well said. I think the focus has to be on the NIL infrastructure. Don’t know what coach would risk their career coming here until that’s in place - and Pike has already proven he can recruit and compete in the B1G on a level playing field (pre-NIL). But right now, it’s not a level field.
What does Pike need to do in 25-26 to NOT be on the hot seat in 26-27?
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well said. I think the focus has to be on the NIL infrastructure. Don’t know what coach would risk their career coming here until that’s in place - and Pike has already proven he can recruit and compete in the B1G on a level playing field (pre-NIL). But right now, it’s not a level field.
I agree with this completely. But I don’t agree with this:
At least not last year. Rutgers could’ve succeeded with the 2024 financial resources it had available. The failure was 100% on Pike. He chose to recruit primarily offense and that’s just not his thing. It is why the season was a complete bust. We didn’t need Acuff or Jordan or PJ or Lathan. We needed a collection of players who were game ready on man to man defense even if their offense was limited. In the world of NIL it’s cheaper to buy defense than offense. That was all it would’ve taken to field a tournament team with Dylan and Ace. Pike went against everything he believes in with his philosophy last year. He thought by bringing in more scorers he was going to build an unstoppable offense. Instead, we had a slightly above average offense and a putrid defense which made for a bad overall team
First time I heatd Pike had ample $ to buy who he wanted or needed.
My understanding was he very limited in who he could "buy" and was told that by those asking for $ for basketball.
His bout with the flu when he lost tons of weight and weakened him for weeks was a major reason we lost alot in January.
Your twisting the point completely. Nowhere did I say he had an unlimited pot of money to buy players like a candy shop, but only a handful of schools have that. We had 2 lottery pick caliber scoring super star frosh. We may not have had the money to surround them with a collection of established 2 way players but we needed to prioritize surrounding them with defense first players to balance the inexperience ticket.
We didn’t do that. The bottom line is Pike “bet” wrong with the resources he did have, and that is why we finished with a losing record. He used the money he did have to buy players that had proved they could put up big scoring numbers (Acuff, Jordan and PJ along with an offense first hyped frosh center in Lathan) to avoid an overfocus on stopping Dylan and Ace from lighting up the stat sheet. He accomplished that. Our 2 stars put up great individual numbers but as a team we dropped the ball because we could not defend anyone.
We haven’t seen Fall or Nwuli yet - but those style players were the ones we needed to go after. The decision not to do this wasn’t about money (the guys we brought in did not cost less than D first style players).
If he gets this team on the bubble his seat will be fairly cool after the season
His current contract runs through the 2030-31 season.
Hot seat , cold shower or cool times won't mean a thing until the 2029-30 season
Unless Pike can be fired for cause , he's here until his buyout is manageable.
Getting RU to be on the bubble shouldn't be a reason to think a HC had an acceptable season
with the pogram as long as Steve Pikiell has.
Gonging into his tenth year 2025-26, a tourney invite is the only acceptable result.
Yes RU-MBB was a disaster before Steve arrived, but he has had enough time to make RU a program capable of an NCAA invite every year, not one tat might be a bubble team.
Pikiell has turned a joke of a program into a team that has a chance for a winning record every year , but not one that seems to win enough to be rewarded with a tourney invite.
Since he has a few years before a buyout is financially feasible, let him make RU a tourney team in 2029-30 , or leave
The expectation for this program, with the level of financial support it gets compared to others, should be to be a bubble team annually. Sometimes in, sometimes out.
And regardless - this was always going to be a rebuild year with 2 lottery picks moving on. Bubble is where Pike needs to be this season get back on track.
That's a fabrication, people thought Pike would continue to land other highly ranked players.
A fabrication of what? There was never an expectation that we would be regularly landing pairs of top 10 kids. Talent wise there was always going to be a drop this year. The discontent was about dropping the ball laat season, not following up with a bubble season this year.
Plenty thought Pike would still land Top 50/100 recruits and continue building off of landing Dylan and Ace. No one ever said the year after would be a rebuild year.
Only after the debacle was this in the picture not before they arrived on campus.
As it turned out, we landed a solid class. Nwuli and Jones are highly ranked. If they were ranked 20 spots better or whatever it would not change the season outlook. Top 50-100ish recruits don’t lead teams to March Madness as frosh without established veteran players. Clearly we did not or do not have the resources to buy an established proven center for this season or last. I still blame Pike for last season, because even without having the ability to secure a kid like Cliff I do believe he could’ve used the money he did have to set us up for a better season given the 2 stars we had.
Regardless - we went 30 years without getting to the tournament. Pike produces 3 tournament caliber teams followed by an NIT team and a down year. All of that was more than fine until we dropped the ball last year. If we get our group back tot the bubble and retain some talent the picture we’ll be that we’re on the right track. Of course, that’s easier said than done.
Correct. And so clearly he would not be anywhere near the hot seat next off season if we turn out to be a bubble team.
Pike made the program a heck of a ot better but the last 2 years the team was 15-17 with last year a total disappointment.
