2020-2021 season prediction time

[Scarlet Shack]

Prediction time for 2020-2021 (types this last night after getting some of the OOC games

Last year ....I predicted a 20-11 record and a NCAA bid....

A lot of my premise on last year prediction came that the 14-17 record we had a couple of years ago, with maturity, could have just as easily been 17-14 and a NiT bid. The Iowa loss from the corner, the penn state loss at the end of the year, thiam’s arrest, and then blowing the big ten game ...I think how we finished left a sour taste in everyone mouth to make sure we finished strong and we had a great off season leading into last year

So I felt the seeds for a major improvement from 2018-2019 to 2019-2020 were there and we wound make the jump...

When I look at 2019-2020...and what we can be in 2020-2021 there are a couple of considerations I look at for what we really accomplished last year

1.) thought the games decided in the last couple of minutes, we still lacked some maturity and, in the net sum, thought we lost a couple more than we won. It’s not perfect metrics. But looking back at the game...thought a more mature Rutgers team
Last year could have netted out maybe 2 more wins than we had.

2.) I look at the margin of defeat we
Had, (5.7 ppg lowest in the big ten, by far)....and that all nine of our big ten losses were teams that were going to dance...so we were really really competitive...and a tough tough out.

3.) we really went as Myles Johnson went last year. When he was in foul trouble, we were in trouble. Pike did a masterful job of keeping him on the court the last 8-12 minutes of games ...and you saw what he meant to the defense. With cliff, we don’t have that weakness

4.) we came in last year saying ...we lost our top scorer ...how are we going to replace him. Well, we did. As much as yeboah meant to us last year ...his ten points a game will be absorbed

5.) lastly...we danced and missed the real Geo Baker for nearly a month. Let that sink in as a season with covid approaches and what our depth means

So...in final, when I look at last year ...I saw a 20-11 team at the beginning of the year ...

What did I think would have likely happened if covid doesn’t hit

I , that I thought would win a game against Michigan, give a hot Wisconsin fits before losing on Friday in the big ten tournament...and a 8/9 seed where we win a game in the dance...and the give a major scare (if not pull of the upset ) to a 1 seed

With that back drop...felt we would have been a round of 32 team with a 22-13 record...and painfully close to being a sweet 16 team...and a team that left a couple of wins on the floor that would have cost them A higher seed in the tournament ...and a better chance Of making the sweet 16

So....what am I predicting for 2020-2021...built on a lot of assumptions and assumptions of no one getting majorly COVID 29 sick and staying relatively injury free....

We get better individually, as a collective team and maturity makes a difference

a 14-6 big ten record if we get 20
Games in

Predicting a 7-0 out of conference record assuming we add three more non power five games to the OOC (Or even if the hall is added )

21-6....(which if we played four more out of confrence games in a normal year , would have been 24-7...a four game improvement from 2019-2020)

So even with some games likely cancelled...I think we will build on last years successbe a more mature team and win more of those close games to propel us to the REAL prediction

( and yes....I’ll break down the player minutes and ppg prediction in another thread )

And the real prediction ....

What do we do in the NCAA tournament ?

1.) first....We officially break the NCAA drought of 30 years with a bang.....

2.) We do enough in the regular season to earn 3/4/5 seeding line for the NCAA tourney....

3.)And .....we will win playing in the NCAA regionals in the sweet 16/elite 8. And maybe, just maybe, if we get the right seed and the right match up ....”1976” can happen THIS year...

(With the possibility of everyone coming back with a bigger goal for 2021-2022) ...

Enjoy the ride ...it’s going to be fun

Go RU!

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

I typically stay away from predictions because I want to see the other teams play before jumping in that boat.

My initial point when seeing the schedule was that the 1st 10 B1G games are tougher than the 2nd 10 B1G ones. If you are playing At Maryland as your 1st B1G road game, you'll probably see Maryland at their best early in the season vs later in the year.

Add Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State twice and Sparty in your 1st 10 B1G games and you're going to drop a couple of those games, just on law of averages.

I also think that I am more comfortable in our Top 7 returning players and we have a chance to bring along Mag, Palmquist and Cliff without asking them to do too much.

