Pike plays the best, and is fair to the rest. And that changes game to game. Nobody is immune from having their minutes cut if they play poorly, and going right back up if they play well. That's true for essential players like Myles Johnson who lost minutes to Shaq Carter last year, or Geo. Or when we saw JY in a lot late in games when he was playing well, and now we don't. There are no-long term implications other than...if players like JY or MM don't play well, they won't see many minutes.
Mathis
- Thread starter Scarlet Shack
- Start date
We need more offense to win so if you think cutting Tez or Young’s minutes instead of fixing their problems you are not seeing the Forest thru the trees. They have to stop going into 1 on 3 but we need their offensive firepower, rebounding, and defense. It is a lot harder to win in the low 60’s than the low 70’s. You need the defense to be outstanding all game and hope a team doesn’t get hot from 3 like Iowa did the other night.
Rutgers is getting very little bench scoring except for Young.Mathis scoring clearly has diminished as a bench player.Mathis,Mulcahy and McConnell are competing for minutes and Pikiell clearly prefers the latter two players as starters.I would not be surprised some players might transfer depending on who returns.Playing time matters especially to players who have been starters most of their college career.
Pike’s strategy seems to be getting the starters to build up a lead and then substituting Cliff, Jacob and Tez to hold the fort with defense. On the surface this makes sense except by putting MM and JY in together it’s like they’re competing with each other for scoring opportunities. I think this leads to Montez forcing things even more than he normally would if he was starting.
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Pike has never been the type who is afraid to change starting line ups. If he saw us start to execute in transition more, Tez would play more. It’s why Pike still subs him in with JY despite all the other issues it causes. Many of his deficiencies are less exposed if our explosiveness off missed opponent baskets from the early season returns. The game at Michigan State was rock bottom. By shutting down transition they shut down our whole offense.
As someone else said, Tez just isn’t a great halfcourt player on either side of the ball. The turnovers and fouls are mostly out of frustration, but the real problem is he doesn’t move as well without the ball to get open, set screens for others to get open or feed the post (MJ) as the other guys who are playing more than him.
The ability to pass is what separates Caleb, Mulcahy and Geo from what Mathis does, which is really based on athletic ability to get past his man.
Caleb was asked as a frosh to be a backup PG and really was overwhelmed at first but Caleb can dribble, pass and shoot. Mathis is the traditional SG, who isn't asked to bring the ball up the court and distribute at times.
When you have a big man that needs touches and Mathis and Young are more of the players to hunt down their own shots and offense, it disrupts how much production you can get out of Myles, if you have Mathis and Young not looking to create or pass if they don't have an immediate scoring opportunity.
I think Mathis really should be able to start and find 25 minutes a game if he just moves the ball and trusts that he's going to get it back within the offense. He gets the ball and then looks to see if there's space to drive and should be able to pass and cut/catch and then score.
He has improved his 3 point shooting and when he has options to shoot within the offense, he can knock down shots....he isn't good enough on the ball to drive and pass and he decides to go "head down/drive and figure it out athletic ability type of player".....there are times that can work, but in half court sets, its much tougher to not see open teammates if you're driving determined to score.
Some players are better off as starters in order to get the most production out of them, but it's really up to Montez at this point. The concept of transferring makes absolutely no sense, because as much as some kids get squeezed out of lineups for a host of reasons, this one won't make sense for him or RU. If you can't play or find minutes for a uber-friendly coach like Pike, I don't see that grass being greener elsewhere.
Coaches around the country are savvy enough to tell kids anything they want to hear, when it comes to the recruiting process and the portal.....but at the same time, when Jacob Young hit the transfer portal leaving Texas, the Texas board said a lot of the same things we see from Jacob.....great athletic ability, can get hot from 3, but can play outside the team concept to hunt down his own offense. They saw the good and bad and we are seeing a lot of what we read on the Texas boards when evaluating JY. Difference between Texas and RU, is RU doesn't have another uber athletic guard like Texas does, so he's more valuable here at RU, than he ever would be at Texas.
If Tez can't find a happy medium and wants to be a player that can get double figures and double figure shot attempts, his best chance at doing so, is at RU next year, when Young departs as many expect him to do.
Once you take away Young and his minutes, shot attempts and defensive efforts from the equation next year, Mathis pretty much lands with 25 to 28 minutes next year as a starter or off bench. It just takes more passing, less hunting of shots on the drives. If he can't figure that out, I would imagine that these final few games would be the best time to sort that out.....while RU is winning games and heading to the NCAAs.
It only takes one good game to get on track....it only takes one good B1G tournament half or game, or one good NCAA game from Mathis to completely change the situation for him and RU. He is talented enough to bet on IMO .....#doubledown.....!!
Caleb was asked as a frosh to be a backup PG and really was overwhelmed at first but Caleb can dribble, pass and shoot. Mathis is the traditional SG, who isn't asked to bring the ball up the court and distribute at times.
When you have a big man that needs touches and Mathis and Young are more of the players to hunt down their own shots and offense, it disrupts how much production you can get out of Myles, if you have Mathis and Young not looking to create or pass if they don't have an immediate scoring opportunity.
I think Mathis really should be able to start and find 25 minutes a game if he just moves the ball and trusts that he's going to get it back within the offense. He gets the ball and then looks to see if there's space to drive and should be able to pass and cut/catch and then score.
He has improved his 3 point shooting and when he has options to shoot within the offense, he can knock down shots....he isn't good enough on the ball to drive and pass and he decides to go "head down/drive and figure it out athletic ability type of player".....there are times that can work, but in half court sets, its much tougher to not see open teammates if you're driving determined to score.
