Well there's ALWAYS a down side for some fans.
Basketball Rutgers Basketball to participate in 2026 College Basketball Crown
- Thread starter Richie O
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Men’s Basketball Selected to Compete in 2026 College Basketball Crown
Men’s Basketball Selected to Compete in 2026 College Basketball Crown - Rutgers University Athletics
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball has been selected to compete in the 2026 College Basketball Crown, a postseason tournament featuring the top team...
The Crown is obligated to extend invitations to the top 2 rated teams in the 3 affiliated conferences. If declined - they don’t have to go down the line and keep asking teams from the affiliated conference until 2 accept, correct?
Taking the BE as an example - SHU and Providence declined. The Crown chose to invite Creighton and they accepted but they didn’t have to. They didn’t select a second BE team and I highly doubt that’s because every one of the remaining teams in the conference said no. 16-16 DePaul participated last year. I highly doubt they were asked again.
In the BIG, we know Indiana declined. Washington’s situation was complicated with Steinbach prepping for the NBA and Washington would be a shell of what they were without him. I’m not sure how that works and if the Crown still had to offer a bid to a team that would be missing their clear and away best player. Regardless, Minn accepted a bid so we know for sure 2 teams were definitely offered so the Crown clearly was not obligated to offer RU or any of the other teams some speculating had to turn down an offer before us.
Taking the BE as an example - SHU and Providence declined. The Crown chose to invite Creighton and they accepted but they didn’t have to. They didn’t select a second BE team and I highly doubt that’s because every one of the remaining teams in the conference said no. 16-16 DePaul participated last year. I highly doubt they were asked again.
In the BIG, we know Indiana declined. Washington’s situation was complicated with Steinbach prepping for the NBA and Washington would be a shell of what they were without him. I’m not sure how that works and if the Crown still had to offer a bid to a team that would be missing their clear and away best player. Regardless, Minn accepted a bid so we know for sure 2 teams were definitely offered so the Crown clearly was not obligated to offer RU or any of the other teams some speculating had to turn down an offer before us.
Interesting teams in the Crown. The Nets for these teams ;
1) Oklahoma 48 and 19-15;
2) Baylor 50 and 15-16 ;
3) West Virginia 59 and 18-14:
4) Stanford 61 and 20-12;
5) Colorado 79 and 17-15;
6) Minnesota 81 and 15-17:
7) Creighton 83 and 15-17;
8) Rutgers 134 and 14-19. .
4 teams with losing records. 3 Big 12, 2 Big 10 , 1 Sec; 1 ACC and 1 Big East.
Good opportunity to play more games and since the players voted to play that I think is a good sign as maybe more guys will be retained so Pike will have to get 3-4 guys on the portal not 8-10 guys. Costs are covered and games played April 2, hopefully the 4th and the 5th and done before portal opens on April 7. So a Thursday, Saturday , Sunday schedule , Saturday conflicting with Final Four But Thursday and Sunday not conflicting .Playing teams above them in the Net but some with losing records. Expect competitive games.
1) Oklahoma 48 and 19-15;
2) Baylor 50 and 15-16 ;
3) West Virginia 59 and 18-14:
4) Stanford 61 and 20-12;
5) Colorado 79 and 17-15;
6) Minnesota 81 and 15-17:
7) Creighton 83 and 15-17;
8) Rutgers 134 and 14-19. .
4 teams with losing records. 3 Big 12, 2 Big 10 , 1 Sec; 1 ACC and 1 Big East.
Good opportunity to play more games and since the players voted to play that I think is a good sign as maybe more guys will be retained so Pike will have to get 3-4 guys on the portal not 8-10 guys. Costs are covered and games played April 2, hopefully the 4th and the 5th and done before portal opens on April 7. So a Thursday, Saturday , Sunday schedule , Saturday conflicting with Final Four But Thursday and Sunday not conflicting .Playing teams above them in the Net but some with losing records. Expect competitive games.
So sometime between April 3rd and April 6th Pike and the coaching staff arrives home in NJ. If the portal open April 7th there isn't a lot of time to get ready for 1st day of free agency
Maybe I am wrong, but the way Pike wants his program to look there is value in taking hours of time and looking at tape, finding long players, that are willing defenders and have motors.
Everyone is talking about how our top 5 players should be making X and who we should be going for. I think there is value in backfiling the roster with the right player that won't cost much or potentially anything.
I am also certain that the coaching staff hasn't been doing this.
Maybe I am wrong, but the way Pike wants his program to look there is value in taking hours of time and looking at tape, finding long players, that are willing defenders and have motors.
