(NCAA-WEST/Providence) #10 Arkansas, Sat., Mar. 22, 2:40p, CBS

[redmannorth]

That’s a non Answer from Rick . His way of deflecting the question.

Something else happened that hasn’t surfaced .

By the way , Rick was outcoached by his nemesis , Cal today .
Cal rotated his bigs in there , regardless of whether they fouled out or not . He had 3 big guys in his bench .

Rick never countered that strategy and we didn’t get Zuby the ball enough in the 2nd half .

In my opinion , what the most devastating part of the game was KR on the bench for 22 minutes or some similar number on the first half.

Richmond running the offense all year was the key to our success . Having Smith plug in for him , isn’t the same thing . They are different players and Smith isn’t KR.
Smith is ok as a sub , not a 30 minute player and has no outside shot to counter the defense .

He tried to drive into the paint and more times than not, missed the lay up or , it was blocked .
He also had a key turnover late in the game and missed some crucial free throws but , he didn’t lose the game for us but ,, he contributed to it the same as our 4 starters ,

It’s tough when a 2 seed loses to a 10 seed . Shouldn’t ever happen .

Pitino was off today too . Not his best game either . Cal had the upper hand .

So many assumptions here on your part , just perhaps RP did not want to respond as there is something that has yet to become public ? And if not perhaps he did not want to respond as he did not want to publicly insult RJ ?
Our coach was not out coached at all, he was begging thé players to pass to Zuby and instead RJ was driving into traffic not looking for anyone. How is that on Coach ?
As to KR being on the bench for 22 minutes, he had 5 fouls in 16 minutes. There were no additional minutes available for him.
Snith by the way had a much better game than KR.

 

[espken]

Total Francesa jinx

Then he pulls a Stephen A. and says we all knew they would have tough games in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Ugh.

 

[NCJohnnie]

So many assumptions here on your part , just perhaps RP did not want to respond as there is something that has yet to become public ? And if not perhaps he did not want to respond as he did not want to publicly insult RJ ?
Our coach was not out coached at all, he was begging thé players to pass to Zuby and instead RJ was driving into traffic not looking for anyone. How is that on Coach ?
As to KR being on the bench for 22 minutes, he had 5 fouls in 16 minutes. There were no additional minutes available for him.
Snith by the way had a much better game than KR.

+1000. We had a great year but picked a bad day for key guys to have bad games. It happens but haven’t been more optimistic about our program in quite a while and I go back quite a while

 

[fuchsia]

Richmond reaches, all their high minute players pretty much do except Eijofor. He is really, really good at it but it still is a high risk approach, especially when you start to get different refs from different conferences from different parts of the country in the tournament. Unfortunately, he played poorly when he did play, it happens.
The simple fact IMO, is, outside of Eijofor, and in smaller, more relative roles, Lefty and Prey, SJU played poorly; very poorly on offense and Calapari came up with a great game plan to negate the Johnnie’s defense. Like water when it rains, the cries of “the refs dun it” come out of the woodwork from most fans of most teams when things go south.
I obviously have no actual idea what went on between Pitino and Luis but he did a like thing with Smith against Baylor and it cost them that game IMO so there is precedent. But again, many on here attribute the loss to yet another “ref gate”; I don’t, just different ways of looking at that game.
But Luis “wild child” approach has always been there, tempered a bit for sure but always there and it was OK when it was a major factor in a 31-4 record but in typical Pitino fashion, it becomes a huge scapegoat when it didn’t. How about just being a man and admitting your team played poorly collectively and Calapari took you to the cleaners? How about that and then doing the right thing and praising a group of players to the heavens for leaving it all on the court for you all season? But he chose to let the opportunity pass and frankly that was very wrong IMO. He was effusive in his praise when they won and Luis was the “It” guy, well, you stand by them ALL when it is over.
Pitino is a great, great coach but like all people, is flawed, and it clearly showed again in his press conference. This was a great, very memorable team, but neither it nor its coach were or are infallible.
Finally, I think most fans knew a NC was a possibility, but so was this game. Unfortunately, we got this game, but the idea this ending ruined a great, great season is just so much nonsense to me. One and done is a crapshoot and games like yesterday happen to the best of teams. I, for one, will always remember this season with great joy, it was quite a ride. But that’s just me…….

