With Selection Sunday a little over three weeks away Rutgers Basketball (16-9, 10-5 Big Ten)Is hoping that despite some early seasons struggles they will be headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row for the first time since the 1975 and 1976 seasons.
As of earlier today, Rutgers has been projected to make the NCAA tournament by 13 of 115 bracketologists per BracketMatrix.com. With some having the Scarlet Knights as high as a 11-seed and others as low as a 13-seed.
(Expect those numbers to change after they account for the recent game versus Illinois)
“Sure, they are. This is the best league in the country," Illinois coach said of Rutgers. "Go find another league in the country like this. Top to bottom, this league is phenomenal. That's a team that is capable of making a really good run. They're not a great shooting team. But beyond that, right now, they're just playing harder than 90% of the competition that I've seen on film. They're just playing their ass off.”
The Scarlet Knights are currently sitting at No. 75 overall in the NET Rankings, which is arguably the top used rankings system when determining NCAA Tournament teams. The system is defined as, "a results-oriented team-ranking metric that combines wins, scoring margin, efficiency and the location of games to churn out a daily hierarchy of the 353 basketball teams".
One of the biggest considerations in determining these NET rankings is each team's quadrant records, which is broken down by the team’s current ranking and where the game took place.
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
According to ESPN, Rutgers had the 50th toughest schedule in the nation and this has caused the Scarlet Knights to earn some big wins along with suffering some tough losses.
Here's a quick look at the team's top five wins and losses this season, based on the NET rankings.
LOOKING AHEAD
Now the big questions is, has Rutgers done enough this season to earn an at-large bid to make the NCAA Tournament??
Let's take a look at last year's last four teams in the 2021 NCAA Tournament to compare.
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