Two days ago, I wrote that No. 15 Rutgers men’s basketball was projected to get a top-4 seed -- even a No. 2 -- for the upcoming NCAA Tournament come March by multiple outlets.

Well what happened on late Tuesday night in East Lansing left bracketologists, fans, coaches, and even media members alike scratching their heads.

Rutgers (7-3, 3-3 Big Ten) didn’t show up in its 68-45 laugher of a loss to No. 23 Michigan State.

Looking on, the Scarlet Knights, at least talent wise overall, have a better team (which is saying something considering the strong tradition of the Spartans), but they played like they did during the previous regime.

“Give Michigan State obviously a ton of credit. They were great. Coach (Tom) Izzo had them ready. I didn't have my guys ready. It's on me,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said following the game. “We certainly have to play better than this on the road in the league like this but Michigan State was terrific and coach Izzo is a great coach, one of the best ever to do it, and he had his guys ready to go and tip of the hat, they beat us on the backboards and in every area tonight. Just disappointing.”

Where do I start?

Free throws continue to be a major problem for the Scarlet Knights, who missed their first seven and ended up just 6-of-17 for the game. It is the third time they shot 35% or worse from the foul line in the 2020-21 season and they are now shooting an abysmal 58.4% for the year. Rutgers, which trailed by six at halftime, would have been in the lead if it made its free throws.

Pikiell still doesn’t have an answer and it appears the 14-of-17 outing from the charity stripe against Purdue was an outlier.

“I don't know,” Pikiell said. “They can make 100 in practice. We take a lot of them and they're good shooters too. I mean we're shooting the ball well from three even though tonight we didn't. If you can make threes with guys guarding you, you can make free throws too. We had one of those nights from the free-throw line, but that wasn't why we lost the game. When you play like that you deserve to lose. We got to play much better and we will.”

SIGN UP FOR PREMIUM NOW AND GET 30 DAYS FREE — CLICK HERE FOR MORE!!