With the Rutgers Women's Basketball team's season just a day away, The Knight Report previews all aspects of the Scarlet Knights. Head coach Coquese Washington enters a key third season leading the program, and this year represents her best chance to take a step forward with some of the incoming and returning talent on the team.
The third and final part of the season preview looks into the team's schedule, including some new and familiar opponents. The Scarlet Knights will play 18 home games at Jersey Mike's Arena, and only one nonconference game away from home.
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NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE
The season starts against four relatively local mid-to-low-major opponents, and Rutgers should be favored in all four games against Manhattan, Cornell, NJIT, and Iona. The four teams rank 226th, 233rd, 303rd, and 314th in Bart Torvik's preseason metrics, while Rutgers checks in at 100.
For comparison, the Scarlet Knights' first two low-major opponents last season—Monmouth and Wagner—finished the season ranked 147th and 358th out of 360 teams, respectively.
The team's slate gets upped in difficulty following the first four games, as Rutgers returns the second half of a home-and-home against Virginia Tech, this one played in Blacksburg. Though the two teams matched up at Jersey Mike's Arena last season, this is not the same Hokie squad that won 84-59 eight days before Christmas.
Gone are head coach Kenny Brooks, point guard Georgia Amoore, and center Elizabeth Kitley. Brooks took the opening at Kentucky with Amoore following for her final collegiate season, and Kitley is now with the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces.
Virginia Tech has a new infrastructure in place. Megan Duffy replaces Brooks by way of Marquette, though five of the nine players from last year's team returns. One of those players returning players - former Michigan State Spartan Matilda Ekh - led all scorers in the Hokies' win in Piscataway last year. Rose Micheaux, the team's other senior, also started against Rutgers last year.
The Scarlet Knights likely won't be favored in this road matchup, as there is still a solid floor for the Hokies, ranked 57th in Bart Torvik's preseason metrics. Rutgers hung close for a bit in this matchup last year - the game was tied at 13 after a quarter - before a disastrous second quarter doomed the team. If they can stay competitive for a full 40 minutes, it will be a good step forward.
Following the trip to Blacksburg, the Scarlet Knights return home to face in-state foe Princeton. The Tigers lost leading scorer and passer Kaitlyn Chen to UConn, where she uses her COVID season of eligibility. Junior Madison St. Rose returns after an All-Ivy League Second Team nomination. She scored 17 points in Princeton's 66-55 win over the Scarlet Knights at Jadwin Gymnasium last season, finishing second to Chen's 19.
Princeton enters this season looking for its third straight Ivy League title and NCAA Tournament appearance, but without Chen, its ceiling is definitely lowered. There is still plenty of continuity, however, as the Tigers return all but three of their rotation players from last season.
The Scarlet Knights have another chance to be competitive in this game, as long as they are able to string together 40 minutes of play. The team's issue with slow starts plagued them once again against Princeton last season, as a late sprint to the finish made the score respectable in the end. This will likely be a close game at Jersey Mike's Arena against the in-state Tigers.
Rutgers keeps its homestand going, hosting its own Thanksgiving MTE - called the Battle on the Banks - at Jersey Mike's Arena. The first matchup against Marquette will likely be a true litmus test to the direction of the season. The team's rank very close in preseason metrics - Bart Torvik has the Golden Eagles two spots behind the Scarlet Knights at 102nd - and will be starting with their own new regime.
With Megan Duffy at Virgnia Tech, Cara Consuegra takes over in her place. She was an assistant at Marquette from 2004-2011 before becoming the head coach at Charlotte. She led a solid 13-year tenure before returning to Milwaukee to replace Duffy.
The Golden Eagles' top five scorers from last season's NCAA Tournament berth are gone, leaving Skylar Forbes and Lee Volker as the only players who averaged at least ten minutes per game returning. Consuegra brought in several transfers, so the Golden Eagles will likely still be in gelling mode before November ends. This is Rutgers' best chance to get a high-major nonconference win.
The second half of the MTE has the Scarlet Knights hosting Georgia Southern, ranked 259th preseason according to Bart Torvik. This should be another comfortable win.
After a December Big Ten matchup at Wisconsin (more on that later), the team's nonconference slate closes out with three more buy games against Fairleigh Dickinson, Wagner, and Lafayette, who rank 281st, 362nd, and 308th preseason. Rutgers played the latter two last season, winning by an average of 32 points.
Following the matchup against the Leopards, the Scarlet Knights get eight days off to prepare for the Big Ten gauntlet.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Rutgers' Big Ten slate kicks off in early December, as the team travels to Madison to take on Wisconsin on December 8th. Though the two teams are on a similar tier in the Big Ten pecking order, the Badgers came out on top in dominant fashion in both matchups last season, winning by an average of 15 points.
