Ace Bailey shines vs. Monmouth, but Rutgers still learning how to close
Abdi Bashir Jr. bombed in 10 3-pointers and the Hawks made the Scarlet Knights work for it in the second half of Friday’s win.
PISCATAWAY – Call this one a win-win.
Monmouth got to renew an in-state series during a year King Rice needed to schedule several guarantee games for budgetary reasons. Then the Hawks held their own in a difficult place to play, and one sophomore sharpshooter in particular authored a record night.
Rutgers, for its part, will bring home the memories of Ace Bailey’s debut and a scoring record of its own in the 98-81 win.
Abdi Bashir Jr. and Monmouth made Rutgers work for it in the second half, but the 24th-ranked Scarlet Knights improved to 3-0 thanks to Bailey, Dylan Harper and an offense that’s showing impressive chemistry considering how new most of the roster is.
Bailey, who missed two games with what was reported to be a hip flexor, made the first shot he took – a corner three – 27 seconds into his college debut and finished with 17 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes. In his first regular-season game alongside his classmate, friend and future NBA peer, Harper went for 20 points, five rebounds and six assists, doing most of his damage in the second half.
Bailey was not made available to reporters after the game because, according to Steve Pikiell, he was cramping up and needed to see a trainer.
Despite the obvious talent setting Bailey apart Friday, his coach sees ample room to grow.
“We’ve got to get him in game shape,” Pikiell said. “Obviously he hasn’t practiced for a little bit and I thought he gutted it out too for us. Some big rebounds. Just gives us another dimension on the court, and he’ll keep getting better, too, like this team. I like this team a lot. We got to get better, and obviously he’s a big part of that. So we’re excited about getting him back into the rotation. He needed to get his feet wet, and college basketball’s hard. You can’t just come off of not practicing and jump on the court. It’s a hard thing to do.”
The No. 2 overall prospect in the high school Class of 2024 wasted no time firing up the student section. That’s the side of the court that Rutgers plays offense in the first halves of games, and just feet away from the excitable crowd, Bailey floated to the corner off a screen from Zach Martini to get wide open for a catch-and-shoot three. “Giving this crowd what it wants right away!” was the call from play-by-play announcer Joe Malfa.
Bailey’s other unforgettable bucket came on an alley-oop inbounds pass that he caught and slammed home in one graceful motion.
Both of those plays were set up by Jordan Derkack, who finished with nine assists, several of them on advanced, creative passes.
“I liked all of them,” Derkack said of his assists. “I think that the one that stands out the most is probably the Ace lob. We made a little bit of eye contact before I got the ball and he just looked at me and was kind of like, put his eyes up and I was like, ‘Alright, we’re gonna do this.’ So, you know, I just threw it as high as possible and the dude got it.”
Rutgers’ 98 points marked a program record for the Pikiell era, the previous high being 96 against FDU during the COVID season.
Now, the Scarlet Knights may not have needed to keep scoring so much in the second half had their opponents not made a bit of a run themselves.
Bashir bombed in a program-record 10 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 38 points, 24 of which came after halftime. He, Madison Durr and freshman Justin Ray were chiefly responsible for cutting Monmouth’s 24-point deficit down to 79-68 with 5:22 to go.
“We got a big lead (and) we’ve got to play better with the lead, too,” Pikiell said. “I think sometimes you let your guard down a little bit and certainly that happens during the course of the game. We’ll watch film. I mean, that’s what we’ve done since the first game. We learn lessons in all these games. … There’s a lot of tape to devour. Our defense, obviously, got to get better. We’re playing at a different pace and Monmouth plays at a different pace.”
The tape will show not only a kid playing the game of his life for Monmouth, but also a handful of plays where Rutgers’ defensive intensity wasn’t where Pikiell likes it to be, where the Hawks scored quicker than the Scarlet Knights could get set.
Derkack complimented Monmouth’s off-ball screens that got Bashir open time and again for outside shots. Martini, a grad transfer and team captain who’s seen what it takes for a team to go deep in the postseason, liked his young teammates’ poise when the Hawks started siphoning off the momentum.
“I liked our composure there,” Martini said of the home stretch. “We wanted to win by 30, but you can’t just win by 30, you gotta actually do it. I think we were just disappointed in that facet, but we just stuck composed, knew we were scoring the ball pretty easily today and able to get out of here with a win.”
(Martini finished with 18 points and was a perfect 4-for-4 with three 3-pointers in the first half. Through three games, he’s shooting 60% from the field and 50% from the arc.)
