Rutgers WBB looking to solidify NCAA Tournament spot with win on Thursday

After starting out the year 17-4 and sitting pretty, the Rutgers women’s basketball team has gone through some tough times.

For one, legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer, who earned her 1,000th career victory earlier this season, is sitting out until after the Big Ten Tournament. Tim Eatman is the acting head coach for the time being.

Stringer has missed the last two games.

"As you can imagine this was not an easy decision, however, in consultation with my doctors, it is in my best interest to spend time to get healthy before returning to the day-to-day grind of coaching," Stringer said on Sunday in a release. "I would not be able to do this without the faith in my assistants Tim Eatman, Kelley Gibson and Nadine Domond to handle the program in my absence. I know our young ladies can finish the season strong playing Scarlet Knight basketball and I will rejoin the team as soon as I can. I would like to thank the many friends, fans and members of the Rutgers Athletics community that have sent me well wishes and I look forward to seeing you all soon."

Aside from being without Stringer, Rutgers has dismissed two players -- forward Caitlin Jenkins and starting point guard C.C. Cryor within the past week.

And after going 17-4, Rutgers has recorded a 2-4 record in the last six games, including dropping three in a row once the calendar turned to February against Minnesota, Maryland, and Ohio State. The latter two were at home. Rutgers also fell at Michigan, but it beat Indiana, the last game Stringer coached, and Wisconsin on Monday night.

The Scarlet Knights are currently 19-8 and 11-5 within the Big Ten.

“To me honest, I just want to make coach Stringer proud. I told the team about three days ago, ‘I show you that I love you when I have you prepared for the game.' So as long as I can work hard every day and every night to make sure that these kids are prepared for what we’ve got to get accomplished, and I do that the way coach Stringer would do it, I’m at peace,” Eatman said following the decisive 73-53 victory over the Badgers on Monday.

“I just want to make her happy, and make her proud. So that when she comes back, she’ll see a healthy program and be happy about what we’re trying to get get accomplished.”

Heading into Monday’s set of games, ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme had Rutgers as the No. 9 seed in the Albany Region. Collegesportsmadness had Rutgers as a No. 5 RealtimeRPI on Tuesday had Rutgers as a No. 7.

In order to solidify a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2014-15 season, Eatman said it’s all “preparation”.

“This program is built on execution. We have to execute and in order to execute, you have to know what to get better at. At the end of the day, it’s about preparation,” the coach said. “Are we going to be locked in on knowing who we have to guard and what their role is. At the end of the day, we have to be prepared. I always tell them we have to have more will to prepare than the will to win. If you’re willing to prepare, you’ll win basketball games.”

The three-game skid and losses in four of five before Wisconsin forced fans to draw comparisons of last year when the Scarlet Knights lost four straight and five times in six games in January and the first day of February. Rutgers also went 2-4 after that. Stringer turned down a NIT invitation with a 20-12 record.

Things aren’t as bad this time around -- Rutgers RPI is in the 20s compared to 40th last season on Selection Monday. It also defeated then-No. 4 Maryland on the road and No. 17 Michigan State at home.

“Coach Stringer talked to them about it and the ups and downs from last year. She talked to them about not letting last year and what happened creep into this year. At the end of the day, though, this year this team. Last year’s team is gone. We can’t be worried about what happened in the past. We have to just keep pushing forward.”

Against Wisconsin, Rutgers was prepared the utilized the “55 press”. It also shared the wealth.

Tekia Mack tallied 17 points and seven rebounds to lead the way for Rutgers, which was up by at most 25 points on the Badgers. Rutgers forced 24 turnovers and scored 30 points off of them. It also out-rebounded them, 41-30. Rutgers shot 43 percent from the floor and recorded 39 bench points. Ten players in total scored for the Scarlet Knights including Arella Guirantes, who added 13.

“When everybody is scoring and everybody is contributing, that’s Rutgers basketball,” Mack said. “At the beginning of the season when we were winning more, we were sharing the ball and we did that tonight.”

Rutgers has two more games to pad its resume against two bubble teams. The Scarlet Knights are currently third in the Big Ten and faces Minnesota on Thursday night at 6:30 before traveling to Ohio State to round out the regular season on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Thursday is also Senior Night.

“We play Thursday night and we play team that’s trying to get into the (NCAA) tournament like we are. If we want to get in, we have to beat them,” Eatman said. “We don’t have time to find a rhythm. When we walk on the court, we have to be about the business of getting the job done. We need everybody in Rutgers nation here on Thursday. It’s a big game for us.”

Rutgers needs one more regular season conference victory to tie the most Big Ten wins in a season since joining the league in 2014. Rutgers had 12 that season. The Scarlet Knights are also playing for their highest seed ever in the Big Ten Tournament and are 12-2 at the Rutgers Athletic Center this season and 44-5 over the past two campaigns.

Since 2003-03, Rutgers has gone 204-48 in Piscataway.

“We feed of the crowd’s energy. I know the crowd gets me hyped,” Mack added. “That’s the support that we need in over to prevail and get big wins over good teams like Minnesota coming up. We need a lot of people to come out so we can get this ‘W’ on senior night.”

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.