So let’s say he’s the 4th best. That’s really bad when you have 6 players
The team died with Mag
- Thread starter Scangg
- Start date
Who’s making that argument. If anyone of the starters when down, we have this issue.
What is RUs record when missing one of our top 5 players?
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But February made me shiver
With every free throw I'd deliver
Bad games on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
Bye bye Mawot Pie ... them good ole RU boys drinking whiskey n rye singing this'll be the day that I die.
With every free throw I'd deliver
Bad games on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
Bye bye Mawot Pie ... them good ole RU boys drinking whiskey n rye singing this'll be the day that I die.
I would argue at this moment and time Mag would be more impactful than Cam, and I have absolutely no problem in saying that.
Cam is afraid to shoot right now. Dude passed up a million good looks last night.
With Mag, the sum is greater than the parts on this team. Without Mag, the sum is definitely not greater than the parts. We were only 6 players deep with Mag. The rest of the roster are just freshman who need more time to develop or spare parts.
If we had more depth, we could figure it out. There is just little room for error offensively so when Hyatt plays like he did last night and Oskar only gives us 3 points l, we have to make up that scoring elsewhere. We got 3 points between those 2 in 53 minutes so the slack has to be picked up somewhere else
The bench isn't getting it done so we need multiple starters to start having bigger games more like 15+ or we need them all in double digits
The bench isn't getting it done so we need multiple starters to start having bigger games more like 15+ or we need them all in double digits
I think it’s just a lot to ask.
Cam needs to be in the 23-25 range and Hyatt must give us 10-12 minimum.
Pike also needs to play Wolf. He has to play. Without Cliff the team has no physicality if Wolf is on the bench.
Obviously his foul when he came into the game was not a basketball play, but I freaking loved it. Someone needed to do something to show we aren’t going to back down.
Agree with the physical presence needed but the replay showed it wasn't a foul on Wolf. He was just standing there and Hunter tried to run through him and he stood his ground which caused Hunter to bounce off him
Maybe I’ll have to go back and watch again, but it seemed pretty clear that Wolf pushing back twice. Almost to show Hunter like “nah man, you aren’t gonna bully me here”
People who don’t understand the impact Mag had on the team because he didn’t score 20 per game don’t understand the game. The effort he gave on defense allowed everyone else to save energy on defensive side of the ball. We created more turnovers which lead to more open baskets. Our defense last night was great until the last 7-8 minutes. It would’ve been great to have a shutdown player on their guard. Mag was also a key on the offensive side playing high post against zone and doing it well. He was our second best rebounder. I could go on and on.
Hunter flopped. If anything that should have been the call. That said we got our share of friendly whistles
I don't think he flopped. I think he just didn't expect Wolf to stand his ground like a brick house and got caught off guard when they collided
Turned into the best defender and was making great progress on offensive end. Worth 8 + points on offense and 7-8 on defense. Assume his replacement minutes achieved 6. We lost 10 points and Someone who rattled the opponents. Bigger impact than most of us expected. We went from a tough defensive team to a middling one. He also was becoming a better rebounder and was fearless. Did make a big difference with losing him.
Looking forward to his return next year. A house becomes shaky when you remove a block from the foundation. Even though it might only be one of a hundred blocks.
Looking forward to his return next year. A house becomes shaky when you remove a block from the foundation. Even though it might only be one of a hundred blocks.
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anon_xekqhstck0ygt
Guest
there's never any ONE reason but Mag going out was def a major factor and hell many of our fans didn't realize how good mag is. Threads about him being benched, it was ridiculous. PM has been off, Cliff too. But Mag was at least 50% of the issue.
The bottom line is we were pretty lucky not to be 0-8 without Mag.
Really? Thank you for pointing it out. If you hadn't, it looks like no one would have ever known.
We just never really had any depth this year. It's not just Mag - we struggled earlier in the year when Paul missed games and when Caleb missed games. Pike was playing the starters so many minutes for a reason. If we had lost Cam or Caleb or Cliff instead of Mag, I think we would have struggled the same way.
And with the way we've struggled it's more than just his loss, but it definitely hurts to have one less option to turn to when other players are struggling. Anyone saying his loss was minimal is insane. We played 4 teams after his injury that we also played before his injury. There was a minimum of 15 point swing in every game. The MN game is clearly an outlier in how far the swing was, but at minimum it was 15 points in all 4 teams we played again. And yes I realize some of these were home with Mag and away without him, but as much as I love the RAC I don't think it was worth 15 points this year.
Indiana - W (63-48) vs. L (66-60) - 21 point difference
Penn State - W (65-45), vs. W (59:56) - 17 point difference
Minnesota - W (90-55) vs. L (75-74) - 36 point difference
Northwestern - W (65-62) vs. L (65-53) - 15 point difference
And with the way we've struggled it's more than just his loss, but it definitely hurts to have one less option to turn to when other players are struggling. Anyone saying his loss was minimal is insane. We played 4 teams after his injury that we also played before his injury. There was a minimum of 15 point swing in every game. The MN game is clearly an outlier in how far the swing was, but at minimum it was 15 points in all 4 teams we played again. And yes I realize some of these were home with Mag and away without him, but as much as I love the RAC I don't think it was worth 15 points this year.
