Rutgers Basketball's updated 2023 NCAA Tournament Resume
Rutgers' season is now complete after it fell in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
Selection Sunday is finally tonight, and the Scarlet Knights (19-14, 10-10) will be hoping to make the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row for the first time in school history.
As of 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night, the Scarlet Knights are projected to make the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seedper 114 brackets on BracketMatrix.com.
"We don't take the backseat to nobody," fifth-year senior Caleb McConnell said. "I feel like March Madness deserves to see us play in it, and I feel like that's what they'll get."
The Scarlet Knights are currently sitting at 40th overall in the NET Rankings, which is arguably the top used rankings system when determining NCAA Tournament teams.
The system is defined as, "a results-oriented team-ranking metric that combines wins, scoring margin, efficiency and the location of games to churn out a daily hierarchy of the 353 basketball teams".
One of the biggest considerations in determining these NET rankings is each team's quadrant records, which is broken down by the team’s current ranking and where the game took place.
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-363, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-363
| QUAD 1 | QUAD 2 | QUAD 3 | QUAD 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
5-7 |
5-3 |
2-4 |
7-0 |
Rutgers is also ranked 35th in KenPom, 36th per T-Rank, 39th per Sagarin, and 26th per the ESPN BPI.
"I think we've played good really all year long. We went on the road and beat Northwestern in a tough place. That's the second best team in the league. We went on the road and beat Purdue, beat Wisconsin, beat Penn State. Played Michigan State. It was counted as a home game, but the Knicks are the home team in Madison Square Garden, not us. We never shoot there. We never practice there. So beat Michigan State, too.
"This team's been great. We've got 19 wins in the best league in the country, most competitive league from top to bottom. I know everyone speculates on -- Nebraska could have beat anybody. Ohio State is still here. This league is unbelievable.
We have the National Defensive Player of the Year. We have the best dunker in college basketball. Paul, I think, is one of the best players. We did a lot of good things throughout the whole year, and I think today just showed you we can play with anybody.
"We'll see what happens at the end of the year, not after every game. We'll see coming up here. These guys certainly deserve it. We were one of the best defenses in the country, period. So that's exciting, too. These guys have done a great job all year, and they represent the university as good as any program probably, as good as any players in the country."
Here's a quick look at the team's top five wins and losses this season, based on the NET rankings.
| BEST WINS | WORST LOSSES |
|---|---|
|
@ Purdue (5) |
@ Minnesota (220) |
|
vs. Indiana (27) |
vs. Temple (127) -- Neutral site |
|
vs. Michigan State (33) |
vs. Seton Hall (80) |
|
at Northwestern (41) |
vs. Michigan (58) |
|
at/vs Penn State (55) |
vs. Nebraska (92) |
|
neutral vs. Michigan (58) |
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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