The 2008-2009 season has come to an end for the Rutgers women’s basketball team. The Scarlet Knights finish out the campaign at 21-13 after losing Sunday night to Purdue 67-61 in the NCAA Tournament’s Oklahoma City regional semi-finals. R-U came back to within two points late after falling behind by as many as 16-points in the opening half but the Boilermakers hit a big bucket with the shot clock running out with 46-seconds left to stem the tide. But it was a valiant effort by the Scarlet Knights, led by Brittany Ray’s 19-points. And it’s time to say goodbye to the Rutgers seniors, center Kia Vaughn and forward Heather Zurich. They helped the Scarlet Knights to four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights and one Final Four. We wish them well in the future. Returning for 09-10 is a nucleus including Ray, fellow guard Epiphany Prince, back-up center Rashidad Junaid, starting point guard Khadijah Rushdan and the Fab Four freshmen…not to mention the total recruiting class that head coach Vivian Stringer and her staff will finally put together. For now, the parting shot is to congratulate Rutgers for another solid NCAA Tournament season.
Archive for March, 2009
I said the Rutgers women’s basketball team would upset second-seeded Auburn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. I just didn’t expect the Scarlet Knights to do it by 28 points. What a performance at the RAC Monday night. It was vintage, old-time R-U women’s b-ball. Vivian Stringer and Company jumped out to leads of 9-0, 13-2 and 22-4 in knocking the S-E-C Tigers right out of the Big Dance…holding Auburn to a season-low 28-percent field goal shooting…holding the league’s Player of the Year DaWanna Bonner to 17-points, four below her season average. And, individually, it was a total team effort for the 21-12 Scarlet Knights. Junior guard Epiphany Prince had a game-high 27-points. And senior center Kia Vaughn and senior forward Heather Zurich scored 15 and 12 points respectively in their RAC finales. So, Rutgers moves on to the Oklahoma City regional semi-finals to take on six-seeded Purdue this coming Sunday at a time to be determined. The Boilermakers were almost as impressive Monday night, blowing out third-seeded North Carolina 85-70 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Off and running
Don’t even waste your breath talking about that horrible end game that the Rutgers women’s basketball team displayed on Saturday afternoon at the RAC. This is the NCAA Tournament…just survive and advance…no style points needed. The Scarlet Knights did what they had to to put together an 18-point lead midway thru the second half in dispatching a VCU team playing in its first-ever NCAA tourney game. Junior guard Epiphany Prince looked tournament ready with 26-points and senior center Kia Vaughn looks like she’s primed to take on second-seeded Auburn in the second round Monday night. The Tigers are coming off an impressive 85-49 win over Lehigh Saturday afternoon in their first NCAA tourney win in five years. SEC Player of the Year DeWanna Bonner looked as good as advertised with 26-points. And point guard Whitney Boddie put together a splend line—8-points, 6-rebounds, 8-assists and 3-blocks. But I’m picking Rutgers to upset the Tigers Monday night to move on to the regional semi-finals in Oklahoma City. First, I was impressed by the RAC crowd in the VCU game and I feel the hometown faithful will be a big advantage for the Scarlet Knights who will be taking on an Auburn team with limited tournament experience. You tend to forget that three of the R-U starters started in the NCAA Final Four two years ago and that can not be under-estimated. Second of all, I don’t feel the Tigers have an answer for Vaughn and if the Scarlet Knight guards find Kia early and often, I see Rutgers moving on to the Sweet Sixteen.
ON TO THE BIG DANCE
As expected, the Rutgers women’s basketball team is headed to its seventh straight NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights have received the number-seven seed in the Oklahoma City Regional and will host number-ten seed VCU in the opening round at the RAC on Saturday afternoon. I expect R-U to dispatch the Rams and move into Monday night’s second round to take on the winner of second-seeded Auburn vs. number-15 Lehigh. Obviously, the SEC’s Tigers will be prohibitive favorites to beat Lehigh…and I look for Rutgers to knock off Auburn for the right to go to the Oklahoma City regional semi-finals. The current host of talented Tigers have not won an NCAA Tournament game and will find the environment at the RAC tough to play in…not to mention having to play the Scarlet Knights who have been playing well as of late, led by the rejuvenated senior center Kia Vaughn.