Everyone is talking about how our top 5 players should be making X and who we should be going for. I think there is value in backfiling the roster with the right player that won't cost much or potentially anything.
I am also certain that the coaching staff hasn't been doing this.
The potential guys that are anticipated to enter the portal has been studied for a month. Sullivan and the staff have identified their targets. Going to the Crown is not going to affect that . The need for a center , power forward , 3 and D wing type is well known. Not sure we can get a guard or need one if Francis , Lino , Powers, or Zrno are returning and Jones and Wooten are coming in next year and if they are not then you need a high level guard that will cost $$$$.
But it's here this year and Rutgers is in it.
So enjoy it, while you can.
I'll enjoy it for as long as RU is playing, then it can go away
Quarterfinals (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
- G1: Oklahoma vs. Colorado (April 1, 8 p.m. ET, FS1)
- G2: Baylor vs. Minnesota (April 1, 10:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
- G3: Stanford vs. West Virginia (April 2, 8 p.m. ET, FS1)
- G4: Rutgers vs. Creighton (April 2, 10:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
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The hand wringing and twisting of facts to judge a professional head coach with years of experience that he is doing it wrong from "fans" is quite entertaining. We get it- you don't like Pike, you don't think he is capable of adapting to modern basketball and/or recruiting from the portal. The constant list of complaints and reasons why the team should not be playing in this tournament are getting old and tired.
Nebraska built no momentum off their Crown victory.
They had 3 players score 20+ in the championship game.
2 were not on the team this year.
1 played 7 games.
Only 4 players returned this year from the Crown championship game.
Regardless - I'll be watching and hopefully not falling asleep by the 2nd half 16min media TO.
They had 3 players score 20+ in the championship game.
2 were not on the team this year.
1 played 7 games.
Only 4 players returned this year from the Crown championship game.
Regardless - I'll be watching and hopefully not falling asleep by the 2nd half 16min media TO.
I don’t know why anyone is worried about losing players from this team. This team is horribly constructed and any one of these players could be replaced with someone just as good. The days of developing a team are over. It’s free agency every year. And a lot of these players will never get money like this in the pros, if they even make it. This is minor league basketball. They shouldn’t even have school names attached. If “student athletes” was hypocritical before it’s all out in the open now.
Donald Trump, is that you?
A pack of lies supporting your position still fools 35+ per cent of the readers. lol
Could be that the Crown championship game helped them gain portal players .
Hoiberg could have used the Crown to convince the portal players he added this season
to make Nebraska their new home
If this team plays well, it may make sense to offer reasonable amounts to the players that played well and spend some significant money on a couple of high impact players like a center or power forward. Everyone isn’t coming back or even likely to play. Can’t see a problem with finishing on a high note if they play well.
According to the TKR podcasts, the scouting efforts have been going on for months already. I imagine pike has an idea of who he wants to go after already (to fix his holes on D which is our main issue) - doesn’t know for sure who will enter the portal but has a list prepared. Doing his homework this way is now a necessity. Unfortunately, everyone probably costs something now, some just a lot more than others. Defense is way cheaper than offense - the good news for us is that the offense would probably improve just by adding physical rebounders to what we have and focusing fixing the D. The offense isn’t spectacular but it would be around that Pike “good enough” level with his bread and butter D. MJ wasn’t known for offense but would make the current team much better on both ends.
We’re playing in this tournament because the players on the team want to keep playing. They voted unanimously so it seems to me it would be pretty awful for Pike to overturn that. And oh yeah - Tariq was supposedly the kid most excited to play in this thing and after averaging 17 ppg in the BIG, the last thing he needs to do to “boost his NIL stock” is play extra games. Clearly he just wants to play and represent Rutgers. I’d think you’d appreciate that.
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Rutgers is one of two schools in the eastern time zone. It’s shame they scheduled us so late.
The last 10 games of the season they were 5-5 (Ws over UMD twice, PSU twice, Minnesota; Ls to Nebraska, Minnesota, Washington, MSU, UCLA). So, since they were 9-14 and finished 14-19 by beating 2 of the worst teams in the league for 4 of those wins some might consider that the team "seemed to gel". I think it proved that they were a disappointing and embarrassing team all the way through the season. And, I do not blame the players. This is squarely on Pikiell and his merry band of failed coaches.
I hope Rutgers does well in the tournament and I hope the players enjoy playing in it. I will definitely watch it for as long as they are in it. They could lose the first round or win the whole thing, which should make it fun to watch.
