Wow!!!

I have always said I am an equal opportunity guy and say it only as I SEE IT! Well what happened to Seton Hall University on Saturday at HOME? How does any Big East Team, with top 125 ranked players who are heavy recruited nationally lose to a team with top 400 nationally recruited players? Are you kidding me? Did IUPUI actually feel they would win prior to the first few minutes of the game? I doubt it! They were just looking forward to playing a BE team to enhance their schedule. After all it is very attractive FOR LOW D1 programs to have BE, ACC, PAC 10 and SEC teams on the schedule. They often shy away from Big 10 teams because they usually are way to physical for a low D1 school such as St. Peters to compete with.

What the heck happened? Was it the technical fouls? Coaching? Players? Maybe the IUPUI team was just a better team? OK let me stop on that bogus note. The technical fouls were foolish, especially the warm-up one by Mike Davis. The rule says no dunking in warm-ups. Follow the rule! But as most will say, games are lost over a 40 minute period and single plays or incidents rarely cause loses.

How about the coaching. Well even coaches have off nights and I am not sure this happened because I was not there. But it is the responsibility of the Head Coach and his Assistants to have the team prepared to play and compete hard every game. It is his responsibility to put the team in position to win. Not sure if this happened from the stories, message boards, and stat lines.

Now the players. College basketball players need to have a sense of pride. They are on scholarship to play basketball and for that they do not have to work to pay tuition, room and board, and books. They also receive tons of free gear, get to travel, and play the game they love in nice arenas for the most part. All they have to do is stay focused. I am not sure that happened yesterday. From the stats it looks to me that the players were not focused. That is one of the reasons for the technical foul in warm-ups. If I was a gambling man, which I am not, I would bet some of the players had something totally different on their mind the Friday night, a night that should have been used preparing for the Saturday game. How does Eugene Harvey, who has borderline pro potential, and Walters have stat lines like they did? If I did not know better I would think they were with some coeds the night before. But I am sure that could not have happened because they most likely stayed as a team at a hotel nearby preparing for the game. Well at least I hope they do this. But even then, funny things happen lol. Maybe they just stayed up all night in the hotel talking hoops because they were excited about playing a team like IUPUI at the Pru Center. But the bottom line is THEY SHOULD HAVE WON THIS GAME and all games against low D1 competition. NO EXCUSES!

Now the competition. I would think there are enough local schools to play against. Why bring in that Midwestern power IUPUI? What does a win against them do anyway? It is a no win situation. If you win you were supposed to win. If you lose it looks like the end of the world. Loses against teams like Fordham, Hofstra, Penn, St. Joes, Drexal, Iona, Siena, etc. would be much easier to swallow. Why not play those teams out of conference? But IUPUI? Give me a break! By the way who are they really and what does IUPUI stand for?

Coaching? I guess it is time to start looking for a new coach? PLEASE STOP! It is one game and not the end of the world! SHU and RU are good to go for the next few years with the coaches they have in place as Head Coaches. I think Bobby has SHU on the right track as does FHJ, especially if he listens to Danny Nee. I honestly feel no one out there could do a better job at SHU and RU than they will in TIME. I look back at the firing of Fran Frachillo (sp) at St. Johns. I am positive that right now St. Johns would be a nationally ranked team selling out at home and the Garden if Fran was still the coach. Sometimes we tend to cut our noses to spite our faces. Bobby and and coaches like FHJ deserve time because they are great fits who just need to grow into the positions they have a bit more. But now let me say a few things about FHJ.

I see Rutgers won big yesterday against Bryant College. A great academic institution in New England. Good for them. But again why this game? What a BS opponent! But RU did win.

Now looking at the box score It looks like it was another line-up change. Those who were there would know better than me but I always thought the first 5 guys listed were the starters. Now if this was the case I have to wonder why they went back to the younger starters, especially against such weak comp. UMMMMMMMMMM? Wonder if anyone complained lol?

This also would have been a great game to work on getting the big fella lots of touches down low. I could never understand why coaches do not utilize these type of games to work with players struggling. Those needing more confidence, down low work, shooting, etc. What often happens is guys just play for stats. Memp to Rutgers: This game should not even take place and player stats sgainst a D2 team turning into D1 are not impressive. Get those numbers against Georgetown, UConn, Louisville, and Syracuse. Heck get those numbers against Providence, ND, and South Florida.

I still think as an outsider looking in that JR Inman, The Big Fella, and Corey Chandler need playing time, touches, and shots for RU to be productive in the BE season. But maybe RU just wants to go with the youth movement and that would also make fans accept another losing season much easier.