Blue Ribbon
Does anyone want to play basketball more this season than Rutgers? The Scarlet Knights want desperately to pick up where they had to leave off last year when they were one of the best stories in the land.
In four years, coach Steve Pikiell has remade Rutgers, a renovation that was Knights and day— the first winning season in 14 years, 20 wins for the first time in 37 years, nationally ranked for the first time in 41 seasons. Rutgers finished tied for fifth in the Big Ten, the top-rated conference in the land, earning the program’s most league victories in 29 years and securing an open round bye in the conference tournament that never was.
The Scarlet Knights were assured they would charge into the NCAA Tournament for the first since 1991. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
“We’ve come a long way,” Pikiell says. “We’re really excited, confident we can have a good season. Our guys had a really good summer despite all the obstacles and worries. This is new territory for us, preseason ranked, and there are new pressures, new obstacles, but I love these new obstacles. It’s a lot different than year one.”
Fresh off successfully making Stony Brook a regular invitee to the NCAA tournament, Pikiell moved On The Banks in 2016, and doubled the previous year’s victory total. More significantly, he began instilling a blue-collar culture in the Scarlet Knights. The team plays with a gritty determination, that classic New Jersey chip-on your-shoulder as they get in your face defensively and turn defense into exciting offense that rocks the RAC. The 8,000-seat “Trapezoid of Terror,” the Rutgers Athletic Center hosted a program-record 10 sell-outs as the Knights caught on.
No one won more home games than Rutgers—18, and four of them were double-digit wins over ranked opponents. “The experience we gained last year has set us up,” Pikiell says. “We’ve got a good group. I’ve finally got some older players. I’ve been young … when you rebuild a program, year one and two you’re figuring it out. You find the guys that want to be a part of it and who doesn’t. Year three you’re young again because you’re playing freshmen and sophomores. Now we’ve got seniors and juniors who have been around.”
Pikiell has a couple of key seniors in the backcourt, especially star guard Geo Baker (10.9 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.5 apg). The 6-4 playmaker Baker is typical of what Pikiell is preaching. He has started 79 games his first three seasons and has career averages of 11.3 points and 3.4 assists. He was third team All-Big Ten last year and honorable mention in 2018-19. He’ll move up again in 2020-21. “He just keeps getting better,” Pikiell says. “He wants the ball at the end of games. He’s a real tough matchup because he can create his own shot. His IQ is tremendous. I’ve played him so many minutes from day one it seems like he has been here forever, I know.”
Pikiell loves Baker’s leadership for the team, which provides a “calming influence,” and he notes the senior’s improvement hasn’t gone unnoticed. NBA scouts ask about him. “He has gone from being the 414th-ranked player coming out of high school and everyone said he couldn’t play at Rutgers, and now he’s being talked about by every guy at that next level,” Pikiell says.
Fifth-year senior Jacob Young (8.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg) came off the bench in 30 games last season. The Texas transfer got off to a slow start, perhaps trying to do too much too fast, but Young stepped up when Baker missed three games. The 6-2 guard averaged 15 points and four assists and shot 47 percent.
Rutgers beat Nebraska and won at Penn State and Young had got his groove back. A lefty, Young’s a tough matchup when he’s on, which wasn’t enough last year and is a big reason many consider him a key this season.
Defensively he can be a game changer. He was at his best against the Big Ten’s best backcourt stars, and his play at that end elevated the Knights. His quickness creates problems for foes at both ends. He was fourth on the team in scoring, and his steal rate of 3.4 percent in conference games led the Big Ten. He also bumped up his scoring average to 9.1 points in league games.
Rutgers’ leading scorer in conference play and overall was 6-6, 245-pound junior Ron Harper, Jr. (12.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg, .452 FG), as dynamic a scorer as the Knights have had under Pikiell, thus the back-to-back honorable mention all-conference honors for the son of the former five-time NBA champion. Harper should be in line for more accolades this season. “He’s the first guy I’ve had since I’ve been here that [other teams] have to figure out if they’re going to cover him with a guard or a big guy,” Pikiell says. “He’s a three-level scorer, which we haven’t had either. He’s an all-league caliber guy and a real hard match-up for people.” Harper was second on the team in rebounding and was at his best taking the ball off the defensive glass and starting the break. He has great vision, and when he’s on the offensive end, he can score inside, has inklings of his father’s great mid-range game and can also shoot the 3 (team-high 38 3s at .349). Harper can play big guard or small forward, and the Knights are loaded on the wings and come at opponents in waves.