Monmouth dropped to 0-4, but the signs of progress are there for a team working with a new core after the departures of Xander Rice and Nikita Konstantynovskyi.
Bashir, a sophomore from Omaha, will be one of the toughest players to guard in the CAA if he keeps up his current run of form. He tossed in his ninth triple of the night while drawing contact from Bailey and hitting the deck, a remarkable four-point play that was integral to the Hawks’ comeback bid and officially made the student section start to clench up.
“I wish it would’ve came in a win, but it was pretty cool,” Bashir said. “I didn’t know that; I didn’t know what the (school) record was. I didn’t know that I set the record. I was just hooping out there, playing the game that I grew up loving.”
Hawks coach King Rice was in vintage form as he spelled out what Bashir’s night meant in the long run.
“Now he does this in this building, that’s just showing people – what it really does is it’s going to get him recruited more, OK,” Rice admitted. “But what it’s really, really going to do, it’s gonna ensure that his family gets taken care of, because he can play basketball, OK. And he always tells me, ‘No Coach, I’m not leaving you, I’m going to be with you.’ But when you get 38 at Rutgers in your fourth game as a sophomore, and we’re in this new college basketball world, we gotta understand what this is going to mean, and no one could be happier for a person than I am for him than what he did tonight, just to put the world on notice.”
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What a fun game that was. There’s still more to get to, but I just wanted to say thanks for following along, and a massive thank you to anyone who subscribes to me here or has followed me on Bluesky in the past several days. Things are heating up over on the latest Twitter Replacement, and while I don’t currently envision fully leaving Elon’s app, I had a good experience Friday night doubling my live-posting efforts on Bluesky, where college basketball fans and media are beginning to find each other.
If you’re new to Guarden State or don’t subscribe yet, give it a go! Free subscribers help me out a ton, but if you want to pay, you will get access to all paywalled stories when I resume doing so once a week in December. These will be columns, deep dives on certain analytical topics, potentially some exclusive one-on-ones and who knows what else. Go for the $30/year rate; it’s a better deal than the $5/month.
Now, let’s clean the glass with more talk of Monmouth, Rutgers and the Princeton Tigers.
Jaret Valencia, who had hernia surgery sometime around early October, made his season debut off the bench for Monmouth. He played 11 minutes and had two points and two rebounds while picking up four fouls. Valencia was selected to the preseason all-CAA second team after a promising first season in West Long Branch. Clearly, he’ll need some time to get into game shape again.
When he transferred to Rutgers, Derkack was best known as a defensive stalwart who was tough and could score the ball, but he really impressed me as a passer Friday. In addition to the multiple assists for Bailey, he laid down a perfect low skip pass up the court in transition to Jamichael Davis for a fastbreak bucket. He had a few more attempts – a lob to Harper that didn’t connect and a behind-the-back throw Bailey wasn’t expecting – that showcased his vision and artistry as a passer. Rice also went out of his way to compliment Derkack, mentioning that the Jersey native spent time working out with Monmouth two summers ago.
“He’s so tough and he’s skilled. He doesn’t care. And he’s a point guard that isn’t going to shoot a lot of shots, but he’s such a winner. He wins games. And there used to be this kid from Binghamton that went to North Carolina that couldn’t shoot” – Rice is referring to himself here – “and he led his team to a Final Four, OK. So if you’re a point guard and you’re a winner, like Jordan is, he can lead this team to a lot of places.”Rutgers found a way to go backwards in the KenPom rankings, dropping from No. 63 to 66 with the win, behind the likes of UC Irvine and a South Carolina team that lost to North Florida. The KenPom bias is real. (/sarcasm) There certainly aren’t 65 teams in the country better than the Scarlet Knights will be this year, but much of their early-season struggles in the metrics can be chalked up to the quality of their opponents. Giving up 81 points on 72 possessions to a Monmouth team barely inside the top 300 didn’t help RU’s defensive efficiency rating.
Princeton lost its first game of the season Friday night in Jadwin Gym, 73-68 to Loyola Chicago. All four of their games to start the year have been close, and for a change, it wasn’t the Tigers but their opponents who made the big plays in the second half. Princeton coughed up a 68-66 lead in the final 1:41 as the Ramblers finished on a 7-0 run. The Tigers had two chances but couldn’t secure a defensive rebound when they were down 71-68 in the final seconds.
Xaivian Lee had a 17-6-5 line, Dalen Davis also scored 17 and Caden Pierce had his second straight double-double (11 points, 11 boards). But watch out for Malik Abdullahi, the freshman from Miami. He made his first career start at the five in place of Jacob Huggins and had 11 points and four rebounds in just 22 minutes.