Some players are better off as starters in order to get the most production out of them, but it's really up to Montez at this point. The concept of transferring makes absolutely no sense, because as much as some kids get squeezed out of lineups for a host of reasons, this one won't make sense for him or RU. If you can't play or find minutes for a uber-friendly coach like Pike, I don't see that grass being greener elsewhere.
Coaches around the country are savvy enough to tell kids anything they want to hear, when it comes to the recruiting process and the portal.....but at the same time, when Jacob Young hit the transfer portal leaving Texas, the Texas board said a lot of the same things we see from Jacob.....great athletic ability, can get hot from 3, but can play outside the team concept to hunt down his own offense. They saw the good and bad and we are seeing a lot of what we read on the Texas boards when evaluating JY. Difference between Texas and RU, is RU doesn't have another uber athletic guard like Texas does, so he's more valuable here at RU, than he ever would be at Texas.
If Tez can't find a happy medium and wants to be a player that can get double figures and double figure shot attempts, his best chance at doing so, is at RU next year, when Young departs as many expect him to do.
Once you take away Young and his minutes, shot attempts and defensive efforts from the equation next year, Mathis pretty much lands with 25 to 28 minutes next year as a starter or off bench. It just takes more passing, less hunting of shots on the drives. If he can't figure that out, I would imagine that these final few games would be the best time to sort that out.....while RU is winning games and heading to the NCAAs.
It only takes one good game to get on track....it only takes one good B1G tournament half or game, or one good NCAA game from Mathis to completely change the situation for him and RU. He is talented enough to bet on IMO .....#doubledown.....!!
This nails it. The question is ...when does MM
Buy in? When he does...his minutes and numbers go back up
I think that you are dead on. I've been thinking this too. Mulcahy was never affected by coming off the bench. This switch would be a good way to prevent a formerly very productive player from becoming a head case. It would also mean that JY ad Mathis are not on the floor at the same time initially when the second unit comes in. That might be a net plus also. I like seeing Young on the floor, but I do not think having 2 guys that have a habit of forcing shots and not sharing the rock should be on the floor together.
I disagree with this on many points. First off, don't put words in my mouth. I never said anything like that. It's not an either or situation. You can try to fix their problems while also not letting them lose games for you by allowing them to run amok playing badly. In fact, the way to hold someone accountable for not playing smart is to cut their minutes. Ron Harper is in a shooting slump. That's just something you work through by having more minutes. Mathis and Young are playing dumb, and that's something you fix with coaching, practice, and telling the players that you mean what you say and cut their minutes. Also, why is it that you assume that Mathis and Young playing out of control can be fixed, but McConnell's recent poor shooting, or Mulcahy's hesitancy to shoot, can't be fixed?
Give me a break. Ron ‘s problems are not just a shooting slump. It is abandoning everything else he can bring, double digit rebounds , more offensive put backs, stopped standing on the three point line , failure totally to rebound, box out or go to the block and insist on hoisting three after three despite his being 0 for 19. If Tez did that ,you would want him banished. Hate to tell you we have lost games in this slump because of Ron not Tez. What Pike has to figure out is Tez has gone from giving you 14 points a game in the first 9-10 games and almost nothing in the last 8-9 games. That is not good for the team or our success . Jacob is a tremendous talent and in the same game yesterday , you were ready to pull your hair out when he went one on 3 , got his shot blocked leading to a run out , followed up with a no where Drive and ridiculous pass to no one but Aldige that led to a run out basket, and earlier went coast to coast for a layup , hit a nice pull up 2 on a shot fake , a nice three with ball movement and a critical steal and dunk . Pike keeps playing him thru his mistakes . Pike can play Tez as well and my suggestion is to start him again to change the 3 play sub at 13 minutes that is not working. He doesn’t have to play him starter minutes , but get his confidence up, maybe hit a 3 and make a steal and hit a driving layup . We need what he can bring. Right now we are getting nothing and it is hurting us.
You guys know we don’t exactly have a crowded bench rotation right? Earlier in the year when RHJ was on fire we basically played one sub for 4 positions. Now that Caleb came back, we rotate two subs among 4 positions. We don’t actually want anyone playing too much more than 30 minutes unless we have to. There are plenty of minutes to go around.
I was a big Mathis fan last year. And the beginning of this year. I like his game. He tries to do too much sometimes and won't let the game come to him. I hope he turns this around because I like him.
You seem to be under the impression we’re in some sort of slump. We’re 5-1 over our last 6 which is when Pike changed up the starting five. I agree with you that it would be great to get some production out of Tex again, but I’m not about to change things up right now just to hope he gets it when we’re actually winning.
If you cannot see that we are not playing up to our potential , then we must just watch different teams. Look who we have played and how we have won. Compared to how we lost 5 in a row and 6 of 7. Who you p,ay matters . Paul came off the bench last year and his coming off the bench and running the point allowing Jacob to be a 2 guard might rein in Jacob at the same time . It will not change whatever success has occurred when Caleb and Paul became starters. Caleb is becoming more important every game . Paul will still impact every game but we need Tez’s production that we are missing
We are not playing up to our potential in large part due to two things: RHJ’s shooting slump and Mathis not showing any development in the way he’s playing the game. Until Tez gives us a spur of positive minutes, his overall minutes will stay low...just the way it’s gonna be.
Not rumors. If Pike didn’t start playing him more down the stretch last year he was gone. History may repeat itself.