Incapable? He had them at tournament level 4 straight years 2019-2023. This is where you lose me. He has proven he can do it. Anyone they hire is not going to have the success Pike has had. Plus that person is going to have to deal with an NIL disadvantage. For those who forget what Pikes has done…
Rebuilt Stony Brook from a disaster into a program that won the league 4 times while winning conference coach of the year 4 times. Leading Stony Brook to their first and only ncaa tournament, plus 3 NITs and 2 CBI tournaments.
Then he rebuilt Rutgers again from a disaster into a program that finished 5th, 6th and 4th in the Big Ten over 3 straight years. 2 NCAA tournament runs (would have been 3 -Covid) after missing the tournament 30 straight years, Plus winning the 2020 Jim Phelan national coach of the year award. Won the first ncaa tournament game in 38 year at Rutgers. Also beating the number 1 team in the country twice. First time ever at RU.
Rutgers struggled to finish in 22-23 and 23-24 due to injuries and NIL. Nothing had to do with coaching. For 24-25 NIL also had a huge impact but the team ultimately wasn’t constructed well. Pikes should take a large portion of the blame for sure but his hands were tied with NIL.
A minority of fans want to get rid of him after having 2 tough seasons. You want to take a gamble, which will more than likely gut the program, like Eddie Jordan did. You can keep saying it but Pike is not getting fired anytime soon.
Rant over.
"Incapable? He had them at tournament level 4 straight years 2019-2023. This is where you lose me"
Thinking of his last two tears with last year having 2 of the best in college ball on roster and the possibility
because of the way college basketball is changing Pike might be left behind in getting the type of talent it takes to be a constant Tourney program.
Steve's going into his 10th year and is the best Rutgers had since maybe Tom Young, but every year HCs must prove themselves again and no matter how they were in the past they must produce in the present and have the program
win enough in the future or be replaced.
Pike's last two years must not represent the future of RU MBB , it must return to being NCAA Tourney worthy and 4 more years should be enough time to prove he can do that , in my opinion.
So status quo is out and improvement is a must
I didn't ask for an immediate change , I said by the 2028-29 season which gives Pike 4 years to prove the last two seasons under him aren't going to be the way Rutgers will stays and he'll win enough to have Rutgers a team considered to be a tourney program every year.
So status quo is out , improvement is a must.
You didn't rant, you posted an opinion showing Support for Pike replying to someone you felt was saying Pike isn't good enough to stay the HC .
All I was saying , the way college basketball is changing Pike needs to prove he can keep up and the last two years worries me that maybe he can't. But I did give him 4 years to prove he's just as good as when he had RU considered a tourney worthy program
