There may be ten games left in the regular season and a guaranteed game in the Big East Tournament but, for all intents and purposes, the 2008-2009 Rutgers basketball season came to an end last night for any hard core Scarlet Knights fans. Last weekend, I posted about the current three-game run Rutgers had against three of the other worst teams in the league—St. John’s, Seton Hall and DePaul—saying that the Knights had to win at least two of the three to maintain any interest for those R-U fans still paying attention to this dismal season. Well, two games into it and Fred Hill and Company are 0-2…the loss at St. John’s last Saturday and Thursday night’s tough 70-67 defeat at Seton Hall. So, forget about this Saturday night’s home game against DePaul or any of the other ten that R-U will play this season. There’s nothing left to see unless you want to continue watching the valiant effort by freshman guard Mike Rosario. But like I said over the weekend, if you want to use the excuse that part of the nine-game losing streak has come against six ranked teams, then you have to also say that the Scarlet Knights can’t even beat the other bottom-feeders in the league…and have to come to the conclusion that this season, collectively, is a big zero. It’s even conceivable that Rutgers can run the table and lose out. And, quite possibly, the lasting image of this lost season is the one where the Scarlet Knights get the ball back off a Seton Hall turnover with five seconds left and a chance to tie with a three but can’t even get a shot off. It’s been that kind of a season.
Archive for January, 2009
The Rutgers women’s basketball team has responded quite nicely, thank you, to being excluded from the A-P Top-25 for the first time in 37 weeks. The Scarlet Knights picked up their biggest win of the season Tuesday night with a 78-68 upset of number-17 Notre Dame in Big East action in South Bend, Indiana. It was a victory that puts R-U firmly on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, improving their overall record to 12-6 with ten games left in the regular season. And, individual kudos to junior guard Brittany Ray who continues her fine play with a game-high 26-points.
The Rutgers women’s basketball team’s streak of 37 straight weeks in the A-P Top-25 has come to an end, no thanks to Saturday night’s Big East loss at DePaul. Tonite, the 11-6 Scarlet Knights play a league game at number-17 and I think it’s at least time to float the idea that an NCAA Tournament berth is not a lock for Vivian Stringer and Company. R-U has a tough game tonite…has yet to play the home-and-home with number-one and undefeated UConn (which, by the way, looks unbeatable)…still has number- 21 Pittsburgh on the schedule and has to travel to number-eight Maryland next month. Lose all of those (which is not an unrealistic scenario) and you’re looking at a minimim eleven losses, not to mention a probable loss somewhere along the line in the Big East Tournament in Hartford. That’s a minimum of 12-losses….and an overall record of 17-12 which would put the Scarlet Knights on the bubble. Let’s see what happens begin tonite in South Bend.
The Rutgers men’s basketball team could be facing its “Waterloo” Thursday night at Seton Hall
Thursday night’s Rutgers basketball game at intra-state arch-rival Seton Hall has gotten a lot more pressurized for the Scarlet Knights…thankx or no thankx to Seton Hall’s surprising home win over number-12 Georgetown. First off, it gives the Pirates their first Big East victory of the season while R-U is 0-7 in league and on an eight-game losing streak overall. Secondly, it gives the Hall plenty of momentum…something that the Scarlet Knights don’t have whatsoever. Last but not least, this game is on ESPN. Another poor performance by Rutgers…particularly against their main nemesis on national tv…and it could the definitive end of the 2008-2009 season.
Another step toward oblivion
The Rutgers men’s basketball team now has moved to the precipice of the abyss. The Scarlet Knights have opened a critical juncture of the season—three straight games against the other worst teams in the Big East—with a 70-59 loss to St. John’s at the Garden. Based on what I said yesterday—that R-U had to win at least two of these three to keep alive any hopes of making the 2008-2009 season meaningless—the Knights now have left themselves with no wiggle room. They have to win at Seton Hall Thursday night AND at home to DePaul on Saturday to keep any sensible Scarlet Knight fan interested in this thus-far disastrous season. And don’t try to make any kind of a moral victory out of the St. John’s game just because Rutgers pulled to within two points late after falling behind by 15 midway thru the second half. The Knights shouldn’t have been in that predictament in the first place, a deficit built on poor defense and sloppy play on the offensive end. They were playing the Red Storm; not the UConn Huskies. So, the losing streak reaches eight in a row. If it gets to nine straight at the Prudential Center, you can turn out the lights on the 08-09 campaign.