Indiana - W (63-48) vs. L (66-60) - 21 point difference
Penn State - W (65-45), vs. W (59:56) - 17 point difference
Minnesota - W (90-55) vs. L (75-74) - 36 point difference
Northwestern - W (65-62) vs. L (65-53) - 15 point difference
It's not Mag specifically - it's that we didn't have anyone on the bench that could step into the gap left by a starter.
Lundy was 1-17 and Funk 1-7. As fun as that comeback win was, we got pretty lucky there
Combination of 3 things
1. We miss Mag the players
2. No Mag means our lack of depth is more of an issue
3. You can’t play as hard as we do and play guys 36 minutes. I was very worried late in the season we would run out of gas. It is brutally obvious we have.
1. We miss Mag the players
2. No Mag means our lack of depth is more of an issue
3. You can’t play as hard as we do and play guys 36 minutes. I was very worried late in the season we would run out of gas. It is brutally obvious we have.
We went 2-6 after Mag went down with both wins by 1 point. Only guy who would have caused more of a problem being out would have been Cliff.
I disagree. I think if we'd lost any one of Omoruyi, McConnell, Mulcahy, or Hyatt we'd also have struggled a lot.
We had 7 guys... the loss of any one of the top 5-6 just couldn't be absorbed by the rest of them without anyone stepping up from the bench.
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anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy
Guest
People have lost their minds and the ability to have serious conversations that aren't binary or black/white.
Is it possible that multiple things are true at the same time. As has been explained a million times...its a combination of Mag the player AND the resulting issues that ripple through the team (due to lack of depth)
No serious person can watch this team post Mag going down and argue he wasn't an extremely critical part of this team. It's painfully obvious and evident.
We can ALSO lament the drop in play from some key players...again likely excarcebated by the lack of depth (which was already painfully thin before the injury)
And yeah, the HC is at fault for that
F...this isn't hard.
Sure, Mag was not the best scorer, but he was arguably the most efficient one, and the most reliable one.
That's quite possible - but if we lost any of Omoruyi/Spencer/McConnell/Mulcahy/Mag I don't think we'd have gone better than 3-5 over the last 8.
That I won't argue with.
Mag - while really good and important- is representative of the depth issue we had. We may have struggled in other areas (if one of the other names went down) but the ultimate result would have been the same in my humble opinion
The good news is it seems we are moving out of that era of Rutgers basketball where death will be an issue. Recruiting seems to be heavily on the uptick
From the Purdue game to MSU (all of 2023), Mag was shooting 58%, 8 PPG, 1 offensive rebound per game, 1 assist per game. Was anyone else doing that much on offense?
Over the last 8 games with no Mag availability:
FG%: RU .406, Opp .445
2P%: RU .448, Opp .534
3P%: RU .312, Opp .340
Over the 9 fully healthy games prior to MSU:
FG%: RU .437, Opp .400
2P%: RU .469, Opp .431
3P%: RU .359, Opp .359
We've had 11 games where we've allowed .500 or more from 2P%, and 5 of them have been since Mag's injury. 4 others were when we were shorthanded earlier in the season without McConnell and/or Mulcahy.
FG%: RU .406, Opp .445
2P%: RU .448, Opp .534
3P%: RU .312, Opp .340
Over the 9 fully healthy games prior to MSU:
FG%: RU .437, Opp .400
2P%: RU .469, Opp .431
3P%: RU .359, Opp .359
We've had 11 games where we've allowed .500 or more from 2P%, and 5 of them have been since Mag's injury. 4 others were when we were shorthanded earlier in the season without McConnell and/or Mulcahy.
Jay Wright: "The injuries on these teams - Marcus Sasser at Houston, you've got a coach Bill Self you don't know if he's going to be able to coach as you're going through the process, Jaylen Clark at UCLA... How much does that affect seeding as you're talking about this?"
Chris Reynolds, Chair of the Selection Committee: "A great deal, and when you think about as you mentioned, you have Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, UCLA... all had player availability issues and also Coach Self also being out, certainly is something that the committee talked about throughout the course of the year. It certainly played a factor in seeding and selection, in addition to Rutgers."
Well, there you have it - Mag's "availability" played a factor in the committee's decision not to select us for the field.
Chris Reynolds, Chair of the Selection Committee: "A great deal, and when you think about as you mentioned, you have Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, UCLA... all had player availability issues and also Coach Self also being out, certainly is something that the committee talked about throughout the course of the year. It certainly played a factor in seeding and selection, in addition to Rutgers."
Well, there you have it - Mag's "availability" played a factor in the committee's decision not to select us for the field.