The red flag or reason I knew with 100% certainty, that RU would be significantly better without Eugene prior to last year, was fit and his inability to shoot the ball.

When you add Yeboah and his perfect role as a shooter/spacer and he averages less PPG and RPG than the departing starter who led RU in 2018-19 in PPG and RPG, in Eugene and you go from 14 to 20 wins, it is fit and spacing.

So to repeat what you had last year, is Palmquist and Mag, in the Yeboah role as potential 3 point shooter. Doesn't have to be a great 3 point shooter, just a threat to do so.

In order to go from 11 to 14 B1G wins, is an extremely tall order. 14 wins won the league last year with a 3 way tie between Michigan State, Maryland and Wisconsin.

I don't see RU winning 14 B1G games until I see the progress of Palmquist and Mag. If Caleb McConnell was playing and healthy, I would be 100% on board to a possible jump to 14 B1G wins.

My assumption is a little more choppy in the 1st half of the marathon and more of a pacing and development of the freshman early in the year.

The other factor that should give RU fans a LOT of confidence is the speed and athletic ability of this roster. Right now, if your bench players in theory could be Mulcahy, Cliff and Jacob Young, the ability to get dunks/lobs and layups in transition, could hide the need to have shooting from 3 point range right away.

I have RU at 13-7 in the B1G....it's the best league in the country again and will be very competitive top to bottom.

I really think Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois all have a case to be 1 through 4 in the league. There's nothing wrong with being a game or 2 behind any of those 4 teams in the standings, although I think RU is better than Iowa defensively and in general. If there is one team clearly overrated, it's Iowa.....until I see them defend for 35 to 40 minutes, they're not capable of winning the B1G, unless they improve dramatically on that end of the court.

 

[GimmeSomeMore]

We won't lose out of conference
We will win 2/3 of the games we play in conference - if all 20, then I will say 14-6
4 seed in tournament
Sweet 16
All conference littered with RU players (Harper - 1st; Baker - 2nd; Johnson - 3rd, Young and Mulcahy Hon Mention)
Ron leads team in scoring (14.5) - I think he'll have the ball in his hands a lot.
Geo shoots 37%+ from 3 this year (JY and RHJ driving and kick will lead to some open looks) and is second scorer at 12.
Mulcahy doubles freshman year stat line to 7.5p. 4.5r, 4.5a
Team scoring goes up significantly - 75 PPG (we will really run)

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

Last season, I also went with the 20-11 prediction. I thought they had a good chance to go 1-1 or 2-1 in the B1G tourny.

They will either go 6-1 or 7-0 non conference, just depends if they get a marques matchup that doesn't exist right now, they should go 4-0 in current non Conference matchups.

We went 9-1 at home, 2-8 on the road in the B1G 2019.
I think we will go 9-1 again at home(potential home hiccups, Iowa, OSU, MSU, Ill, but at worst 8-2), I don't see any blowouts home/road this year
Road games we should win- @ MD, @ PSU, @ Indiana, @ NW, @ Neb, @ Minn
Road games potential losses- @ OSU, @ MSU, @ Iowa, @ Mich
I say we lose 1 of 6 of should wins(5-1), and win 1 of 4 potential losses(1-3), so 6-4, they will make up the loss on the road if they lose at home.

Prediction 21-6 or 22-5 before B1G tourny(at worst 20-7), depending on rest of non conference.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I am also predicting 13-7 in league, and undefeated in however many OOC games we end up playing. For sake of argument, let’s say 6-0, for overall regular season record of 19-7.

I think we go 2-1 in B1G tourney, for record of 21-8. I think that gets us a 4 seed.

I think we make the Elite 8 but lose a heartbreaker in the regional final. Best season since the Final Four year.

LFG!!!!