If the Rutgers men’s basketball team intends to make anything of the 2008-2009 basketball team, it must begin NOW. The Scarlet Knights play the three other worst teams in the Big East in the next eight days beginning tonite…and they need to win a minimum of two out of three in order to keep any of their fans interested for the rest of the season. Winning all three would be ideal but I say two out of three because two of them are on the road, albeit at the Garden and the Prudential Center. Two out three LOSSES is unacceptable. The three teams—St. John’s, Seton Hall and DePaul—are a combined 1-17 in the Big East and 27-28 overall. Of course, Rutgers is no better at 0-6 in league, 9-10 overall and on a seven-game losing streak. But if R-U head coach Fred Hill feels inclined to cite the fact that the Scarlet Knights played six ranked teams in those seven games, then he must agree that it’s more than reasonable to expect his team to win a minimum of two of the next three games against three of the worst Division-One teams in the nation. Do that and people still will care about the rest of the season; lose two out of three and you can put a big “R-I-P’ on the tombstone of this dreadful 08-09 campaign.
The free fall continues
It just keeps getting worse for the Rutgers men’s basketball team. The Scarlet Knights appeared to get a bit of a break in their Big East “death march” thru ranked teams with a game Wednesday night at Cincinnati. A win was not out of the question…even on the road…particularly when R-U jumped out to a 16-point lead. But the defense allowed two critical three-point field goals in the waning moments of the first half that gave the Bearcats all the momentum heading into half-time…and the second-half turned out to be a disaster for the Knights. So the losing streak now is six games in a row…the league record is 0-5…the overall record now is down to five-hundred for the first time this season…and there’s no sure win in sight…certainly not with Louisville coming up this Saturday. But there is one small ray of light in “Rutgers basketball land.” The WOMEN broke their three-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 60-51 victory at Villanova…and for those of you keeping score at home…and big on irony…it’s R-U’s first basketball win of 2009….men or women…and the first since Bob Mulcahy stepped down as athletic director. Interesting…kind of.
Sure, the Rutgers men’s basketball team gave it the old college try last night and almost came all the way back against Marquette. But the Scarlet Knights shouldn’t get any points for allowing themselves to fall 21-points behind at the RAC early in the second half. There’s no way R-U should play that badly at home against anyone, particularly on defense. Yes, they got all the way to within two points at 73-71 with 37-seconds remaining but you’ve heard a million times the saying that a long comeback takes too much energy out of a team and that’s what happened last night. So, Fred Hill and Company now have lost four in a row with no real help in sight—home to number-eleven Syracuse Saturday night, a road game at Cincinnati next Wednesday, a home game against number-23 Louisville next Wednesday…and on and on. This could get ugly in a hurry.
There’s trouble in River City…or should I say Raritan River City. The Rutgers women’s basketball team’s meltdown home loss to Tennessee last Saturday was bad but it could have been considered an aberration. But then came Tuesday’s Big East-opening loss at Syracuse and now you have to say that Vivian Stringer and Company are in a free fall. As much as the Orange have improved over the past two years, there’s no way that R-U…a nationally-ranked team…should go up to the Carrier Dome and lose by 14-points. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the only consistent scoring threat on the Knights is junior guard Epiphany Prince and teams are really beginning to double and triple team her…particularly with senior center Kia Vaughn experiencing her annual early-season malaise. I know people are talking about the heralded freshmen playing more, but if Vaughn doesn’t get her act together sooner than later, it will be a long season for the R-U women.
Back to square one
During the holiday season, I talked a lot about wanting to see the Rutgers men’s basketball team show us something during this brutal three-game stretch against the top three teams in the nation. No one expected a victory in any of the games…but show us something. There were positive signs of competitiveness in the loss at number-one North Carolina…and the Scarlet Knights almost knocked off number-three Pittsburgh in the Big East opener at the RAC New Year’s Eve Day. But then came Saturday night up in Storrs, Connecticut…and we’re right back where we started from. R-U showed little life at Gampel Pavilion and get smacked by the number-two Huskies 80-49. Yes, some of that was UConn blowing off steam after losing to Georgetown in its league opener. BUT it appeared that…after a quick start…Rutgers came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to beat UConn on this given night and reverted to the form we have seen in so many games in recent years. So, it’s back to “square one” for Fred Hill and his Scarlet Knights. 9-6 overall…0-2 in league…and headed to a tough conference game Wednesday night against Marquette. Sorry to say but it looks like another long season in the Big East for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