Both games had two things in common: a slow start and an inability to stop Wisconsin star forward Serah Williams on either side of the floor. If the Scarlet Knights can remedy both issues they will have a chance, but it will be tough to do on the road early in the season.
The schedule does not get any easier after Christmas break, as Rutgers faces off against three of the top 15 teams in Bart Torvik's preseason rankings in consecutive games.
First up is a home tilt against defending regular season champion No. 14 Ohio State. Though the Buckeyes underwent a lot of roster turnover in the offseason - including losing star guards Celeste Taylor and Jacy Sheldon - they retain wing Cotie McMahon and also brought in a solid transfer portal class. Kevin McGuff's squad should once again be among the Big Ten elite
Four days later is a ride down I-95 to take on No. 18 Maryland, another conference title contender. This game has some other storylines, as the Scarlet Knights will face off against Kaylene Smikle for the first time after she opted to transfer to the Terrapins after two seasons at Rutgers.
Smikle isn't the only piece the Scarlet Knights have to worry about, however. Head coach Brenda Frese overhauled the roster after a relatively "down" year, particularly in the transfer portal. New names include Rutgers Prep alum Christina Dalce, former Arkansas forward Saylor Poffenbarger, and former VCU guard Sarah Te-Biasu, who won Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. Star guard Shayanne Sellers still remains at the head of Maryland's attack, and the Terrapins should be a top-tier opponent early in January.
The Scarlet Knights then return home to face off against yet another title contender in No. 3 USC. Exactly one year to the day Caitlin Clark-Mania stormed into Piscataway, Trojans star sophomore JuJu Watkins will do the same at Jersey Mike's Arena. Lindsey Gottlieb's team is favored to win the conference in their first year, with pieces like Watkins, Kiki Iriafen from Stanford, and Talia von Oelhoffen from Oregon State.
It gets a little easier with four straight games against teams in the similar middle tier of the Big Ten, with Minnesota, No. 23 Nebraska, Michigan State, and Michigan up next. The Scarlet Knights should aim to win at least one game in this stretch, and anything more would be a nice bonus.
Up next is a nationally televised matchup on Fox Sports 1 against conference championship contender No. 5 UCLA, as another newcomer joins the Big Ten near the top of the sport.
Another winnable opportunity follows as Rutgers travels to Happy Valley to take on Penn State. Carolyn Kieger's squad plays a high-octane offensive and defensive style, but the Nittany Lions lost essentially its entire core, including star Makenna Marisa. The Scarlet Knights should be able to take both games from Penn State depending on how its new-look roster transitions during the year. The two also face off for Senior Day at Jersey Mike's Arena on March 2nd.
Three more winnable home games in a five-game stretch kicks off February, with Illinois, Purdue, and Northwestern coming to Piscataway with alternating road games at Indiana and Iowa.
Illinois disappointed in Shauna Greene's second year after a surprise NCAA Tournament berth in her first. That will be a tough game to win with many returning pieces for the Illini, but if Rutgers gets hot they could win it at home. Purdue and Northwestern will likely sit near the bottom of the Big Ten at around the same tier as Rutgers, so winning those games would be key to taking a step forward, especially after going 0-3 against the two teams last season.
No. 25 Indiana and Iowa should still contend for a top-ten finish in the conference, even without transcendent stars Caitlin Clark and Mackenzie Holmes. Also gone for the Hawkeyes is head coach Lisa Bluder, but Jan Jensen slots in seamlessly as Bluder's former associate head coach for her entire 24-year tenure. Her new star will be Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen, who could contend for the scoring title in Clark's place.
Late in February, the Scarlet Knights take on the West Coast trip, facing Oregon and Washington on the road in back-to-back games. The other two newcomers are both in similar spots, as they look to regain their formery glory in the Pac-12 - with now-WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum - but have fallen on harder times recently. Bart Torvik is surprisingly high on both - the Huskies rank 22nd, the Ducks 23rd - in their first years in the Big Ten, and they likely slot in at the middle of the pack.
It's nearly impossible to project how these teams will be impacted by traveling cross-country midweek, but even without factoring in the travel both teams should be in a better spot than Rutgers this season.
The Scarlet Knights will have a full week off before their final regular season matchup against the Nittany Lions.
Rutgers will have plenty of competition in a rugged Big Ten conference, and while the team may not take a huge leap in the standings, being competitive throughout the season is an important step forward. An easier nonconference schedule gives the team some more chances to stack up wins early in the year.
RECORD PREDICTION: 14-15 (5-13)
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