I belive Pike can make Rutgers a program that is consistently good, but he needs to make it a constant Dance team and not one stay a losing one like the last 2 years
College sports is changing due to the NIL so Pike must keep up with the times and get the talent Rutgers can afford and mold them into a dance team.
I believe Pike is good enough to bring in just below top tier talent ( because the top won't come for the money going to RU can get them) and coach them up into being a winner and good enough to make the NCAAs.
But if he keeps around 15-17, time should be up when the 2029-30 season ends
His responses in Carino article today indicate a lot of involvement and change coming with the new AD helping to navigate this new NIL portal world. He’s going to be given at least 2 full offseason, so 3 more seasons barring any disaster like winless in big ten play.
Yes.. new Prez, new AD.. while I am of the opinion that "hot seat" should never be spoken publicly.. he has to know that he has to perform as neither the Rutgers President nor the new AD are responsible for hiring him.
I completely agree. But first of all, a strong bubble team wins 17-18 games at least not 15. Second, I don’t think anyone is saying 17-18 wins is okay as the standard year in and out but for the coming season, that would show progress in turning things around and should have everyone in great spirits.
This outcome going into the season is obviously a long shot, the point I’m making is Pike doesn’t need to make the field to feel his job is safe next season - nor should he.
I think any belief in that was probably contingent on him being successful with the high ranked recruits
In fairness, we weren't successful with the high ranked recruits. I think Pike showed that he is actually doing a fine job recruiting HS with this year's class. I know most people were happy to see J-Will, Derkack, and Lathan leave, but I would trade those three for Francis, Bandalau, and EO in a heartbeat. There was at least some continuity to build upon with those guys around. Not sure any crop of freshmen would be enough to win with given the rest of the roster we have to work with right now.
Only J Will. We won’t succeed without better defense. Period. Lathan wasn’t going to offer that over EO. Jordan was clueless in the Man scheme.
Now - if we could get Derek Simpson back I’d take him in a second over Francis.
I am not convinced that Lathan is incapable of improving his defense from his freshman season. I think he is already a much more polished player than EO and, even I was willing to concede your point about defense, I think he offers much more than EO overall. I generally don't disagree about defense needing to become a priority again, but we will still need to score points to win games. Right now, I don't see too many coming from the 5. Think Lathan would have paired very nicely with Baye Fall, whom I believe will be the defensive presence in the post that we sorely missed last year.
Your point is taken regarding Derkack, but I would have liked to see what improvements he could have made given another offseason with the program. If he offered one thing that I believe is indisputable, it would be effort.
He would’ve helped us last year and wouldn’t have tried to shoot as much surrounded by better scoring options. He’s simply better than the other options we had to play alongside Dylan in the backcourt. He’s better than Jordan. And would’ve helped more than Tyson because we really didn’t need Tyson’s offense. If you think underwise your grossly undervaluing what he brings on D and how poor we were at D in the backcourt.
I guess we’ll see what Lathan’s D looks like at Washington. In general, he didn’t show an effort last year to play hard on D. It was a cultural mismatch for the style Pike likes to play is what I was trying to say and sometimes that fit is more important than raw talent. With Pike’s teams I think it’s the most important thing. Pike doesn’t know how to succeed with kids who focus on offense only.
Rutgers men's basketball collects donations in the six figures annually. No way are donors going to step up with $20+ million to get rid of Pike after next season.
We have Pike for at least several more years, no matter the results.
We have Pike for at least several more years, no matter the results.
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I'm not an insider like you guys. But I think Pikiell had his hands tied last season, and was forced to "coach" in a style that is foreign to him. I don't think they'll be that great this season, but they will be tougher and better than last year because the coach will have the opportunity to run the team his way again...
Disagree. He was never a hero. Exactly what has he accomplished while at Rutgers. He has parlayed a few good wins into an extravagant contract. Now Rutgers is stuck with Pike.
Sadly, getting to the NCAA tournament was a big accomplishment for Pike and Rutgers after missing for 30 years. There was a lot of positivity around the program. He was able to recruit 2 NBA lottery picks, even though he had inside connections to the family. But Pike and Rutgers was ill prepared for NIL and had guys transfer out to greener pastures and epically failed with Ace and Dylan. Luckily for Pike, he got himself a gift of a contract from Hobbs that is an albatross to the entire athletic department. Maybe Kelli Zinn's first big challenge as AD on how long Pike can hold on if / when he does not get back to the tournament.
Great kid, hard worker and would have been a strong leader/culture guy last year.
alternatively, we could just hope Pike adapts and get us back on the trajectory he had us on prior to the rules and landscape changing. You don’t need to look much further than Piscataway to understand that changing coaches isn’t a sure thing - especially here.
Correct, changing a coach will most likely make the situation worse, given RU’s NIL situation. No one worth hiring is coming here without the appropriate NIL. Even if you got a good coach, that coach will still be at an NIL disadvantage. Plus, college basketball became much harder for schools that have major football programs and much easier for basketball only schools that can feed all the new money to one sport. Rutgers needs significant true NIL partners to help close the Rev share gap compared to basketball only schools.