PISCATAWAY, N.J.– The last time Rutgers’ men’s basketball team tasted the NCAA tournament was 29 years ago, in 1991.
Since then, the Scarlet Knights have been wandering through the desert, looking any ray of hope as they hop scotched from the Atlantic 10 to the Big East and now the Big Ten.
But this year, after seven coaching changes and 23 losing seasons, their long-suffering fan base has a chance to be rewarded. Rutgers has a legitimate shot to earn a NCAA bid. The Knights—who was picked to finish 12th in the league’s pre-season poll– are 14-4, 5-2 in the Big Ten and an astounding 13—0 at home after defeating Minnesota, 64-56, before a loud, fourth sellout crowd of 8,000 at the RAC and have an NCAA net ranking of 22.
They have benefited from Steve Pikiell’s fundamentally sound coaching and resourceful recruiting and the fact the Big Ten is by far the deepest conference in Division I. And it is exciting to see the RAC draped in a sea of red, with their fans, who are desperate for success, fleshing out the seats what has become one of the toughest arenas for visiting teams in this league.
“Sold out crowd, Fans are bought in,’’ Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said. “Obviously, Coach Pikiell is doing a great job. I’ve been in a bunch of leagues with good teams, good coaches, good players. There’s nothing like the home courts in this league. There’s a buy in from the communities, from the campus. It’s always about winning at home and seeing if you can steal some on the road.’’
The Knights are on a roll, winning eight of their last nine games and have finally cracked the AP 25 at 24. The Big Ten – which has 5 teams ranked and seven in the Top 30—is wilder, deeper than ever before and there is the possibility at least 10 teams from the conference could make the tournament.
Rutgers is one of them.
This Rutgers’ team is nothing like the Knights 1976 star studded Final Four team with future pros Phil Sellers, Mike Dabney, Eddie Jordan and James Bailey.
The Knights’ leading scorer sophomore forward Ron Harper is averaging just under 12 points a game. But this is a team where the sum is greater than the parts. Caleb McConnell, a 6-7 sophomore guard, led the Knights with 10 points, and 12 rebounds, making up for the fact junior point guard Geo Baker—the team’s second leading scorer—is just coming back from a thumb injury suffered Jan. 1. Mathis, Harper and Young each scored 11 points.
“It could be anyone’s night at any time,’’ McConnell said. “I think that’s what makes this team so special.’’
Rutgers is big and versatile. The Knights been able to win with numbers—nine players can score points in a Big Ten game– and a suffocating man to man defense and rebounding.
The Knights get the tone for this meaningful victory in the first half when they grabbed 15 of their 20 offensive rebounds and then completely shut down the Gophers’ two biggest offensive threats hold the Gophers (10-8, 4-4) to just 33 percent to take a 34-25 lead. Center Myles Johnson, a much improved 6-11 sophomore, had seven points and 10 rebounds and overwhelmed Minnesota’s 6-9 center Daniel Oturu, who was averaging 20.9 points and is one of the Big Ten’s five best players, physically, completely shutting him out from the field in a two- point first half before Oturu broke loose for 19 points and 9 rebounds. Montez Mathis, a 6-4 sophomore who is the Knights’ best on the ball defender, combined with multiple defenders like 6-2 junior sophomore Jacob Young to hold Marcus Carr—who entered the game ranked eighth nationally in assists while scoring 16.5 points per game—scoreless in the first half and limit him to just five points on two field goals for the game.
“I mean they swarmed Marcus on ball screens,’’ Pitino said. “Daniel needed to be more physical down low to demand the ball; he was better in the second half. Rutgers is big, they’re a really big team, a physical team. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country.’’
Montez, who is not known a three point shooter, also drained two from behind the arc and scored on a layup early in the game after the Knights, who started the game shooting 1 for 10 and fell behind 10-2, got back in the game with an 11-0 run.
“We started off and got punched in the fact and we had to get back up,’’ Johnson said. “Tez’ energy—the three- straight basketball, his defensive energy that he had to bring it to them and then we went on that run and I think he really brought us into the game.’’