RU went 3-2 in the last few games/March and the 2 losses were by 4 to #8 in the country, on the road, and to 13-7 Big Ten #6 UCLA in the Big Ten tourney where it was a 6 point game late. If you cant see the improvement the last 5 games, I feel bad for you.
For us, it was more about the match up than anything else down the stretch. We could’ve played Washington 10 more times and failed to stop Steinbach. He could’ve scored 50 on us if he wanted. We had no answer for teams with a strong interior presence.
LOL - so true. While I certainly bleed Scarlet - I also realize that sports fandom is at its core a form of entertainment / pastime - so for me happy to see another RU Game.
Yes.
The rest is kind of silly - these are teams that also didn’t make the tourney. To make the tourney in 27, they will need to address the deficiencies that kept us out (some of it is youth, but the lack of a 4 and 5 on the roster is evident). Even a 3 game heater isn’t going to change that.
Regardless - the point remains that 3 out of the 4 teams in the semi-finals last year are on the NCAAs this year so playing in this tournament clearly didn’t hurt them.
did you see the Nebraska portal haul last off season..thats not something ever happening here
We had a “haul” it just wasn’t a good one. Lots of new faces. The only point I was making, I don’t think playing in the Crown presented a distraction or any kind to Nebraska’s path forward last year. And I don’t think it’s a factor for Pike now either, one way or the other.
But big picture - Rutgers basketball team was offered a free trip to Vegas, a chance to continue playing, and a chance for the players to win some additional pocket money. You keep putting out the narrative that the whole world was invited and Rutgers was the only one willing to go. The reality is - there are 8 power conference teams who accepted invitations in the bracket. The Crown didn’t have to ask us. They could’ve chosen to pick teams from any conference after Indiana and Washington (top 2 NET teams). Maryland and PSU had worse NET than ours anyway so surely they weren’t asked. I doubt the Crown was interested in depleted 12 win Oregon was either.
Im not saying we should make this into more than it is - but if the players want to play in this thing, what’s the big deal?
14-19
Crown isnt an acheivement. They need to fill with power 5. Im sure Rutgers playing in Vegas tourney aided in their invite
They didn’t need to. They wanted to. They could’ve asked anyone after the top 2 NET declined. They only took one BE team in favor of 3 B12 teams for example. I’m sure 16 win DePaul would’ve accepted an invitation…
Nobody is saying it’s an “achievement” but it’s certainly not a bad thing that the Rutgers brand was a desirable choice (for whatever reason) relative to others. I’m not sure why your so bothered by this. Nobody is saying we “earned” anything - the tournament isn’t even marketed that way. The bracket is not seeded. We’re playing the team with the worst NET besides us. The season is over. Nobody gives a crap that we won 14 games while DePaul won 16. I doubt the Crown organizers wanted teams like Washington to compete without Steinbach and their main players. We’re a good choice. Team that won 2 of its last 3 and no opt outs.
He is bothered by anything positive about the bball team
One other thing on the “losing record”.
I don’t think this should be bucketed like a 5-7 bowl game. Schools like Rutgers lose money (a lot of it) by participating in those types of events.
We’re not paying anything to participate in the Crown. Put yourself in one of the player’s position. If your planning to return to college (any college) - Why wouldn’t you want a free trip to Vegas with your friends to play a few basketball games for a chance to win $5-30K? Graduating seniors and NBA prospects will probably bow out to move on to their next chapter, but for everyone else - why not play?
I don't see it as something we earned, nor do I see it as something to be embarrassed about. I think the best way to watch is to strip away as much context as possible, just watch Rutgers play basketball, should be competitive games. I'll be rooting for RU, probably roting hard.
Anybody know why Stanford wasn't invited to the NIT? Or did they want to be in the Crown over the NIT? This is the AI response I got: Stanford basketball is participating in the College Basketball Crown (CBC) rather than the NIT because the tournament offers superior financial incentives (NIL money), high-major matchups, and a prime Las Vegas setting for competitive development.
The original qualifications for Crown involved inviting top 2 from big 12, 10 and East but perhaps Stanford was one of the 2 others they had their eye on and were made aware
Just because you type it doesn’t make it true. Which teams quit once the season went south ? That narrative has always been nonsense, and even more so nowadays with players vying for better transfer opportunities every year.
I agree. Plus, preparing for a game and practicing is a great way for Pike to connect with players he wants to keep. Sell them on his vision. Every player who is done has nothing to do but focus on next year.
But let me ask you this.. how are you going to feel if he craps the bed again at home like he did vs. Hofstra in the NIT round 1?