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I have no idea how much we will miss Caleb.
I have no idea what the new guys will do.
I don’t know if 1st half Young is still in him
I don’t know about our depth and ability to withstand and injury
I don’t know if lack of a home court advantage is a 1 to 5 game difference

I love our coach
I love our chemistry

I don’t know what our D looks like in an empty RAC
I don’t think we are a good shooting team

I am not expecting this to be a NCAA team, but at the same time I am not expecting them not to be.

if I am forced to make a prediction

5-1 OOC
9-11 B1G

it comes down to B1G T

 

[Scangg]

Prediction time for 2020-2021 (types this last night after getting some of the OOC games

Last year ....I predicted a 20-11 record and a NCAA bid....

A lot of my premise on last year prediction came that the 14-17 record we had a couple of years ago, with maturity, could have just as easily been 17-14 and a NiT bid. The Iowa loss from the corner, the penn state loss at the end of the year, thiam’s arrest, and then blowing the big ten game ...I think how we finished left a sour taste in everyone mouth to make sure we finished strong and we had a great off season leading into last year

So I felt the seeds for a major improvement from 2018-2019 to 2019-2020 were there and we wound make the jump...

When I look at 2019-2020...and what we can be in 2020-2021 there are a couple of considerations I look at for what we really accomplished last year

1.) thought the games decided in the last couple of minutes, we still lacked some maturity and, in the net sum, thought we lost a couple more than we won. It’s not perfect metrics. But looking back at the game...thought a more mature Rutgers team
Last year could have netted out maybe 2 more wins than we had.

2.) I look at the margin of defeat we
Had, (5.7 ppg lowest in the big ten, by far)....and that all nine of our big ten losses were teams that were going to dance...so we were really really competitive...and a tough tough out.

3.) we really went as Myles Johnson went last year. When he was in foul trouble, we were in trouble. Pike did a masterful job of keeping him on the court the last 8-12 minutes of games ...and you saw what he meant to the defense. With cliff, we don’t have that weakness

4.) we came in last year saying ...we lost our top scorer ...how are we going to replace him. Well, we did. As much as yeboah meant to us last year ...his ten points a game will be absorbed

5.) lastly...we danced and missed the real Geo Baker for nearly a month. Let that sink in as a season with covid approaches and what our depth means

So...in final, when I look at last year ...I saw a 20-11 team at the beginning of the year ...

What did I think would have likely happened if covid doesn’t hit

I , that I thought would win a game against Michigan, give a hot Wisconsin fits before losing on Friday in the big ten tournament...and a 8/9 seed where we win a game in the dance...and the give a major scare (if not pull of the upset ) to a 1 seed

With that back drop...felt we would have been a round of 32 team with a 22-13 record...and painfully close to being a sweet 16 team...and a team that left a couple of wins on the floor that would have cost them A higher seed in the tournament ...and a better chance Of making the sweet 16

So....what am I predicting for 2020-2021...built on a lot of assumptions and assumptions of no one getting majorly COVID 29 sick and staying relatively injury free....

We get better individually, as a collective team and maturity makes a difference

a 14-6 big ten record if we get 20
Games in

Predicting a 7-0 out of conference record assuming we add three more non power five games to the OOC (Or even if the hall is added )

21-6....(which if we played four more out of confrence games in a normal year , would have been 24-7...a four game improvement from 2019-2020)

So even with some games likely cancelled...I think we will build on last years successbe a more mature team and win more of those close games to propel us to the REAL prediction

( and yes....I’ll break down the player minutes and ppg prediction in another thread )

And the real prediction ....

What do we do in the NCAA tournament ?

1.) first....We officially break the NCAA drought of 30 years with a bang.....

2.) We do enough in the regular season to earn 3/4/5 seeding line for the NCAA tourney....

3.)And .....we will win playing in the NCAA regionals in the sweet 16/elite 8. And maybe, just maybe, if we get the right seed and the right match up ....”1976” can happen THIS year...

(With the possibility of everyone coming back with a bigger goal for 2021-2022) ...

Enjoy the ride ...it’s going to be fun

Go RU!

+1

We were on the same page last year with expectations as well. This team has the maturity to pull out close games and make a run in the tournament. We can beat anyone this year if we bring our A game. Anyone.

