It was December.
The Rutgers men’s basketball team had just beaten Wisconsin on its home floor after a competitive road game at Michigan State, which was ranked and thought of as the best team in the Big Ten at the time.
Then the huge 20-point rivalry win came against Seton Hall in the Garden State Hardwood Classic. Fans of the Scarlet Knights were riding high as Rutgers kept winning. It topped Nebraska for an important road win as it jumped out to a big lead and never relinquished it.
In front of a sold-out crowd, the Scarlet Knights defeated Penn State by 11 thanks to a second half double digit comeback. Rutgers was taking the Big Ten by storm.
After a close, tough loss on the road against a physical team in Illinois, Rutgers came back to the RAC and kept plugging along. Indiana and Minnesota were both wins. Rutgers, at this point, was three games over .500 in conference play since the late 90s and was 13-0 at home. The “Trapezoid of Terror” was where opposing teams go to die.
The Scarlet Knights suffered a high-scoring setback at Iowa after erasing a 10-point deficit to take a lead with 2:25 to go before falling. They then lost in New York City at Madison Square Garden to Michigan and in College Park against Maryland, but they showed grit by coming back.
Lowly Northwestern was up next at the RAC, but the Wildcats were unfazed and built an 18-point lead, but Rutgers, which was ranked for the first time in 41 years in late January, battled back as Geo Baker came up clutch and Rutgers won in overtime.
Rutgers then hit the road to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. It fell, 72-66, as the road woes continued. Rutgers went 6-2 in its early non-conference schedule, but the two losses were away from its home court -- at Pittsburgh and in Canada against St. Bonaventure. Up to this point, only the win against Nebraska came away from Piscataway.
That still remains the same as the Scarlet Knights are 1-10 when not playing at the RAC as they picked up recent losses to Wisconsin and a heartbreaker at Penn State coming off of a win against Illinois in a rematch at home and another defeat at the hands of an improving Michigan squad.
Coming into the season, many fans were thinking, or at the very least, hoping Rutgers was playing in the postseason. In January, those people, and outsiders, were talking about the NCAA Tournament. Could Rutgers be going dancing for the first time since 1991? Despite the 1-10 away record, Rutgers is 18-11 overall (9-9 in the Big Ten) and 17-1 at home.
Bracketologists are still penciling Rutgers, which has a NET ranking at No. 34, a KenPom ranking at No. 32, an ESPN BPI ranking at No. 35, and a Sagarin rating ranking at No. 44 in the tournament right now. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Rutgers as a No. 11 seed in his latest projections from today, March 2. He does list the Scarlet Knights on the bubble, however.
CBS’ Jerry Palm lists Rutgers as one of his “First Four Out” teams, while NBC Sports has Rutgers as a No. 10 seed. Both of those predictions are from Feb. 28.
Head coach Steve Pikiell and the Scarlet Knights have two games remaining -- at home on Tuesday night against No. 9 Maryland and on the road at Purdue on Saturday afternoon. If they win against the Terrapins then they are likely in. But lose, and you put yourself in a must-win position at 2:00 p.m. against the Boilermakers, who are 11-4 on their home court this season.
There’s still the Big Ten Tournament ahead where Rutgers can earn victories, but recording a win or two in these final games is ideal.
Pikiell has always said she enjoys the grind. Well, he got it. In the preseason, he and the team said they wanted to go dancing and the opportunity is right in front of them.
The Rutgers women’s basketball team, which is 21-8 overall and 11-7 in conference, solidified a strong fifth seed in the Big Ten Tournament and penned itself into the NCAA Women’s Basketball NCAA Tournament with a key 78-74 home victory Sunday versus No. 18 Iowa, a team it hadn’t beaten since 2006.
The men have a chance to do the same against Maryland and Purdue.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
