It was mid-January.
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The Rutgers men’s basketball team had suffered disappointing losses against Minnesota, Maryland, and Northwestern that were there for the taking. Even the Nebraska win didn’t go smoothly. The Scarlet Knights were staring at a February slate that featured five ranked games in a row at least and all Quad 1 games until the regular season finale.
The season practically looked over given the hole Rutgers had dug itself into.
But this group came together and has reeled-off three-straight victories over Top 25 teams for the first time in program history. Rutgers first thumped No. 13 Michigan State, 84-63, edged No. 16 Ohio State, 66-64, both at home, before notching a monumental road win against No. 14 Wisconsin, 73-65.
“I think it shows growth, toughness, and togetherness,” junior guard Paul Mulcahy said. “It’s something we’ve been working on. Guys are playing hard and for each other for 40 minutes. I’m proud of everybody.”
“We’re resilient. It wasn’t an easy game, but we responded to adversity well,” senior forward Ron Harper Jr. added. “We executed the game plan. We’ve played freely.”
Next up in the gauntlet is new No. 13-ranked Illinois at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway. The Illini ran away with an 86-51 win over Rutgers on Dec. 3 in Champaign, Ill. After that are more road tests at Purdue and Michigan before a home game versus Wisconsin to round out the month.
Rutgers sits in the upper half of the Big Ten standings and is right in the mix.
“We still have so much more to accomplish,” Harper Jr. said. “Like I tell these guys, every time we step on the court is a new opportunity. Right now we’re playing a lot of the teams in the upper half of the Big Ten and we like it that way. We like being the underdog. Illinois on Wednesday in the focus. Never too high, never too low. When everybody least expects it we like coming out on top. If we would have told people we’d be in this position after we lost to the teams we lost to at the beginning of the season they’d all laugh. We know who we are. We’re going to keep fighting.”
The teams Rutgers has lost include a killer to Lafayette, DePaul, and UMass. Rutgers also struggled early with the likes of Lehigh, Merrimack, and NJIT. This is a team that head coach Steve Pikeill called his “best ever” prior to the season, and now it is finally playing like it.
“I feel like we’ve had it in us the whole time,” Harper Jr. said. “We’ve hit bumps along the way. We want to create memories. Let’s be a part of history. Nobody expected us to win today. We’ve grown and gotten better. We’ll watch the film from this game and try to carry the momentum into Wednesday’s game.”
Two key factors in these recent wins have been good starts and the ability to finish games. Far too often this year Rutgers wouldn’t get going until it was too late in games such as Northwestern, both games against Maryland (lost one), Minnesota, Nebraska (won). The Scarlet Knights also had not been able to come out on top when the games were close late such as DePaul (three points), Lafayette (two points), Umass (two points), Minnesota (three points), and Northwestern (one point in overtime).
But Rutgers was able to surge ahead against Michigan State, surge ahead against Ohio State after being down eight with 3:48 to go, and surge ahead against Wisconsin when neither team went up by more than three points for the bulk of the game.
“The ball was just going in, and that’s what a lot of people consider a hot start, but defensively, we were connected,” Mulcahy said of this past Saturday’s win over Wisconsin. “We were taking good shots and getting down hill and attacking.
“It’s hard to win in the Big Ten. I’m just proud of the growth we’ve shown. It’s something we’ve thought we had in us. We have to build on it.”
“The preparation has been great,” Harper Jr. also said. “The starting five, we know we’ve dug ourselves into holes in games we have to start fast. It’s a 40-minute basketball game. You have to play all 40 minutes to win.”
Rutgers has been able to take these recent wins into the next game and carry the momentum. It’ll have to do the same on Wednesday and going forward. Right now Rutgers’ NET ranking sits at 81st with work to do.
“Winning is always nice,” Mulcahy said. “Guys are in better moods, but it’s important to stay level-headed and keep getting better and just focus on competing. …It goes both ways. We’re just focusing on what we can control. We’re focused on competing for 40 minutes.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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