Steve Pikiell, the pleasure is all ours. This is becoming fun. I would go as far to say this is rare air for me as a fan. When I was in school I was able to experience the 89 incredible turnaround and the 91 turnaround that led to dominating the A10 but neither of those teams were ranked and neither of those teams had expectations of beating top programs. This program has jumped another several levels when Pikiell arrived where RU was obnoxious kid brother that nipped at everyone's heels, Two years later we became that awkward teenager trying to crash the party. Last year, RU was attractive enough to be invited to the party. This year Rutgers is the party. Rutgers is now the program so attractive that people expect them to win and thus far they have delivered. Rutgers has calmly answered any questions about its legitimacy as a top 25 school. Unequivocally, Rutgers is a very very good basketball team. Instead of teeth gnashing and handwringing, we as a fanbase can be confident and dare I say boast with a little swagger.
Tonight's win was the fruition of all the little things that RU did both good and bad in its previous 3 games. Rutgers is better than Maryland. I have no doubt about that now. Maryland was better as a program last year when RU dominated them at the RAC. Sometimes better teams get beat. It could have gone that way in this game. RU looked good early then got into some really bad foul trouble but still persevered and went up 10. Yet things went south toward halftime and after a Maryland 3 to open the half all of a sudden RU was outscored 18-4 and seemingly not in sync at all. Offense really had no flow in that first half and while the defense generally played well, you could tell that the foul trouble was hampering Rutgers into play their game. It was evident about 5 minutes into the 2nd half that RU was going to strut its stuff, whether it was Myles just a monster on defense shutting the Terps offense down and grabbing board after board or Ron Harper just smoothly draining 3s and of course the forgotten one.....Geo Baker. Geo Baker IS the soul of the Rutgers basketball resurgence. Rutgers can win without him, they finished off Syracuse in impressive fashion but Geo's presence tonight was so important to cementing the win tonight. Obviously still gimpy a bit without the same lift or speed to defend, Geo put in a gritty performance tonight in a stunning 28 minutes, going for 15 points and nailing 3 treys and his shots almost all came in huge spots. Fittingly his last one, a 2 pointer. was the game winning dagger after Maryland cut it to 7, RU ran clock and put it in Geo's hands with the shot clock running down and there was no doubt that the shot was going to go in just like has done a dozen or more times from Geo, his patented step back jumper swished and the fat lady was singing. Geo came in early in the first half and immediately pay dividends. His first 3 came when RU was in the midst of a 4 minute scoring drought, His 2nd 3 sparked a RU lead into the opening minutes of the 2nd half, his last 3 answered a MD 3 that kept RU lead at 10. But Geo being out there makes RU so much harder to defend. It allows Ron to get enough spacing to just go off...and off he did. We are witnessing the making of a star. A legit contender for All Big 10 first team if not a longshot candidate for player of the year. Whenever our offense tended to stall, I saw Ron step up and make some great shots. Swishes for 3. The biggest of all was after a 3 minute RU scoring drought stuck at 60 with about 5:30 left. Pike called timeout to settle. I noted in the game thread, got to get Harper involved we got away from that with too much JY/Tez and what did Pike serve up.....Harper for 3....RU extended the lead to 12. A sick stat line but its becoming common....10-17 shooting, 27 points, 5-8 from 3, 5 boards, 2 blocks and just one turnover. Geo may be the soul but Harper is the dynamite that makes this program pop. While Harper is the dynamite, the spark may be what Myles Johnson brings on the defensive end. His incredible presence in the paint, along with Cliff in the first half as part as the twin towers and later just dominating in the 2nd half is what I really think generates the RU transition offense where they can run and keep their opponents on their heels and chasing them and the ball. When Myles is locked in on defense like he was tonight, Rutgers can possibly beat anyone in the country. Just a herculean rebounding haul tonight, 16 boards and 2 blocks, Myles was very efficient on the offensive end, 4-4 fg, hit BOTH his free throws and finished with 10 points. I am often hard on Myles because I feel sometimes he gets frustrated or is a little reserved when he easily has the ability to dominate. Tonight was truly one of his best performances as a Knight and is going to be such a confidence builder going into some matchup with guys like Cockburn and Garza. Jacob Young a whopping 35 minutes, had some moments where he was flustered but really shook that off as the game wore on and just brought it defensively and distributing the ball. Again an in control Jacob is one of the toughest guys to contain in the entire conference.
What is impressing me the most about this game and the previous 2 is that RU responses are so impressive. RU struggled somewhat to put away Hofstra but kept plugging along until they broke it open. Against Syracuse, RU found themselves in an ugly funk but once again just stuck to their business and all of a sudden the lead was double digits. Same thing again tonight except in each game that level of opponent got better and better. Everytime RU would get up 10-12, Maryland would hit a shot but there was panic in this game. RU calmly answered them every time. RU won exactly like a top 20 schools should win. Outplay your opponent and kill their spirit leading to a slow death. What a joy to see RU dunking back to back to finish a game. How many times have we seen a game on tv where our opponents were yucking it up jamming it in at the end. Mark Turgeon just said in the post game that Rutgers is having fun out there and no truer statement can be said. So much gratitude to Coach Pikiell and a bunch of under recruited players who took a chance to come to a moribund program. Was Geo Baker rated 414? There are right and wrong ways to build a program. Make no mistake Pikiell has done all the right things. Its not always been pretty and its been a long slog from Rutgers' salad days to RU now being the belle of the ball. The confidence, the moxie, the pluck, the swagger, there is so much to be proud about who Rutgers is and where we are headed.