Or this was the game that was waiting to happen to us all year, playing a team with very tall athletic big wings and a coach that said pack it in so they are forced to shoot threes. All the missed layups seemed to be in anticipation of a defender appearing to block the shot. Blame Brady for getting hurt and Aaron for his broken finger. Need something new to keep my mind off politics.

 

[lawmanfan]

Not saying this rudely at all but I really suggest you rewatch the game. This was the RJ that did not know the word pass exists. He repeatedly drove into a group of defenders and turned the ball over, had a jump ball called or got off a piss poor shot. Some of the shots he took had a slim to zero chance of going in.
This game was lost between his ears.

The challenge for RJ is that he's just not a cerebral player. He's a superior athlete and has succeeded his whole life on that basis.

He made great strides this year but playing against a team full of athletes on his own level was clearly a problem for him. Not only did none of his usual answers work, a number of them backfired in ways we have seen before.

Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for him about what he will face at the next level and perhaps he will decide that another year of learning the game from one of the best there is at teaching is in his best interests.

 

[RedStormNC]

The challenge for RJ is that he's just not a cerebral player. He's a superior athlete and has succeeded his whole life on that basis.

He made great strides this year but playing against a team full of athletes on his own level was clearly a problem for him. Not only did none of his usual answers work, a number of them backfired in ways we have seen before.

Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for him about what he will face at the next level and perhaps he will decide that another year of learning the game from one of the best there is at teaching is in his best interests.

Well said. How much of that is intrinsic vs. teachable at this point?

 

[NCJohnnie]

Well said. How much of that is intrinsic vs. teachable at this point?

I firmly believe everything in life is teachable it’s just dependent on how willing you are to learn.

 

[RedStormNC]

I firmly believe everything in life is teachable it’s just dependent on how willing you are to learn.

Good point. Next step, even past learning it, is being able to actually do it, when you need to do it, and are being told to do it at that time.

 

[NCJohnnie]

Good point. Next step, even past learning it, is being able to actually do it, when you need to do it, and are being told to do it at that time.

RJ perfectly capable of making better decisions imho. Improved at least 50% in that regard this year. No reason he can’t improve more in that regard next year.

 

[redmannorth]

We lost. We did better than last year and next year will do better than this year. Yeah it suck’s but we have sucked for 25 + years.

Is it possible to do better next year than this season, yes but highly improbable.
I could list thé factors that would have to occur for us to be better but they are too many and I am just too fatigued, upset and miserable to do so right now.

 

[redmannorth]

No reason for the personal attack just because there are members who disagree with you.

No personal attack at all.
He was pointing out the unpleasant truth.

 

[lawmanfan]

Well said. How much of that is intrinsic vs. teachable at this point?

You can always learn. But sometimes there are obstacles.

I was a pretty fair pianist in my youth. Had a natural talent for it. And as a result (and also because started very young) I never bothered with some of the discipline work like practicing scales.

Fast forward a dozen years or so and all that was really left for me to do was concert-level classical piano. Which I discovered I couldn't play because I hadn't done the work when I was young, and by then it was too late for me to break my bad habits (which nobody had corrected earlier because, well, I was good).

RJ learning how the game works and how to take advantage of the other players on the floor, make them better, let them make him better is a different challenge. But there may be an element of "I'm so good this way why do I have to do it the other way" in addition to an accrual of habits or a thought process that can be hard to break.

But he can always be a lawyer, that worked out ok for me.

 

[paultzman]

You can always learn. But sometimes there are obstacles.

I was a pretty fair pianist in my youth. Had a natural talent for it. And as a result (and also because started very young) I never bothered with some of the discipline work like practicing scales.

Fast forward a dozen years or so and all that was really left for me to do was concert-level classical piano. Which I discovered I couldn't play because I hadn't done the work when I was young, and by then it was too late for me to break my bad habits (which nobody had corrected earlier because, well, I was good).

RJ learning how the game works and how to take advantage of the other players on the floor, make them better, let them make him better is a different challenge. But there may be an element of "I'm so good this way why do I have to do it the other way" in addition to an accrual of habits or a thought process that can be hard to break.

But he can always be a lawyer, that worked out ok for me.

Never thought of LMF as a “Renaissance Man”. Impressed.