 

[Scangg]

I have no idea how much we will miss Caleb.
I have no idea what the new guys will do.
I don’t know if 1st half Young is still in him
I don’t know about our depth and ability to withstand and injury
I don’t know if lack of a home court advantage is a 1 to 5 game difference

I love our coach
I love our chemistry

I don’t know what our D looks like in an empty RAC
I don’t think we are a good shooting team

I am not expecting this to be a NCAA team, but at the same time I am not expecting them not to be.

if I am forced to make a prediction

5-1 OOC
9-11 B1G

it comes down to B1G T

Forever underselling and wrong about Rutgers basketball under Pike.

If Rutgers doesn't make the tournament this season is an absolute disaster. Everyone is expecting us to dance this season. We are preseason ranked.

What does Pike have to do to get you to buy in?

 

[zebnatto]

17-9

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Forever underselling and wrong about Rutgers basketball under Pike.

If Rutgers doesn't make the tournament this season is an absolute disaster. Everyone is expecting us to dance this season. We are preseason ranked.

What does Pike have to do to get you to buy in?

I am bought in

 

[bac2therac]

I have no idea how much we will miss Caleb.
I have no idea what the new guys will do.
I don’t know if 1st half Young is still in him
I don’t know about our depth and ability to withstand and injury
I don’t know if lack of a home court advantage is a 1 to 5 game difference

I love our coach
I love our chemistry

I don’t know what our D looks like in an empty RAC
I don’t think we are a good shooting team

I am not expecting this to be a NCAA team, but at the same time I am not expecting them not to be.

if I am forced to make a prediction

5-1 OOC
9-11 B1G

it comes down to B1G T

wow

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

wow

What was our home record last year?

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

What was our home record last year?

9-1 in B1G games at RAC

It is always best to wait and see what other teams look like. Anyone who is concerned about no fans at the RAC but also assumes a road game is as difficult, makes no sense.

For everyone RAC game that some fans want to deduct from RUs win total because of no fans, you have to add a road game win to the total because of the same premise. Playing everyone on the road is still a game without dealing with crowd noise, student sections and distractions of bad referees calls favoring the home teams.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Guys ....Greene has been right on the money a lot more than he has been wrong and his concerns are fair

I just see a team that I thought was a little better than it’s record Last year ...(and I explained why) and think the off season we had and the extra maturity sets us up for the season that I see

saying that we need to prove we can win on the road,shoot better, are legit things to say “ show me “

I Am just really confident that it’s going to Happen....

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

18-1 with Rutgers fans
2-10 without Rutgers fans

Being optimistic........
Young was terrible in 1st half
Baker was injured
Myles hit a wall hard

take those 3 things away.......

coaching and chemistry are great
1st time in forever we have a veteran core

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

For everyone RAC game that some fans want to deduct from RUs win total because of no fans, you have to add a road game win to the total because of the same premise. Playing everyone on the road is still a game without dealing with crowd noise, student sections and distractions of bad referees calls favoring the home teams.

Absolutely.

My concerns are surrounding defense. I think the RAC advantage helps our D more than anything.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

There is more than that

I’ve been sitting in 105 row B at the RAC forever...and have the opposing team run past me. I look at some of those teams and would say...”now, that’s what a very good basketball time is SUPPOSED to like...and we got to play Them ?!??l“

then I watch some of our clips this offseason...and say to myseld ...we actually LOOK like one of those teams ....”

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

From Bart....
Home
Adjusted offensive efficiency 1.07 points per possesion 90th
Adjusted defensive efficiency .857 points per possesion 4th in country

Neutral and away
Offense 1.046. 93rd (not much difference
Defense .948 51st (still good, but not elite)

 

[RUDieHard]

My predictions:


OOC: 5-0
B1G: 14-6

We finish 2-1 in the B1G Tournament

End up 21-7 Overall earning a 5 seed in the Tournament.

We make it to the Sweet 16.

 

[BigEastPhil]

I have no idea how much we will miss Caleb.
I have no idea what the new guys will do.
I don’t know if 1st half Young is still in him
I don’t know about our depth and ability to withstand and injury
I don’t know if lack of a home court advantage is a 1 to 5 game difference

I love our coach
I love our chemistry

I don’t know what our D looks like in an empty RAC
I don’t think we are a good shooting team

I am not expecting this to be a NCAA team, but at the same time I am not expecting them not to be.

if I am forced to make a prediction

5-1 OOC
9-11 B1G

it comes down to B1G T

Barring injuries or a COVID disaster, not making the tourney would be a collosal dissapointment
.
This squad is determined; talented ; well coached and has basically all of its starters returning plus talented freshmen coming into the program.