Tonight's win was the fruition of all the little things that RU did both good and bad in its previous 3 games. Rutgers is better than Maryland. I have no doubt about that now. Maryland was better as a program last year when RU dominated them at the RAC. Sometimes better teams get beat. It could have gone that way in this game. RU looked good early then got into some really bad foul trouble but still persevered and went up 10. Yet things went south toward halftime and after a Maryland 3 to open the half all of a sudden RU was outscored 18-4 and seemingly not in sync at all. Offense really had no flow in that first half and while the defense generally played well, you could tell that the foul trouble was hampering Rutgers into play their game. It was evident about 5 minutes into the 2nd half that RU was going to strut its stuff, whether it was Myles just a monster on defense shutting the Terps offense down and grabbing board after board or Ron Harper just smoothly draining 3s and of course the forgotten one.....Geo Baker. Geo Baker IS the soul of the Rutgers basketball resurgence. Rutgers can win without him, they finished off Syracuse in impressive fashion but Geo's presence tonight was so important to cementing the win tonight. Obviously still gimpy a bit without the same lift or speed to defend, Geo put in a gritty performance tonight in a stunning 28 minutes, going for 15 points and nailing 3 treys and his shots almost all came in huge spots. Fittingly his last one, a 2 pointer. was the game winning dagger after Maryland cut it to 7, RU ran clock and put it in Geo's hands with the shot clock running down and there was no doubt that the shot was going to go in just like has done a dozen or more times from Geo, his patented step back jumper swished and the fat lady was singing. Geo came in early in the first half and immediately pay dividends. His first 3 came when RU was in the midst of a 4 minute scoring drought, His 2nd 3 sparked a RU lead into the opening minutes of the 2nd half, his last 3 answered a MD 3 that kept RU lead at 10. But Geo being out there makes RU so much harder to defend. It allows Ron to get enough spacing to just go off...and off he did. We are witnessing the making of a star. A legit contender for All Big 10 first team if not a longshot candidate for player of the year. Whenever our offense tended to stall, I saw Ron step up and make some great shots. Swishes for 3. The biggest of all was after a 3 minute RU scoring drought stuck at 60 with about 5:30 left. Pike called timeout to settle. I noted in the game thread, got to get Harper involved we got away from that with too much JY/Tez and what did Pike serve up.....Harper for 3....RU extended the lead to 12. A sick stat line but its becoming common....10-17 shooting, 27 points, 5-8 from 3, 5 boards, 2 blocks and just one turnover. Geo may be the soul but Harper is the dynamite that makes this program pop. While Harper is the dynamite, the spark may be what Myles Johnson brings on the defensive end. His incredible presence in the paint, along with Cliff in the first half as part as the twin towers and later just dominating in the 2nd half is what I really think generates the RU transition offense where they can run and keep their opponents on their heels and chasing them and the ball. When Myles is locked in on defense like he was tonight, Rutgers can possibly beat anyone in the country. Just a herculean rebounding haul tonight, 16 boards and 2 blocks, Myles was very efficient on the offensive end, 4-4 fg, hit BOTH his free throws and finished with 10 points. I am often hard on Myles because I feel sometimes he gets frustrated or is a little reserved when he easily has the ability to dominate. Tonight was truly one of his best performances as a Knight and is going to be such a confidence builder going into some matchup with guys like Cockburn and Garza. Jacob Young a whopping 35 minutes, had some moments where he was flustered but really shook that off as the game wore on and just brought it defensively and distributing the ball. Again an in control Jacob is one of the toughest guys to contain in the entire conference.
What is impressing me the most about this game and the previous 2 is that RU responses are so impressive. RU struggled somewhat to put away Hofstra but kept plugging along until they broke it open. Against Syracuse, RU found themselves in an ugly funk but once again just stuck to their business and all of a sudden the lead was double digits. Same thing again tonight except in each game that level of opponent got better and better. Everytime RU would get up 10-12, Maryland would hit a shot but there was panic in this game. RU calmly answered them every time. RU won exactly like a top 20 schools should win. Outplay your opponent and kill their spirit leading to a slow death. What a joy to see RU dunking back to back to finish a game. How many times have we seen a game on tv where our opponents were yucking it up jamming it in at the end. Mark Turgeon just said in the post game that Rutgers is having fun out there and no truer statement can be said. So much gratitude to Coach Pikiell and a bunch of under recruited players who took a chance to come to a moribund program. Was Geo Baker rated 414? There are right and wrong ways to build a program. Make no mistake Pikiell has done all the right things. Its not always been pretty and its been a long slog from Rutgers' salad days to RU now being the belle of the ball. The confidence, the moxie, the pluck, the swagger, there is so much to be proud about who Rutgers is and where we are headed.