Does anyone want to play basketball more this season than Rutgers? The Scarlet Knights want desperately to pick up where they had to leave off last year when they were one of the best stories in the land.
In four years, coach Steve Pikiell has remade Rutgers, a renovation that was Knights and day— the first winning season in 14 years, 20 wins for the first time in 37 years, nationally ranked for the first time in 41 seasons. Rutgers finished tied for fifth in the Big Ten, the top-rated conference in the land, earning the program’s most league victories in 29 years and securing an open round bye in the conference tournament that never was.
The Scarlet Knights were assured they would charge into the NCAA Tournament for the first since 1991. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
“We’ve come a long way,” Pikiell says. “We’re really excited, confident we can have a good season. Our guys had a really good summer despite all the obstacles and worries. This is new territory for us, preseason ranked, and there are new pressures, new obstacles, but I love these new obstacles. It’s a lot different than year one.”
Fresh off successfully making Stony Brook a regular invitee to the NCAA tournament, Pikiell moved On The Banks in 2016, and doubled the previous year’s victory total. More significantly, he began instilling a blue-collar culture in the Scarlet Knights. The team plays with a gritty determination, that classic New Jersey chip-on your-shoulder as they get in your face defensively and turn defense into exciting offense that rocks the RAC. The 8,000-seat “Trapezoid of Terror,” the Rutgers Athletic Center hosted a program-record 10 sell-outs as the Knights caught on.
No one won more home games than Rutgers—18, and four of them were double-digit wins over ranked opponents. “The experience we gained last year has set us up,” Pikiell says. “We’ve got a good group. I’ve finally got some older players. I’ve been young … when you rebuild a program, year one and two you’re figuring it out. You find the guys that want to be a part of it and who doesn’t. Year three you’re young again because you’re playing freshmen and sophomores. Now we’ve got seniors and juniors who have been around.”
Pikiell has a couple of key seniors in the backcourt, especially star guard Geo Baker (10.9 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.5 apg). The 6-4 playmaker Baker is typical of what Pikiell is preaching. He has started 79 games his first three seasons and has career averages of 11.3 points and 3.4 assists. He was third team All-Big Ten last year and honorable mention in 2018-19. He’ll move up again in 2020-21. “He just keeps getting better,” Pikiell says. “He wants the ball at the end of games. He’s a real tough matchup because he can create his own shot. His IQ is tremendous. I’ve played him so many minutes from day one it seems like he has been here forever, I know.”
Pikiell loves Baker’s leadership for the team, which provides a “calming influence,” and he notes the senior’s improvement hasn’t gone unnoticed. NBA scouts ask about him. “He has gone from being the 414th-ranked player coming out of high school and everyone said he couldn’t play at Rutgers, and now he’s being talked about by every guy at that next level,” Pikiell says.
Fifth-year senior Jacob Young (8.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg) came off the bench in 30 games last season. The Texas transfer got off to a slow start, perhaps trying to do too much too fast, but Young stepped up when Baker missed three games. The 6-2 guard averaged 15 points and four assists and shot 47 percent.
Rutgers beat Nebraska and won at Penn State and Young had got his groove back. A lefty, Young’s a tough matchup when he’s on, which wasn’t enough last year and is a big reason many consider him a key this season.
Defensively he can be a game changer. He was at his best against the Big Ten’s best backcourt stars, and his play at that end elevated the Knights. His quickness creates problems for foes at both ends. He was fourth on the team in scoring, and his steal rate of 3.4 percent in conference games led the Big Ten. He also bumped up his scoring average to 9.1 points in league games.
Rutgers’ leading scorer in conference play and overall was 6-6, 245-pound junior Ron Harper, Jr. (12.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg, .452 FG), as dynamic a scorer as the Knights have had under Pikiell, thus the back-to-back honorable mention all-conference honors for the son of the former five-time NBA champion. Harper should be in line for more accolades this season. “He’s the first guy I’ve had since I’ve been here that [other teams] have to figure out if they’re going to cover him with a guard or a big guy,” Pikiell says. “He’s a three-level scorer, which we haven’t had either. He’s an all-league caliber guy and a real hard match-up for people.” Harper was second on the team in rebounding and was at his best taking the ball off the defensive glass and starting the break. He has great vision, and when he’s on the offensive end, he can score inside, has inklings of his father’s great mid-range game and can also shoot the 3 (team-high 38 3s at .349). Harper can play big guard or small forward, and the Knights are loaded on the wings and come at opponents in waves.
