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Ron Harper Jr. wasn’t even playing that December day in the RAC two years ago. Yet he felt the heat.
Harper, then a Rutgers commit from Franklin Lakes, was in the stands when the Scarlet Knights rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final five-plus minutes to shock a senior-laden Seton Hall squad. He got a taste of the rivalry at that time without even playing in it.
"It was the most intense basketball game I've ever been to," he said.
I know the feeling.
I covered my first Seton Hall-Rutgers game in February 2003, but it wasn’t until a year later that I really got what it was all about when I heard the two student sections at the old Continental Arena yelling derogatory chants at one another, 90-plus minutes before the scheduled tipoff.
Here are some of my favorite memories, positive and negative for The Hall against Rutgers:
February 2004: Seton Hall 85, Rutgers 58
The aforementioned game in which the fans were trash-talking even before the players was uninteresting on the court, but fascinating afterward. Rutgers guard Ricky Shields called it “a lucky-ass win” despite the margin, and coach Gary Waters insisted that all Seton Hall had done was “hold serve.” How quotable was Waters as opposed to then-Seton Hall coach Louis Orr? You’d have thought the interview room had been quarantined the way media members ran out of there, following Waters down the hall at Continental in hopes of more bon mots.
March 2004: Seton Hall 66, Rutgers 64
It was much closer at the RAC, as Seton Hall essentially punched its ticket to the NCAAs for the first time in four years and pretty much eliminated RU. The Pirates had bounced back from being routed by UConn on Big Monday, and Orr lauded his team’s resiliency, noting how they had beaten Providence on the road after a loss. Only problem was Seton Hall was coming off a win in its previous game prior to PC, something Orr realized when he saw me shaking my head “no.” Orr smiled and said, “I need help sometimes.”
February 2005: Rutgers 62, Seton Hall 61 (OT)
In a lost season, it wasn’t as devastating as the foul on Gerald Greene, of course, but Donald Copeland never touched Quincy Douby, whose foul shot made the difference. Official Les Jones, who made the phantom call, went on to work Duke-Carolina the next night. I still remember the incredulous look on Cope’s face and later serving as the pool reporter and speaking to lead official Tim Higgins. Unlike Jim Burr’s “It wasn’t a great head butt” comment of a few years later, Higgins said nothing interesting, but still looked strange in civilian clothes. I guess I thought these guys wore striped shirts in their normal lives.
February 2012: Rutgers 77, Seton Hall 72 (OT)
Seton Hall again got hosed in overtime, although this time the stakes were a lot higher. Jerome Seagears deserved an Emmy for his flop off a Herb Pope screen, fouling out Pope in OT and turning the momentum in favor of the Scarlet Knights. Coming four days after a virtuoso performance by senior leader Jordan Theodore in a victory over Georgetown, the loss helped deny Theodore the NCAA tournament berth he deserved. Perhaps it was karma, considering Pope had drained a key trey in the earlier meeting after not being ejected for that not-so-great head butt.
December 2015: Seton Hall 84, Rutgers 55
The third of four consecutive victories for the Pirates in the post-Big East era of the rivalry already was a blowout in the first half and quickly became an afterthought for many media members when news broke that Scarlet Knights athletic director Pat Hobbs had hired Chris Ash to be Rutgers’ new football coach. Hobbs had hired Kevin Willard during his tenure as Seton Hall’s interim AD, but this appointment was far less successful. Ash, a good man, was not at all a good fit, so this was a very bad day for Rutgers.
Ron Harper Jr. wasn’t even playing that December day in the RAC two years ago. Yet he felt the heat.
Harper, then a Rutgers commit from Franklin Lakes, was in the stands when the Scarlet Knights rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final five-plus minutes to shock a senior-laden Seton Hall squad. He got a taste of the rivalry at that time without even playing in it.
"It was the most intense basketball game I've ever been to," he said.
I know the feeling.
I covered my first Seton Hall-Rutgers game in February 2003, but it wasn’t until a year later that I really got what it was all about when I heard the two student sections at the old Continental Arena yelling derogatory chants at one another, 90-plus minutes before the scheduled tipoff.
Here are some of my favorite memories, positive and negative for The Hall against Rutgers:
February 2004: Seton Hall 85, Rutgers 58
The aforementioned game in which the fans were trash-talking even before the players was uninteresting on the court, but fascinating afterward. Rutgers guard Ricky Shields called it “a lucky-ass win” despite the margin, and coach Gary Waters insisted that all Seton Hall had done was “hold serve.” How quotable was Waters as opposed to then-Seton Hall coach Louis Orr? You’d have thought the interview room had been quarantined the way media members ran out of there, following Waters down the hall at Continental in hopes of more bon mots.
March 2004: Seton Hall 66, Rutgers 64
It was much closer at the RAC, as Seton Hall essentially punched its ticket to the NCAAs for the first time in four years and pretty much eliminated RU. The Pirates had bounced back from being routed by UConn on Big Monday, and Orr lauded his team’s resiliency, noting how they had beaten Providence on the road after a loss. Only problem was Seton Hall was coming off a win in its previous game prior to PC, something Orr realized when he saw me shaking my head “no.” Orr smiled and said, “I need help sometimes.”
February 2005: Rutgers 62, Seton Hall 61 (OT)
In a lost season, it wasn’t as devastating as the foul on Gerald Greene, of course, but Donald Copeland never touched Quincy Douby, whose foul shot made the difference. Official Les Jones, who made the phantom call, went on to work Duke-Carolina the next night. I still remember the incredulous look on Cope’s face and later serving as the pool reporter and speaking to lead official Tim Higgins. Unlike Jim Burr’s “It wasn’t a great head butt” comment of a few years later, Higgins said nothing interesting, but still looked strange in civilian clothes. I guess I thought these guys wore striped shirts in their normal lives.
February 2012: Rutgers 77, Seton Hall 72 (OT)
Seton Hall again got hosed in overtime, although this time the stakes were a lot higher. Jerome Seagears deserved an Emmy for his flop off a Herb Pope screen, fouling out Pope in OT and turning the momentum in favor of the Scarlet Knights. Coming four days after a virtuoso performance by senior leader Jordan Theodore in a victory over Georgetown, the loss helped deny Theodore the NCAA tournament berth he deserved. Perhaps it was karma, considering Pope had drained a key trey in the earlier meeting after not being ejected for that not-so-great head butt.
December 2015: Seton Hall 84, Rutgers 55
The third of four consecutive victories for the Pirates in the post-Big East era of the rivalry already was a blowout in the first half and quickly became an afterthought for many media members when news broke that Scarlet Knights athletic director Pat Hobbs had hired Chris Ash to be Rutgers’ new football coach. Hobbs had hired Kevin Willard during his tenure as Seton Hall’s interim AD, but this appointment was far less successful. Ash, a good man, was not at all a good fit, so this was a very bad day for Rutgers.
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