did very well in the lat 90s to mid 2000s, its clear the level of drop by a good deal, when was the last time the program made the sweet 16?
we have only won ONE NCAA tourney game in 8 freaking years. We have not been to the Sweet 16 since 2009. Just telling you why they are not coming
It is simple - Rutgers stopped being a winner and was mediocre for quite a few years.
Folks like 2 things - winning (particularly winning big games) and a star to follow.
We lacked a star that captivated the fans, for the most part. We had some decent stars, but they were not dynamic and, well, they didn't seem to have a lot of personality.
And while our record wasn't awful, games were often a struggle and we (for years) have lost to the teams that you would expect we would lose to (in other words, we haven't pulled many upsets - compare to when attendance was better).
That said, I think some folks memory of attendance is a little rosier than it was. Rutgers should have had better attendance in the day.
And a complaint about the men's team - in the day - was that folks would rather attend a farily lousy men's team when Rutgers women were ranked in the top 10. Yeah, I get it that that's the way it is. I don't have to like it.