Column: Reasons for optimism after Rutgers’ busy week

I’m still bullish on what this Scarlet Knights team can accomplish while Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are still on campus.

Dylan Harper practices with Rutgers. (Photo courtesy of Rutgers athletics)

The November schedule the Rutgers Scarlet Knights laid out for themselves did them few favors.

Rutgers opened slow and steady with four games in about two weeks, all against mid-majors they were supposed to beat but some of whom put up more of a fight than others, like Saint Peter’s with its gritty, foul-heavy defense and Merrimack with its zone.

Ace Bailey only played in two of those games after suffering a reported hip flexor injury in practice days before the season opener, so the freshman was behind the curve in gaining NCAA game experience, certainly not part of the plan.

Then a 4-0 Rutgers team with a No. 24 ranking next to its name flew to Atlanta to face Kennesaw State, a one-off “homecoming game” for Bailey and Jamichael Davis, who were high school teammates in the Atlanta suburbs. The first road game for any of the freshmen, it was planted less than 58 hours before Rutgers took the floor in Las Vegas for the highly publicized Players Era Festival.

And you wonder why the Scarlet Knights got punched in the mouth.

I’m not in excuse-making mode here – the 79-77 loss to an inferior Kennesaw State team, in which Rutgers trailed by as many as 21, proved it was premature to rank the Scarlet Knights and they had a ton of growing to do. But in hindsight, it was set up as the perfect trap game, one where a young team would get caught peeking ahead.

It’s one of several reasons why, after watching how Rutgers recovered in Las Vegas and played tough teams down to the wire, I’m still bullish on what this once-in-a-generation Scarlet Knights roster can accomplish while Bailey and Dylan Harper are still on campus.