Rutgers has yet to become immersed in Big Ten play and already finds itself facing an uphill battle to postseason play. An 83-82 loss yesterday to Princeton dropped Rutgers to 7-5 on the season with one more out-of-conference game to play.
The loss to Princeton marked the second quad 3 loss of the year for the Scarlet Knights while the other came against Kennesaw State. Rutgers is also 6-4 against non-conference opponents with one contest remaining.
A home game against Columbia awaits on Dec 30 against a Lions team that is 10-1 and ranked No.99 in the NET, just 11 spots below Rutgers. The non-conference losses are already looming large for Rutgers.
“Everyone has the answers for non-conference schedule,” head coach Steve Pikiell said this week in an interview with Bruce Beck for Rutgers Athletics. “It’s hard to schedule. First of all, the other team’s gotta agree to it. You have to have an open date. You have to have play away play home on your slate so there are so many challenges that go into it. You just don’t make a phone call and it works.”
Rutgers made use of some games against weaker out-of-conference opponents with a 5-0 record against quad 4 competition. However, those victories are not going to sway any selection committee. But it may be premature to even talk about that possibility as Rutgers is 0-3 against Quad 1 opponents. Two wins over Quad 2 teams have come at the expense of Notre Dame and Penn State.
And when it comes to scheduling, Rutgers has failed to take advantage of the friendly confines of Jersey Mike’s Arena with a 1-4 mark on neutral courts. That all adds up to a must-win scenario for much of the regular season.
Rutgers does not have to win every game, but it can ill afford to keep mounting losses the way it has through the first 12 games of the season. If that is the case, the team could flirt with the same finish as last year’s team which ended with a 15-17 mark.
“Our schedule just gets harder and harder with great teams,” Pikiell said.
With future NBA lottery picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, preseason expectations were heightened and the current 12-game resumé has fallen tragically short of what most fans hoped to see.
Nevertheless, Pikiell is trying to sell the fan base on this team’s potential.
“It’s an exciting team. You don’t always know the results but we are exciting to watch. They are a great group of veteran guys with young guys. They’re exciting and fun to watch. As we keep growing here, the sky’s the limit.”
