Usually the Ledger fills the sports front page with tons of positive publicity for the RU programs.
Not so much today.
Eddie Jordan enters his third season as head coach of the Rutgers men's basketball program. (Photo by William Perlman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
By Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Rutgers basketball fans, the tormented few who have stuck with this program during this quarter century of irrelevance, are a special breed of people.
Are they patient? Put it this way: If one of them showed up in your backyard one night with a blanket and told you that he was going to wait for Halley's Comet to reappear, you would nod and bring him some snacks.
#######Rutgers celebrates 1975-76 basketball team#######
Rutgers honored its greatest season on Jan. 9, 2015, celebrating a 1975-76 team that featured current Scarlet Knights coach Eddie Jordan. (Video by Keith Sargeant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
They have waited, and waited, and waited, and — despite ample evidence telling them that their time and disposable income is far better used elsewhere — waited some more.
So it must have been quite a thrill for them to hear their head coach, in the middle of another hopeless season with a conference losing streak approaching historic levels, lash out at the fans and critics who are rightfully getting a little tired with the 20-point losses and a likely single-digit-win season.
"I'm sorry," Eddie Jordan said, laughing, when asked about the prospect of losing fans over the inability to win a single game in Big Ten play. "If that's the way they feel, I'm just sorry they feel that way. They just have to be more educated into what the real deal is.
"And if they understand what this conference is all about, what types of teams and players we're going against and the situation we're in with injuries and being a young team — if they don't understand that, then I don't need to read what their reaction is. I don't care about their reaction actually."
The amazing part? I'm not sure there has been a Rutgers coach since the bleak early days of Greg Schiano who has been afforded more patience. People are not delusional. They understand the awful situation that Jordan inherited in the aftermath of the Mike Rice fiasco. They get that this historically has been one of the hardest places in the country to win, and being thrust into a conference as deep as the Big Ten has made that even more difficult.
RELATED: Rutgers basketball is hopeless under Eddie Jordan
Can Rutgers risk another winter with scores like 107-57 scrolling across America's flat screens?
And I don't get the sense that fans are wondering why the Scarlet Knights aren't competing for the NCAA Tournament, either. They want to know why Rutgers isn't competing at all for the most part ...and, sorry, a triple overtime loss to a bad Illinois team is not some monumental building block.
Memo to Eddie: You've lost 19 games by 20 points or more in three seasons. That means, more than 22 percent of the time it takes the court, your team has had its doors blown off. You've lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, to William & Mary, to St. Peter's and St. Francis (NY).
It's time for Rutgers fans to open their checkbooks A $100 million campaign has been launched to bring Rutgers facilities up to Big Ten standards, but it won't work unless Rutgers boosters give like their Big Ten counterparts.
You should be thankful for every last fan who bothers to find a seat in the Rutgers Athletic Center on Saturday when Ohio State comes to town. That's what the "real deal" is with this program right now, and Rutgers fans are certainly "educated" enough to know what 6-18 means.
It means, despite having a wonderful freshman named Corey Sanders in the backcourt, that this program is nowhere close to competing in its new conference. Yes, the Scarlet Knights have had awful luck with injuries, but where would this team be if it were completely healthy? One league win? Two?
Yes, Jordan is right: It is hard to win in the Big Ten when you've got a 6-foot-2 guard playing power forward. But he can't just blame bad luck, not when his own poor recruiting and decision to go into the season with only 11 scholarship players available has contributed to this team's depth issues.
"There's always patience in June, July and August," Jordan said. "People say it's a process, it's going to take 4-5 years. In December and January people say what the heck is going on, and they forget about what we said in June, July and August."
PLUS: Why radio voice Chris Carlin gave to the $100m fund
Carlin knows what the Scarlet Knights are up against in the Big Ten after traveling with the football and basketball teams.
Well, the problem is, this is Year 3. It would be easier to accept another lost season if there was any real hope for a significant step forward in 2016-17, but there's just no evidence that's going to happen.
New athletic director Patrick Hobbs is asking fans to invest in a $100 million project to improve facilities, and now the Rutgers basketball coach is telling them he "doesn't give a crap" if people are tired of watching this team descend further into irrelevance with each passing year.
Rutgers fans are patient. This is undeniable given what they've endured the past quarter century. But even they have their limits.
http://www.nj.com/rutgersbasketball...ut_of_his_mind_politi.html#incart_river_index
Not so much today.
