Ron Harper Jr. stayed home to win big games, wants to earn more respect
Ron Harper Jr. earned his first career start with the Rutgers men’s basketball team Wednesday night when the Scarlet Knights upset No. 16 Ohio State, 64-61, at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
The victory for Rutgers marked its first ranked win since topping Seton Hall last year and the first defeat of a ranked Big Ten Conference foe since Jan. 11, 2015 against No. 4 Wisconsin.
Harper missed two looks to open the game, but drained a 3-pointer in the right corner to give Rutgers its first lead at 6-4. He finished with 12 points, including 4-for-5 from the foul line, four rebounds, and two assists in 29 minutes.
“I found out (on Monday) when I suited up with the red team in practice,” Harper said when asked when he knew he was going to start. “Starting as a freshman in a Big Ten basketball game against a ranked team, it was an accomplishment. It’s something to build on.”
Harper started in place of sorts for Peter Kiss, who did not play per performance decision by coach Steve Pikiell. He ended up reaching double figures in scoring for the fourth time this year.
“He came alive. He got to the free throw line and made some threes. His defense was good too, he has a great attitude and approach to the game,” Pikiell said. “He just keeps getting better and that is what I want. He gives us good size too in the starting lineup."
In the first half, Harper got some opportunities to take the ball up in transition and the 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward was rewarded with an old fashioned 3-point play as he drove to the hoop at the 6:30 mark. Less than 30 seconds later, Harper took the ball up again and found fellow freshman four-star Montez Mathis for an alley-oop slam dunk.
“Ball-handing in the open court, I definitely took a step forward with that,” Harper said. “I remember in the first game, I would just give the ball to Geo (Baker). Now, he doesn’t want me to give the ball to him right away. He wants me to push it and find him or Montez in the open court. It led to big buckets especially for Montez with the big and-1 and the alley-oop.”
Mathis, who was aggressive and made some clutch buckets near the end, finished with a team-high 16 points and talked about Harper’s contribution against the Buckeyes.
“Ron played really great,” Mathis said. “He was hitting his shots, rebounding, and playing his game. He had a complete game with getting everyone involved. He played with energy every second he was out there. He was a great help.”
The win for Rutgers was a big win. It was arguably the biggest win for Pikiell in his tenure with the Scarlet Knights - even bigger than beating the in-state rivals Pirates last season. Playing the way they did and pulling off the victory in front of the home crowd is what Harper, who went to Don Bosco Prep and hails from Franklin Lakes, N.J., stayed home to play at Rutgers for.
“Of course. I came to Rutgers to be a building block of the greatness that’s going to come,” Harper said. “Today was a big step for us in the right direction after a disappointing loss to say the least against Maryland. To come out here and beat a ranked team on our floor in front of our fans with that big fat ‘R’ and ‘New Jersey logo’ in the center, as someone who is from New Jersey that is something to be proud of.
“Today’s win was big, especially with Eugene going down. That’s our fearless captain. In the locker room at halftime we were preaching that we were only up by one. This one was for Eugene Omoruyi right there.”
The Scarlet Knights will next travel to play Minnesota on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Harper knows he and his team can’t lay a goose egg and must keep the momentum going. That’s how you earn respect.
“You can’t let your head get too big. This was a big win. It was a fun win. But we can’t get too ahead of ourselves and keep a level head,” Harper said. “We realize that people might not still respect us. But, we definitely got Ohio State’s respect today and we plan on earning more respect as the season goes along. We want to keep getting better and that goes not only for me but my team.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.