Rutgers (Away) Game Discussion

What are your thoughts on the game?

I believe that this is a pivotal game of this season.  If you want to establish yourself as a national program, you first have to be top dog in your own neighborhood.  Add to that, most of Rutgers players are frosh and soph as well, the " young team" excuse does not hold water here. It is a game we could win and should win.  We can't lose to them twice in the same season or we will have to acknowledge that Rutgers has the better program at this time and I am sure that our staff and organization does not want that.

Also if we are truly getting better, then a win should substantiate that.

A must win, perhaps the most important game of the season to date.

I believe that this is a pivotal game of this season.  If you want to establish yourself as a national program, you first have to be top dog in your own neighborhood.  Add to that, most of Rutgers players are frosh and soph as well, the " young team" excuse does not hold water here. It is a game we could win and should win.  We can't lose to them twice in the same season or we will have to acknowledge that Rutgers has the better program at this time and I am sure that our staff and organization does not want that.

Also if we are truly getting better, then a win should substantiate that.

A must win, perhaps the most important game of the season to date.

+1  I agree with everything you said

Quote from: Linda Mirabella on January 22, 2013, 12:07:29 AM

I believe that this is a pivotal game of this season.  If you want to establish yourself as a national program, you first have to be top dog in your own neighborhood.  Add to that, most of Rutgers players are frosh and soph as well, the " young team" excuse does not hold water here. It is a game we could win and should win.  We can't lose to them twice in the same season or we will have to acknowledge that Rutgers has the better program at this time and I am sure that our staff and organization does not want that.

Also if we are truly getting better, then a win should substantiate that.

A must win, perhaps the most important game of the season to date.

+1  I agree with everything you said

Sorry, that is just not allowable on this board!

I know...but realfan is on his meds tonight.

I know...but realfan is on his meds tonight.

LOL or maybe he is just very tired as it is awfully late and it's lights out at the funny farm at 10pm.

Im still not over the loss we had against them at home....

Linda -- Agree that it is an important game for us.  With respect to the rosters, Rutgers does have more upperclassmen in the roster than us though.  Mack/Carter/Seagers are sophomores.  But Judge and Poole are juniors and Miller/Johnson are seniors.  So a bit different there.

I also don't think that a loss is a concession that somehow Rutgers is a better program.  We were ranked 2 years ago and went to Tourney as lower seed.  Rutgers hasn't sniffed the tourney in a long time.  But for THIS season, we certainly don't want to have two loses to Rutgers on our resume, because I think everyone fan here would have expected at the very worst a split coming into the year.

Control Johnson and Judge on the inside and boards.  Make free throws (killed us last game) and rebound as a group.  Handle Miller a lot better than what we did last time (that's you Dom, Amir and/or Jakar). 

Spread the ball around and take good shots.  Rutgers will play solid D, they usually do.  Get shots for D-Lo but he has to let the game come to him.  Push with our forwards off rebounds and hopefully get some easy buckets in transition.

Wednesday well find out how much better we've gotten in the last two weeks. I think it will be enough to win a nail biter on the road.

Huge game on road with two winnable games at home. If team wants to have a chance at postseason they need to win this game and then take care of of business at home.  I like that Branch will get more minutes this time around.  Additionally, D'angelo is due to make some threes, been bad shooting from distance lately and is now hovering in Avery Patterson territory at 32%.  He's a better shooter than that.  THe heat checks, cold checks, one pass then shoot, nba and fast break threes have been off in the last 4-5 games.   

Agree with all of the above. Said before that the current 4 game stretch ( including the DePaul win ) is the most important stretch of the year. We can and should win all these games. Need these to get the separation we need from the bottom rung teams. If not, then we're deluding ourself into thinking we're not one of them.

Rutgers ( payback game with Branch ) and DePaul should be the "easiest" ( relative term ) of the three. The toughest will be Hall on Sat. But that's for another day.Go Johnnies !

Agree with all of the above. Said before that the current 4 game stretch ( including the DePaul win ) is the most important stretch of the year. We can and should win all these games. Need these to get the separation we need from the bottom rung teams. If not, then we're deluding ourself into thinking we're not one of them.

Rutgers ( payback game with Branch ) and DePaul should be the "easiest" ( relative term ) of the three. The toughest will be Hall on Sat. But that's for another day.Go Johnnies !

We did have Branch for the Rutgers game we lost though.  Granted he didn't play much (8 mins)

we need at least two of the next three, but all three would position us very nicely.  the big east is wide open after the top 2.  why not us

we need at least two of the next three, but all three would position us very nicely.  the big east is wide open after the top 2.  why not us

Next 3 are ripe for the taking.  All winnable.  Need to start with a tough one at rutgers.  We lost last one with branch not playing much and us not being able to make a free throw to save our lives.  Need to play at a different level than last game.

Quote from: derk on January 22, 2013, 09:21:53 AM

Agree with all of the above. Said before that the current 4 game stretch ( including the DePaul win ) is the most important stretch of the year. We can and should win all these games. Need these to get the separation we need from the bottom rung teams. If not, then we're deluding ourself into thinking we're not one of them.

Rutgers ( payback game with Branch ) and DePaul should be the "easiest" ( relative term ) of the three. The toughest will be Hall on Sat. But that's for another day.Go Johnnies !

We did have Branch for the Rutgers game we lost though.  Granted he didn't play much (8 mins)

Yes but we didn't know what we had. Now we do.

Quote from: Moose on January 22, 2013, 09:25:49 AM

Quote from: derk on January 22, 2013, 09:21:53 AM

Agree with all of the above. Said before that the current 4 game stretch ( including the DePaul win ) is the most important stretch of the year. We can and should win all these games. Need these to get the separation we need from the bottom rung teams. If not, then we're deluding ourself into thinking we're not one of them.

Rutgers ( payback game with Branch ) and DePaul should be the "easiest" ( relative term ) of the three. The toughest will be Hall on Sat. But that's for another day.Go Johnnies !

We did have Branch for the Rutgers game we lost though.  Granted he didn't play much (8 mins)

Yes but we didn't know what we had. Now we do.

I knew

STJ:  51
RUT:  48

Branch with 2 FTs to push the lead to 3 with under 10 secs to play tonight!! 

STJ:  51
RUT:  48

Branch with 2 FTs to push the lead to 3 with under 10 secs to play tonight!! 

51 points?
Oy vey.

Quote from: zimzimma16 on January 22, 2013, 09:47:52 AM

STJ:  51
RUT:  48

Branch with 2 FTs to push the lead to 3 with under 10 secs to play tonight!! 

51 points?
Oy vey.

The last game ended 58-56 and was only 27-23 at half, so I don't think his prediction is too much of a reach, right?   I do hope this team can put up more than 51 points, but they have had some AWFUL starts to games.  The half circle offense doesn't appear to be a prolific scoring offense.