The long Knightmare is over
The 2008-2009 season finally is over for the Rutgers men’s basketball team…thank goodness. Spare all the talk about the close losses…don’t bring up the ugly 45-42 Seniors’ Day win over a bad USF team. Just lock the door and walk away from what was one terrible Scarlet Knight basketball season. Yes, the play of freshmen Mike Rosario and Greg Echinique was promising on many nights. But the rest of this campaign was tortuous to watch. And there was plenty of disappointment to pass around. Underwhelming senior seasons for J-R Inman and Anthony Farmer. Underachieving by the likes of Hamady N’Diaye and Mike Coburn. A puzzling sophomore season for last year’s All-Big East rookie team member Corey Chandler that may lead to his transfer out of the program. And at the helm is third-year head coach Fred Hill who now has to wonder about his future under a new athletic director in Tim Pernetti. The easy part is to “file and forget” this excruciating season. The hard part is to figure out where do the Scarlet Knights go from here. More on that in a couple of days as we take some time to bury the bad memories of this just-completed season.
Congratulations to Mike Rosario
Kudos to Rutgers freshman guard Mike Rosario who has been voted onto the Big East’s All-Rookie team by the league’s head coaches. It’s a well-deserved honor even though Rosario has had a late season shooting swoon, partly because of a couple of nagging injuries. Rosario led Rutgers AND all league newcomers in scoring at 16.3 points a game. He also led the conference in foul shooting at .839.
DONE IN BY LOUISVILLE AGAIN
For the second straight season, the Rutgers women’s basketball team has been knocked out of the Big East Tournament quarterfinals by Louisville. The Scarlet Knights gave it a good shot Sunday night in Hartford but it was too much of the Cardinals’ all-league senior forward Angel McCoughtry, who scored 35-points including seven in the second overtime period. So Rutgers heads back home with a 19-12 record…18-12 in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee which does not recognize R-U’s win over Division-Three SUNY-Farmingdale. But as I said in my last post, the win over Seton Hall on Saturday in the opening round was all the Scarlet Knights had to do to nail down an NCAA At-Large berth. However, Vivian Stringer and Company will have to wait seven long days until next week’s Selection Monday to see that news become official.
I felt the Rutgers women’s basketball team needed one win in the Big East Tournament to lock up an NCAA Tournament at-large berth. Well, the Scarlet Knights got that victory Saturday evening in Hartford with a 79-45 blow-out win over Seton Hall in second-round play at the X-L Center. R-U now is 19-11…18-11 in the eyes of the selection committee which does not recognize the win over Division-Three SUNY Farmingdale. Now it’s on to Sunday evening’s quarterfinals against second-seeded and seventh-ranked Louisville…and it’s a classic case of seeking revenge since the Cardinals upset Rutgers in last year’s quarterfinals…not to mention earlier this season in Kentucky.
Yawn
In a game that set Big East basketball back about 15-years, Rutgers held on to win its second league game of the season…breaking an eight-game conference losing streak in the regular season finale, 45-42 at home over USF. Although it was nice to see seniors JR Inman, Anthony Farmer and Jaron Griffin go out on a winning note, this was one ugly basketball game featuring the 14th and 15th place teams in the 16-team Big East. Not much to write home about when a combined 87 points are scored by two teams that are a combined 20-41 on the season. What was more interesting was that freshman guard Mike Rosario, evidently bothered by a tweaked knee, was held scoreless for the first time in his young career…shooting oh-for-five in only eleven minutes. AND that sophomore guard Corey Chandler, playing for the first time since his transfer rumors, only got eleven minutes of playing time and was held scoreless on oh-for-three shooting. It certainly gives more ammunition to those in Rutgers nation who are betting that Chandler is out of here at the end of the season, which could be Tuesday night when the 15th-seeded Scarlet Knights take on ten-seed Notre Dame in the opening round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Rutgers will be a solid underdog against a Fighting Irish team that it lost to in South Bend, Indiana in a tight game last week.
The Rutgers women’s basketball team hasn’t even played a tournament game yet but the Scarlet Knights have caught their first break of the post-season. It turns out that R-U, the number-seven seed in the Big East Tournament in Hartford, gets number-15 seed Seton Hall in Saturday evening’s second-round game at the X-L Center instead of ten-seed Georgetown. That’s because the Pirates upset the Hoyas 70-45 in Friday evening’s opening round while the Scarlet Knights were resting with a bye. That means Rutgers plays a team that it beat handily on the road in South Orange instead of a team that it had to go into double overtime to beat at the RAC last month. Sometimes you need small breaks like that to go on a run in the post-season.
