From the Cheap Seats: 4 Thoughts on Stony Brook

Nine and One: No one saw Rutgers at 9-1. Sorry, you didn’t, even with this schedule. But Rutgers gutted this one out. They stepped up with a big 15-0 run and won the game. That is a learning moment. Stony Brook threw every haymaker they had at the Scarlet Knights, and Rutgers rode it out. They took over and bore down when they needed to.

Free Throws: Okay, seriously, this shouldn’t have been this close. Rutgers missed too many free throws early before locking in down the stretch. Too many misses on the front ends of one and ones. But, again, they did what they were supposed to. In a hostile environment that was fired up from the start—Rutgers dug deep and came out with a win. Make your free throws and this is a 10 point blowout (or something like that. Who wants to do math for me?)

Three Point Defense: I’ll give the Seawolves this: they were jacked up. But Rutgers helped them out early. Stony Brook made 13 three pointers and late in the game a lot of those were covered. But early on? Rutgers left their shooters wide open and gave them confidence. That needs to be cleaned up.

We have a staff that can coach: In the first half, it felt like Stony Brook got any shot they wanted. That wasn’t true in the second half. Steve Pikiell and his staff adjusted on the fly and were able to take away the two shooters—Nyama and Yeboah—in the second half. And on the offensive end, they figured out a way for Nigel Johnson to take over—which he did. Wow. What a win. That is some quality coaching right there. Rutgers sits at nine and one. One more time 9-1 because of that adjustment.