BREAKING: McConnell discusses Rutgers commitment

The Rutgers men’s basketball program landed a big-time commitment today when shooting guard Caleb McConnell (Geneva Oh.) announced his plans to become a Scarlet Knight.

McConnell told The Knights Report what led him to his decision.

“I love the tradition of the school, the academics and the direction Coach Pikiell has the program going in,” McConnell told TKR. “He reminds me of Spire Academy and Coach (Dave) Briski. Spire is an up and coming prep school, who didn't have a winning season. I could have played for other winning programs but decided to take on the challenge. This season we were eighth in the nation, we started from the bottom with Spire and won. I love the challenge at Rutgers and just love Coach Pikiell’s vision.”

McConnell went on to talk about what it is he likes about the Big Ten and even has a couple of friends playing throughout the conference.

“Big Ten country is the best conference,” said McConnell. “I’m familiar with a lot of my peers who are playing in the Big Ten like Jerome Hunter from Indiana, Justin Aherns from Ohio State and Zavier Simpson from Michigan. It's going to be fun and mostly all business.”

McConnell has a couple months until he arrives in Piscataway, but he already has some goals in mind for his freshman season.

“I want to become an impact player at Rutgers,” McConnell stated. “I want to be someone who makes a difference right away. I would love to help Rutgers win as many games as possible and possibly win the B1G championship. I want to play in the NCAA tournament, and even win in the tournament one day. I think Rutgers would be a program where that could become a reality. As for self accolades, I would love to win Freshman of the Year in the B1G conference. That comes with winning, and I’m all about winning.”

Stay tuned as the Scarlet Knights still have two more open scholarships left to fill in this class whether it be via 2018 recruit or the transfer market.