Column: Rutgers fans right to fume over this disappointing season
“I’m so happy that these are the expectations that we have now,” Steve Pikiell said as a third straight missed NCAA Tournament looms.
NEW YORK – Every Rutgers basketball fan remembers where he or she was when the Scarlet Knights toppled Michigan State at Madison Square Garden.
I don’t mean Saturday, of course, but Feb. 4, 2023 – the day a big second half propelled Rutgers to a 61-55 win and a 16-7 record, back when discussion of a lifetime contract for Steve Pikiell wasn’t far-fetched. The day Paul Mulcahy and Caleb McConnell pulled the Scarlet Knights in front in the second half and helped the program make a statement on a national stage.
It was also, unfortunately, the day Mawot Mag tore his ACL. That Rutgers team seemed tournament-bound to anyone paying attention in early February, but it lost far more than it won the rest of the regular season and was the second team out of the tournament field.
It’s instructive to look back at this moment nearly two years later, as Rutgers returned to the same site and faced the same (if much higher-ranked) opponent. I’m tempted to say the program could have exorcised some demons there Saturday, if not for the fact that nobody from that 2022-23 team remains besides the coaches.
By losing 81-74 to the Spartans, Rutgers fell to 28-35 overall since winning on the MSG court two seasons ago. The program went 3-8 after Mag’s injury, 15-17 last year and now 10-10 to start a season that was supposed to be far different with two uber-talented freshmen in the fold. That’s a .444 winning percentage, five losses for every four victories.
We can say Rutgers was never going to beat Michigan State, even with a healthy Dylan Harper (though Tom Izzo certainly would disagree, at least publicly). The fact Rutgers got that close to an upset despite a horrid shooting day would ignite optimism in another era. But for this team, loaded with the brunt of outside expectations, it’s the 10th loss in a season where fans watched them fall to Kennesaw State, Princeton and a few Big Ten teams that are turning out to be pretty horrid themselves (looking at you, Ohio State).
Pikiell handled the question of expectations perhaps too diplomatically after Saturday’s loss.
“I love Rutgers, I love Rutgers and I’m so happy that these are the expectations that we have now,” Pikiell said. “When I took over the program nine years ago, we were just trying to win one Big Ten game. Now we’re selling out or close to selling out Madison Square Garden. We’ve got a team that has a 3.2 GPA. We’ve taken them to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, would have been to a third (if not for the COVID cancellation), went to an NIT.
“I’ve got two guys up here that wanted to be at Rutgers. The landscape of college basketball’s changed. These guys said yes to us. I’m so proud of all those things. Do I want to have more wins? We all do. We want to be undefeated. These guys want to be undefeated. But I’m just thankful.
“No, the Rutgers people have been awesome, so I will tell you that. They’ve been awesome. I get more great emails, ‘Just keep fighting, Coach,’ and we sell out every game at Jersey Mike’s and I’m real proud of that.”
Discussing the team’s GPA in the year 2025 may be an option in his toolbelt when he checks in with administration, but Pikiell did himself no favors with the fans that way. “This man is talking about GPA and the ghosts of tournaments’ past while we’re in the hunt for dead last in the B1G. Make it stop,” one fan replied on social media.
In another answer, Pikiell shrugged off the notion that Rutgers was now fighting simply to make the Big Ten tournament – which will only take 15 of the newly expanded league’s 18 members. “Our goal is to every win game for 10 games. Our goal is to win the next game,” he said. “We have the same goals as everybody else. I’ll never change my goals. We’re trying to go to the NCAA Tournament.”
I will continue to contend that a few things that have gone wrong for Rutgers aren’t Pikiell’s doing, namely the health of Dylan Harper. If he hadn’t caught the flu around New Year’s, Rutgers may have beaten Indiana and Wisconsin; if he wasn’t working with a bum ankle this past week, the Scarlet Knights might have defeated Penn State and, yes, even Michigan State.
But fans’ grievances are mostly fair game at this point. Having your squad focused and ready to beat Kennesaw State; scheduling that Kennesaw State game in the first place; figuring out how and when to teach defensive principles to the convoy of newcomers; even going as far back as roster construction. All of it is fair game and all of it lies with the coaching staff.
The Scarlet Knights were supposed to be markedly improved on offense from what we’ve seen for the past few years. How, then, can you justify them ranking 17th of 18 in field goal shooting during Big Ten play at 42.1%? How does that happen when you have two of the top four scorers in the league?
Almost nobody around Bailey and Harper has been able to get buckets consistently. Jordan Derkack had his best game as a Scarlet Knight on Saturday, his 26 points inflated by two 3-pointers in the last few minutes that made the margin closer than the game truly was. Well, that single game pushed Derkack into third on Rutgers’ scoring list at 7.7 ppg. Jeremiah Williams has gone cold and slinked back to 7.1 ppg.