 

[Rocket]

Team lost the plot today especially RJ, but KR - the best player on the team by the way - only getting 16 minutes is why they lost. That doesn't change the fact that 15 of the sweet 16 will likely come from the power 3. Not sure what the BE can do to stop that trend in the future.

When half of the invitations go to just 2 or 3 conferences, the system is rigged!
When Power Five conferences have 18 members each, the system is rigged.
Time to just scrap the facade of having 365 teams in D1 and just disband the NCAA if they can't invite more than 68 teams to include lesser conferences second best teams.
This realignment B.S. was designed to control the NCAA power structure and it has worked.

 

[tnice]

So many assumptions here on your part , just perhaps RP did not want to respond as there is something that has yet to become public ? And if not perhaps he did not want to respond as he did not want to publicly insult RJ ?

On balance I am obviously happy that Pitino is our coach. But stuff like yesterdays presser is why I can't bring myself to like him very much. Not only does he make a highly controversial ( and stupid imo) decision to keep his best player on the bench for the last 5 minutes of the game, he avoids responsibility for having to explain himself ( and questions the professionalism of a reporter to boot, just for asking the most obvious question in history). Accountability for thee but not for me apparently.

 

[MainMan]

Not saying this rudely at all but I really suggest you rewatch the game. This was the RJ that did not know the word pass exists. He repeatedly drove into a group of defenders and turned the ball over, had a jump ball called or got off a piss poor shot. Some of the shots he took had a slim to zero chance of going in.
This game was lost between his ears.

Dude, I would suggest you rewatch the entire season... cuz RJ was being RJ yesterday.

His POY season consisted of him taking a slew of shots each game that make you cringe and say no, no, no and then yes, yes, yes when they went in.

He had a terrible game. His shots weren't falling. His layups were dangling on the rim and falling off. And of course that made him rush, made him anxious, made him want to prove himself his AA and POY accolades.

And yeah he didn't or couldn't adjust in-game because he hasn't had to do that at all this year.

RJ was not going to turn into a point forward at halftime. He was not going to drive and kick out to..... who exactly? Zuby whose points come from hustle more that sets? Scott from three? Not happening yesterday. Kadary from 15? Good luck with that. Lefty? Sim? Smith? Who had the hot hand? Who should he have gotten the ball to?

Anyway, I just hope his benching is not something that makes him leave.

I want him back. He's a great kid. And on most nights, he was the only consistent offense we had all year long.

 

[Section9]

The challenge for RJ is that he's just not a cerebral player. He's a superior athlete and has succeeded his whole life on that basis.

He made great strides this year but playing against a team full of athletes on his own level was clearly a problem for him. Not only did none of his usual answers work, a number of them backfired in ways we have seen before.

Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for him about what he will face at the next level and perhaps he will decide that another year of learning the game from one of the best there is at teaching is in his best interests.

In one of his pressers earlier didn't Rick say something like "RJ hasn't met a shot he didn't like"? You are spot on about running into opponents as athletic as him.

Hope RJ stays and hope he learned something after yesterday.

 

[redmanwest]

Yup pretty obvious to me

2023-4 vintage, not 2024-5.

 

[ghostzapper]

On balance I am obviously happy that Pitino is our coach. But stuff like yesterdays presser is why I can't bring myself to like him very much. Not only does he make a highly controversial ( and stupid imo) decision to keep his best player on the bench for the last 5 minutes of the game, he avoids responsibility for having to explain himself ( and questions the professionalism of a reporter to boot, just for asking the most obvious question in history). Accountability for thee but not for me apparently.

I think arrogance is part of the Pitino personality profile. Beating up on press people whose job it is to ask legitimate questions has become part of our society's norms. That said, it is both unattractive and unnecessary.

 

[NCJohnnie]

Fast forward a dozen years or so and all that was really left for me to do was concert-level classical piano. Which I discovered I couldn't play because I hadn't done the work when I was young, and by then it was too late for me to break my bad habits (which nobody had corrected earlier because, well, I was good).

RJ learning how the game works and how to take advantage of the other players on the floor, make them better, let them make him better is a different challenge. But there may be an element of "I'm so good this way why do I have to do it the other way" in addition to an accrual of habits or a thought process that can be hard