than 15 points 3 times during that stretch of 15 games.

Consider than in the 6 games before that starting with the trip two Vegas he only scored in double digits twice - that’s massive in-season improvement. I get that he’s a junior so everyone assumes the frosh have so much more development potential than the upper class players, but TF and J Mike are not the same situation. TF is only playing at this level one season. I think there’s reason to hope he can grow as a player significantly in the offseason (whereas a player like J Mike probably is what he is at this point in contrast).

I noticed on Saturday Tariq seemed to be asserting himself more as the team leader, pulling guys aside, pointing out mistakes and where they should have been. It’s been a while since we had that.

 

[needmorecowbell]

What pissed me off with Pike last year is that he couldn’t find a way to bring in a legit center. Pike makes $4 million per year. People with money know people with money. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to put RU in contention for a deep NCAA tourney run, and he blew it. He needed to sell the hype of our program, with two superstars in his hip pocket, and he couldn’t do it.

If you believe the rumors, Pike had donors willing to contribute given the proper tax structure. How much? Who knows? Hobbs would not help make those donations happen. Rutgers was a mess the past 3-4 years and every sport has suffered. Now they have professionals in charge.

 

[needmorecowbell]

This is where I'm at. There's little hope that money will be found in the near term to pay out Pike and bring in a new staff......and as a fan I'm not the type to constantly complain about hopelessness......so my focus is on the glimmer of hope regarding progression of some of the younger players and with additional NIL (per Zinn, but not specified how much).

That’s not happening. They need to fix NIL first and foremost. That’s is where the money will go. As the NIL improves, the product should improve. If it doesn’t, Zinn will make a change.

 

[tru2ru1]

What pissed me off with Pike last year is that he couldn’t find a way to bring in a legit center. Pike makes $4 million per year. People with money know people with money. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to put RU in contention for a deep NCAA tourney run, and he blew it. He needed to sell the hype of our program, with two superstars in his hip pocket, and he couldn’t do it.

Congratulations on the dumbest post of the thread…. People with money know people with money, what kind of stupid logic does that mean

 

[RUDiddy777]

I hated our portal haul last year, but I sort of understand it. Think about what Pike was put there trying to sell. Go back in time to this point of last season. We stunk “slightly less” in absolute terms but relative to expectations we were a bust of epic scale. There was no future to think of as we all new our two main pieces on offense were gone. Lathan was horrendous on D but he was our third best piece and left the day the portal opened. We had no foundation to build on so Pike was forced to (as Sean said) basically put that on Dylan Grant. But it’s hard prop a kid as the face of your program who makes a living by exploiting defenses “not worrying about him” and focusing on stopping others. That’s basically Grant’s game at the high major level and it was our centerpiece selling point of what we were trying to do. It had to be as we brought back literally nothing else on offense.

Think of how Cliff turned down the highest bidder to go where he thought he could be best developed / used and would play for a winner. I think our fans overestimate just how much more money we’d of had to offer last year to get someone to come play for a program starting with nothing. With so many choices and undoubtedly good offers - what big would’ve chosen us?

I think (hope) we could do better this season. If Pike succeeds early with retention, there’d be a foundation to point to on offense and a clear needed role that we’d be looking to fill.

Wasn’t Martini supposed to be a package deal with Allocco? That would have helped.

Wonder if Pike didn’t realize how rough Ace and Dylan were going to be on D?

 

[RUDiddy777]

IMO, Pikiell's final crest was walking off the MSG floor following the win over MSU on 2/4/23. That victory got RU to 16-7 (8-4) and well on it's way to the Dance. Since that day, he's led this program to a 41-58 (22-45) record.

Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 for a HC in this conference are about wins, losses and little else. This fanbase's below-ground expectations for this program have allowed him A LOT of grace. But the arrow has been pointing down for years now.

In fairness, he got screwed ahead of the 23-24 season - losing 3 projected starters in late April. Last season is 100% on him.

We had to start over thus year - so it’s a build or buy. We don’t have money so it’s a build. Sounds like Zinn is taking care of business on what needs to be done from the school. Pike can still develop and I think he’s done a decent job this season with the talent and youth he has. People felt this was going the EJ way - but this is shaping up like the 2018-19 season. Keep the core, address needs.

