Rutgers made the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in 30 years. It won a game in the Big Dance for the first time in 38.
Guys like Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. returned to Piscataway for a chance to play in front of loud, sold out home crowds at Jersey Mike's Arena as well as to make another run at a Big Ten title, and to play in the NCAA Tournament. They, along with Caleb McConnell and others, wanted to make history and be culture changers.
They've been everything and then some.
The buzz and positivity in the preseason were high. Head coach Steve Pikiell went up and down the roster and raved about every player even saying this was the best team he ever had.
That stuck in the minds of fans, the players, and the media. Rutgers reportedly won scrimmages over Connecticut and Villanova.
But then Rutgers barely beat Lehigh in the season opener. The Scarlet Knights had to come back and then survive in overtime. Was that a sign of things to come or was it more about getting the kinks out?
It took a while for Rutgers to get going. A long while.
Rutgers followed that game with uninspriting wins over Merrimack and NJIT. It took its first loss agains a DePaul team that was expected to do much. It then suffered crushing losses to Lafayette at home and UMass on the road when it had a big lead in the second half. Lafayette is ranked 319th out 358 teams per the NET.
The three-game losing streak had everyone down on this team. Fans were saying Pikiell sucks and more.
Needing a solid bounce-back performance, Rutgers got just that against Clemson. The Scarlet Knights won the NCAA Tournament rematch in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, only to get blown out by Illinois days later in Champaign.
But then Rutgers was blown out of the water by Illinois, 86-51, in Champaign.
Rutgers, though, showed a glimpse of what this team could be with an upset over then-No. 1 Purdue in Piscataway. A loss to in-state rival Seton Hall took place thereafter, and then the Scarlet Knights didn't play another game until Dec. 30 as COVID and other illnesses went through the program.
It appeared the break in action was a blessing in disguise as Rutgers played its best basketball up to that point, putting together convincing wins over Main, Central Connecticut State, Michigan, and Nebraska. Rutgers was scoring at will and playing good defense.
The winning streak ended with a clunker at Penn State, but Rutgers found a way to win at Maryland for its first road victory of the season. A stout defensive performance against Iowa was next, and that win proved large.
But Rutgers couldn't get the stops it needed and fell to an undermanned Minnesota team on the road by three points. Maryland then won a rematch against the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers cut through a double-digit deficit to top Nebraska in Lincoln in the final game in January. Another opportuity to win an "easier" road game in the Big Ten came against Northwestern, but the Scarlet Knights couldn't fully climb out of a gigantic deficit against the Wildcats as they fell in overtime.
At this point, Bart Torvik's T-Rank Teamcast had Rutgers making the NCAA Tournament at just 0.2% odds. Rutgers was destined for the NIT if anything at all. After the defeat by Minnesota, a certain reporter (*cough* me) said time was running out if Rutgers was going to deliver on its goals it strived to obtain at the beginning of the year of surpassing last year's results.
Things didn't look good.
But the strong second half fight at Northwestern — even in the loss — was the medicine the Scarlet Knights appeared to need. Paul Mulcahy went off for 31 points that night, and then put together a stretch where he was unstoppable. He gave Rutgers another offensive thread alongside Baker, Harper Jr., and an emerging Clifford Omoruyi.
Rutgers then became the first team in NCAA history to knock-off four ranked teams in a row as an unranked team itself. Rutgers thumped Michigan State, willed itself to a win over Ohio State, did the unthinkable by winning at Wisconsin, and then beat Illinois by 11.
The Scarlet Knights dropped a 12-point game at Purdue in the ensuing contest, but they battled.
Without head coach Juwan Howard, a starter, and a key reserve, Michigan topped Rutgers in Ann Arbor. Rutgers had a shot at a Quad 1 road win. That weekend, Rutgers lost a home game against Wisconsin by five as the Badgers got a little revenge over the Scarlet Knights.
At this point, bracketologists had Rutgers out of the NCAA Tournament. Pikiell's crew had to win the last two games if it wanted to have a shot at going dancing.
Harper Jr. then delivered his second game-winning bucket of the season by hitting a 3-pointer with two seconds left to beat Indiana on the road at Assembly Hall, one of the toughest places to play in the league.
Sunday, on Senior Day, the Scarlet Knights held off a solid Penn State team that’s better than its record by one despite being up by 15 points a few times in the second half.
They grinded, and frankly, wouldn't have it any other way.
Rutgers is 77th in the NET as of this posting. No team has made the NCAA Tournament with a ranking that low.
But two things going for Rutgers is six wins against Quad 1 opponents and a 9-9 mark against Quad 1 and Quad 2 foes. The thing that has held Rutgers back this season were the losses earlier on, especially Lafayette. The selection committee looks at the entire body of work for the year, but the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, for example, takes into consideration what have you done for me lately. Just go back to Ohio State when Cardale Jones became the biggest story.
Why can't hoops be the same?
Rutgers played its best basketball when it mattered the most when the schedule got tougher. Rutgers played its best with its backs up against wall. Nobody thought that it would go on the tear and win over those ranked teams. Nobody.
Baker wasn't going down without a fight. Neither was Harper Jr. Neither was McConnell, the presumed Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Neither was Mulcahy or Omoruyi or others.
The season was done before February, and it looked to be done in November!
But nobody panicked in Piscataway inside the program. They knew that had work to do, and they pushed through.
It wasn't always pretty, but Rutgers made more history by finishing in fourth place in the Big Ten, its highest place in the standings ever since joining the conference in 2014. Rutgers' No. 4 seed for the Big Ten Tournament is easily the best its achieved, too.
The Scarlet Knights seeds for their past appearances included four-straight No. 14 seeds from 2015-18. It was then No. 12 in 2018 before a rise to No. 8 in 2020 before it got the No. 7 seed last year.
The double-bye gives Rutgers some extra rest so to speak, the chance to avoid another detrimental loss to a lower seed that could hurt its resume, and a chance on the flip side to knock-off a contender like Iowa again.
The path is going to be tough either way, but never bet against these guys. We all now know this.
Rutgers proved us all wrong.
The Scarlet Knights play fifth-seeded Iowa around 2:00 p.m. today.
"There's still so much more basketball left to be played," Harper Jr. "We're going to keep going out there and putting that Rutgers on our chest and represent this state."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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