Eddie Jordan enters his third season as head coach of the Rutgers men's basketball program. (Photo by William Perlman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
By Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Rutgers basketball fans, the tormented few who have stuck with this program during this quarter century of irrelevance, are a special breed of people.
Are they patient? Put it this way: If one of them showed up in your backyard one night with a blanket and told you that he was going to wait for Halley's Comet to reappear, you would nod and bring him some snacks.
#######Rutgers celebrates 1975-76 basketball team#######
Rutgers honored its greatest season on Jan. 9, 2015, celebrating a 1975-76 team that featured current Scarlet Knights coach Eddie Jordan. (Video by Keith Sargeant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
They have waited, and waited, and waited, and — despite ample evidence telling them that their time and disposable income is far better used elsewhere — waited some more.
So it must have been quite a thrill for them to hear their head coach, in the middle of another hopeless season with a conference losing streak approaching historic levels, lash out at the fans and critics who are rightfully getting a little tired with the 20-point losses and a likely single-digit-win season.
"I'm sorry," Eddie Jordan said, laughing, when asked about the prospect of losing fans over the inability to win a single game in Big Ten play. "If that's the way they feel, I'm just sorry they feel that way. They just have to be more educated into what the real deal is.
"And if they understand what this conference is all about, what types of teams and players we're going against and the situation we're in with injuries and being a young team — if they don't understand that, then I don't need to read what their reaction is. I don't care about their reaction actually."
The amazing part? I'm not sure there has been a Rutgers coach since the bleak early days of Greg Schiano who has been afforded more patience. People are not delusional. They understand the awful situation that Jordan inherited in the aftermath of the Mike Rice fiasco. They get that this historically has been one of the hardest places in the country to win, and being thrust into a conference as deep as the Big Ten has made that even more difficult.
RELATED: Rutgers basketball is hopeless under Eddie Jordan
Can Rutgers risk another winter with scores like 107-57 scrolling across America's flat screens?
And I don't get the sense that fans are wondering why the Scarlet Knights aren't competing for the NCAA Tournament, either. They want to know why Rutgers isn't competing at all for the most part ...and, sorry, a triple overtime loss to a bad Illinois team is not some monumental building block.
Memo to Eddie: You've lost 19 games by 20 points or more in three seasons. That means, more than 22 percent of the time it takes the court, your team has had its doors blown off. You've lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, to William & Mary, to St. Peter's and St. Francis (NY).
It's time for Rutgers fans to open their checkbooks A $100 million campaign has been launched to bring Rutgers facilities up to Big Ten standards, but it won't work unless Rutgers boosters give like their Big Ten counterparts.
You should be thankful for every last fan who bothers to find a seat in the Rutgers Athletic Center on Saturday when Ohio State comes to town. That's what the "real deal" is with this program right now, and Rutgers fans are certainly "educated" enough to know what 6-18 means.
It means, despite having a wonderful freshman named Corey Sanders in the backcourt, that this program is nowhere close to competing in its new conference. Yes, the Scarlet Knights have had awful luck with injuries, but where would this team be if it were completely healthy? One league win? Two?
Yes, Jordan is right: It is hard to win in the Big Ten when you've got a 6-foot-2 guard playing power forward. But he can't just blame bad luck, not when his own poor recruiting and decision to go into the season with only 11 scholarship players available has contributed to this team's depth issues.
"There's always patience in June, July and August," Jordan said. "People say it's a process, it's going to take 4-5 years. In December and January people say what the heck is going on, and they forget about what we said in June, July and August."
PLUS: Why radio voice Chris Carlin gave to the $100m fund
Carlin knows what the Scarlet Knights are up against in the Big Ten after traveling with the football and basketball teams.
Well, the problem is, this is Year 3. It would be easier to accept another lost season if there was any real hope for a significant step forward in 2016-17, but there's just no evidence that's going to happen.
New athletic director Patrick Hobbs is asking fans to invest in a $100 million project to improve facilities, and now the Rutgers basketball coach is telling them he "doesn't give a crap" if people are tired of watching this team descend further into irrelevance with each passing year.
Rutgers fans are patient. This is undeniable given what they've endured the past quarter century. But even they have their limits.
http://www.nj.com/rutgersbasketball...ut_of_his_mind_politi.html#incart_river_index