It was also revealed Friday that Rutgers will be without center Emmanuel Ogbole for the rest of the season due to a knee injury. His presence was felt in the interior as a rebounder and a big body under the rim, if not a pure rim protector. It means more opportunities for freshman Lathan Sommerville, who’s been in the starting lineup for four games now. I’m a big fan of Sommerville’s game and his potential, but the moment he gets into foul trouble Rutgers lacks a true five it can turn to. Zach Martini will be called upon, but he hasn’t been a fit defensively and his 3-point shot (0-for-5 Saturday) is sorely missed right now.
None of it is what Rutgers fans envisioned, but Pikiell repeated one sentiment during his presser: No season goes the way he plans or expects it to.
“The season hasn’t gone exactly the way, but none of my nine seasons have gone exactly the way that I’ve wanted it to, or predictions and all those kind of things,” Pikiell said. “… You fight through the tough times, you get healthy, you can do some special things. There’s still a lot of season left and that’s what we’re looking forward to.
“We’re close. We’re close. (Michigan State is) the best team in the league, so we’re close.”
Izzo, for his part, had his usual nice things to say about Pikiell and claimed he wasn’t merely sticking up for a fellow coach.
“No, don’t do that to him,” Izzo said when asked if he was surprised Rutgers was only 10-10. “I’ll tell you, it’s just, it’s hard. (John Calipari is) a good friend of mine and when he had those teams at Kentucky with nine, he had seven or eight freshmen, great players, it’s hard to put it all together. It’s hard on them. Experience does matter, no matter who you are. I mean, there’s some talent there, though.
“I think if there was something good that came out of it for him today, it’s some of those other guys stepped up.”
If you’re a Rutgers fan and can stomach it, play compare-and-contrast what Izzo said in this spot two years ago. He told Mulcahy and McConnell they were “great for the Big Ten” and claimed Rutgers was the second-best team in the league at the time.
What a difference two years can make. Going back to MSG didn’t do anything to change Rutgers’ trajectory; it only laid bare how far it’s dropped off.
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Hello, happy Sunday. It was special as always to head out to Madison Square Garden for a game once again. I don’t think I’m going back for the Big East tournament this time around, so I’ll always cherish what I do get to do with this newsletter and this career of mine.
Quickly, let’s clean the glass:
The latest low for Seton Hall men’s basketball: a 79-54 loss at Creighton despite leading for much of the first half and being within four at halftime. The latest remark from Shaheen Holloway: “I gotta be honest and I don’t care who gets mad, these Saturday-Tuesday games gotta stop. We have them more than anybody. Everybody else, why is Creighton playing Wednesday? Why can’t we play Wednesday?” To his point, it’s the second straight week the Pirates are playing Saturday-Tuesday, meaning two days rest in between; they have to do so five times this year, counting the Rutgers and Villanova games last month, one of which involved a nonconference game. Hall got back Dylan Addae-Wusu but didn’t have Isaiah Coleman or Chaunce Jenkins against Creighton.
Speaking of Seton Hall and speaking of injuries, the Pirates women’s team got back Savannah Catalon after she missed almost six weeks. She scored 12 points Saturday, and her steal and bucket early in the fourth quarter helped turn a 43-38 deficit against visiting St. John’s into a 57-48 victory. The Pirates are in third place in the Big East at 6-2 (14-5 overall) and can really make a push for the NCAA Tournament with this healthy starting five of Amari Wright, Catalon, Jada Eads, Faith Masonius and I’yanna Lops. Mentioned it the other day, but I’ll be covering their game against Butler this Wednesday.
Princeton’s “luck” ran out in an 85-76 loss to Cornell despite a double-double from Caden Pierce and six 3-pointers by Blake Peters. Jack Scott also had a strong individual game, with much of his 10 points, seven boards and five assists coming in the first half. Still, the Big Red went on a 20-9 run in the final five minutes, flipping the script from all the recent Tiger comebacks at Jadwin, and first-year coach Jon Jaques did something Brian Earl could rarely do in his time at Cornell: defeat Princeton and Mitch Henderson. I won’t be able to make it in person, but Friday’s home game against 4-0 Yale was flexed to 5 p.m. on ESPN2.
It’s better news for the Princeton women, who beat Cornell 62-54 on the strength of Parker Hill’s career game of 20 points and 12 rebounds. Because of the Tigers’ loss at Columbia (5-0) on MLK Day, they aren’t in the driver’s seat for the Ivy title right now, but it will be an exciting three-horse race with them and Harvard (4-1); Columbia visits Harvard on Friday. Stay tuned to this one. There’ll be far more for me to cover in February.
Monmouth, Rider and NJIT all lost on the road Saturday. Rather than rattle those off right now, let’s save them for Tuesday’s edition. It’s time to discuss New Jersey bracketology… before every team drops out of the running for an at-large bid. But N.J. bracketology also means checking in on how these mid-major teams are doing in their conference races and what seeds they’re aiming to secure.