 

[Loyal-Son]

Are we watching the same team? To me this team shows limited improvement and is in the lower echelon of the Big. I think we need a new mindset and must wipe the slate to achieve better results. As I've said previously, other than an occasional good win Pike has won nothing, With two first round picks he had a losing record. I'm personally tired of supporters excusing results hoping for a better outcome. My question to all. How many more years do you give Pike? It's time to cut our losses!

Haters gotta hate. No use trying to reason with you. Post the same ignorant garbage day after day.

 

[BillyC80]

Congratulations on the dumbest post of the thread…. People with money know people with money, what kind of stupid logic does that mean

Have you been around multi-millionaires? I have, and they all have had a network of other rich people they could pick up the phone and call. Business owners, investment bankers, wealthy people they are introduced to in social settings, luxury boxes, the country club, even charity events. IYKYK.

 

[bethlehemfan]

I've never had catfish. Had plenty of chances, spent some times in New Orleans, but never did. I don't think I'm missing much. I've never heard anyone say "Hey, I'm in the mood for catfish."

Catfish is delicious you just put me in the mood

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Congratulations on the dumbest post of the thread…. People with money know people with money, what kind of stupid logic does that mean

The point is - whoever’s fault it is, we needed to find a way to land a proven center even if that meant our frosh center recruit was a flight risk. Most frosh big men do not enter college ready to be a starting high major center on day one. Pike needed to be outspoken in our desperate need for a center in the least. Maybe it doesn’t work, but rather than his usual voice of Mr. Nice guy confidence in Ogbole and his incoming frosh he needed to plead with the fan base that he needed a portal center and needed more money to land one. He basically did the opposite of this by voicing confidence in what he had. He even at one point defended not taking a center with the explanation being that Lathan needed to be given a chance or he might’ve walked.

Meanwhile we also chose not to keep Wolf. And didn’t bring in anyone else. These were mistakes that Pike owns. There’s no getting around that. Would it have helped to be one of those teams with unlimited funds like Washington who could just buy centers at will? Sure. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have done better with our situation.

 

[bethlehemfan]

IMO, Pikiell's final crest was walking off the MSG floor following the win over MSU on 2/4/23. That victory got RU to 16-7 (8-4) and well on it's way to the Dance. Since that day, he's led this program to a 41-58 (22-45) record.

Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 for a HC in this conference are about wins, losses and little else. This fanbase's below-ground expectations for this program have allowed him A LOT of grace. But the arrow has been pointing down for years now.

Pretty fair. Hopefully with some funds he can turn it around.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Acuff made sense because he wanted his brother. Similar to Dercack. Acuff Jr having a monster freshman season

It might explain it but it didn’t make sense. We needed to be recruiting for the current year - not the future.

 

[BillyC80]

Pike needed to be outspoken in our desperate need for a center in the least. He basically did the opposite of this by voicing confidence in what he had. He even at one point defended not taking a center with the explanation being that Lathan needed to be given a chance or he might’ve walked.

These were mistakes that Pike owns. There’s no getting around that.

This portion of your post is where I’m at. The passive approach by Pike was a huge problem.

In his wildest dreams he couldn’t have imagined that two top 5 NBA draft picks would fall into his lap.

Given that as a starting point, he should have gone out and pleaded with wealthy donors, who I’m sure he knows, to help him land a legit center to catapult our program toward an elite level.

Instead, we got embarrassed on the national stage.

 

[RUfan1977]

I mean, come on, you must be trolling or something? Really? You haven't seen any improvement in the team? How about individual players? No improvement from anyone? ARE we watching the same team? lol I just spoke about the 2 first round pick team, your response seems kind of robotic? Do they have anti pike AI agents running on this site? Lol

One of the ways you can really see improvement by the freshman is by looking at their stats in Big Ten only games and how they are better than the full season stats. The Big Ten only stats are primarily later in the year against better competition. In Conference games Zrno and Powers are the number 2 and 3 scorers after Francis who is averaging 17.8 points per game in conference play. Also improving significantly is Lino Marks who seems to have come onto his own these last 2 games. If Marks can pick up some of Francis’s craftiness to go with his rocket engine on the court, he could be a truly great college player.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Have you been around multi-millionaires? I have, and they all have had a network of other rich people they could pick up the phone and call. Business owners, investment bankers, wealthy people they are introduced to in social settings, luxury boxes, the country club, even charity events. IYKYK.

So why didn’t you raise the money? I can’t believe Pike never called you.