Gone is the slick video introduction with the star freshmen posing together like conquering heroes. Gone are the NBA scouts who once flocked to Jersey Mike’s Arena to watch the teenagers play. Gone are the special T-shirts celebrating their presence on campus that once sold in the concourse.
Gone, of course, are Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. The first glimpse of life after that dynamic duo’s single season in Piscataway looked, well, an awful lot like life before it. Rutgers played a basketball game with a bunch of mostly unheralded players with something to prove, and the happiest man in New Jersey was the man coaching them.
Oh, to be clear, Steve Pikiell wasn’t tickled with his team’s performance in an 81-53 win over Rider. He was miffed that the undersized Broncs nearly matched the bigger Scarlet Knights in rebounding and thought his seven freshmen struggled with some opening night jitters.
But overall, Pikiell seems energized by the challenge of turning this collection of players — and all 13 of them saw minutes in the opener — into something that resembles his best teams at Rutgers. It won’t happen overnight, but the way Pikiell talks about the work, it sounds like his players need flashlights.
“We’ve come with a defensive mindset and a compete mindset,” Pikiell said. “We’ve done it in the dark, and I love that that’s the new normal.”
If you came to the New Jersey’s favorite trapezoid looking for some proof that this Rutgers team would exceed its low expectations this season, you headed back to the parking lot disappointed. Dominating a bad Rider team won’t quell the doubts that this roster can compete in the Big Ten, especially not with some stretches of basketball in the first half that made your eyes bleed.
But if you came looking for hope? You left with some of that. Tariq Francis, the transfer from NJIT, scored an efficient 20 points in his Rutgers debut. Dylan Grant, one of the few holdovers from last season, showed his athleticism and maturing game with a pair of dunks en route to 17 points. Jamichael Davis, the team’s most experienced player, provided steady ball handling and some tough defense.
There were also plenty of reasons for concern, most notably at center. Emmanuel Ogbole and Baye Fall, the two seven footers that this team will rely on in the middle, combined for one basket in nearly 23 minutes of court time — and that was a shot that Ogbole accidentally blocked into the Rutgers hoop for a Rider basket. Not optimal.
If the center position is a black hole against Rider, what hope do the Scarlet Knights have at the position in a month when No. 1 Purdue comes to town? There are some long nights ahead.
Before the season, Pikiell struck a defiant tone about the low expectations swirling around his program. “I know what the world is about now,” he said. “We’ve got to get back to the NCAA Tournament. I’m confident we can do that.”
It is a nice sentiment, but nobody should clear their calendar in March. This season is more about proof of concept. Pikiell needs to show people — including new athletic director Keli Zinn — that a team of blue-collar grinders can compete in a league of fully professional teams. He must show that he has four or five true building blocks that he can develop and retain as part of the program’s core.
This team needs to remind people in Piscataway why they fell in love with his teams — and, by extension, with him — in the first place. It wasn’t because of the NBA talent on the roster.
“We’ve got a lot of things to clean up, but this is a building block,” Grant said. “We’ll be better.”
A year ago, when Rutgers opened the season with Harper and Bailey sucking up all the oxygen in the gym, Grant only appeared in three games in the first two months of the season. Now, as a sophomore, he’ll be counted on to be the team’s best player. It’s a big ask.
Then again, at least he was a Big Ten player. Denis Badalau and Harun Zrno admitted that they didn’t watch much college basketball while playing professionally in Europe last season — which might be a blessing. Badalau started on Wednesday night and hit just one of 12 shots; Zrno played 11 minutes off the bench and scored seven points.
“For sure, we’re going to be better this year,” Zrno said at the team’s media day. “I don’t think — I know. This is a new era, a new opportunity."
Gone is the hype, the spotlight, the expectations. In its place is a program trying to remember how it found success before all of that. For the head coach, the challenge is a familiar — and welcome — one.
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