Conference is loaded but we re good and damn real good.

 

[Jeevan Kirkland]

22-6

 

[Scangg]

Guys ....Greene has been right on the money a lot more than he has been wrong and his concerns are fair

I just see a team that I thought was a little better than it’s record Last year ...(and I explained why) and think the off season we had and the extra maturity sets us up for the season that I see

saying that we need to prove we can win on the road,shoot better, are legit things to say “ show me “

I Am just really confident that it’s going to Happen....

Nah we had all sorts of arguments last preseason and he was wrong about everything and had extremely low expectations. Its deja vu

 

[Scangg]

18-1 with Rutgers fans
2-10 without Rutgers fans

Being optimistic........
Young was terrible in 1st half
Baker was injured
Myles hit a wall hard

take those 3 things away.......

coaching and chemistry are great
1st time in forever we have a veteran core

The RAC advantage is a legit concern. There is no reason to expect that it kills us at home but doesn't help us win some of those close road losses from last year especially with all the experience our core players have this season.

Any expectations that Young will somehow revert to his first games performance after a year off where he was clearly rusty, forcing it, trying to find his role is just fear mongering. Its not going to happen. Guaranteed.

Sure, Baker could get injured again, but anyone could. This year's team would only be better equipped to handle it after having the experience of going through it last year. The real person we can't afford an injury to would be Harper IMO.

Myles will only be in better shape this season and he doesn't need to be relied on as much with big Cliff here able to handle 20 minutes or do at the 5.

There's much more reason to expect big things this season than to hyper focus on the lack of fans at the RAC and assume it ruins the entire season

 

[Knights 1212]

GRF could be correct but I don't see us losing two less games in conference this season. I think if we stay healthy and play 20 league games we will be 12-8 or 13-7 in league. He thinks we will lose 11 of 20. That I could see if we had a major injury or two or we got hit big by the virus otherwise I feel we should be fine with our veteran guys.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Progress isn’t always linear.

I don’t necessarily think we go 9-11.

similar to last year there are so many unknowns. Last year had more though.

I am confident Cliff makes up for (and more) the loss of Shaq C.

Yeboah played 60% minutes
Caleb played 53% minutes

Those guys were also 2 of our 4 perimeter shooter.

Game on the line (6-8 ish) games will be.
What is the lineup on the floor?
Baker
Young
??????
Harper
Myles

the ???? Will be the key to our season.

If I am not worried about things...it is time for everyone to worry.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

The RAC advantage is a legit concern. There is no reason to expect that it kills us at home but doesn't help us win some of those close road losses from last year especially with all the experience our core players have this season.

Any expectations that Young will somehow revert to his first games performance after a year off where he was clearly rusty, forcing it, trying to find his role is just fear mongering. Its not going to happen. Guaranteed.

Sure, Baker could get injured again, but anyone could. This year's team would only be better equipped to handle it after having the experience of going through it last year. The real person we can't afford an injury to would be Harper IMO.

Myles will only be in better shape this season and he doesn't need to be relied on as much with big Cliff here able to handle 20 minutes or do at the 5.

There's much more reason to expect big things this season than to hyper focus on the lack of fans at the RAC and assume it ruins the entire season

1. Our calling card is defense. In total we are an elite defensive team. I think a crowd impacts the defensive end more than the offensive end

2. Regarding Young your point is fair. I don’t guarantee anything, but....OK

3. I get it everyone has injuries and it is mostly random. Do we have the depth? Yes if we need to buy RU insurance and can buy for only one body it probably is #24

4. Myles hit a wall and it hurt is as a team. The odds of a repeat is out of my equation for the reason you bring up

5. On paper I agree with you regarding the team. ......but sitting in the RAC every home game I am sorry but it is a big part of our success. Players and Pike feed off the crowd on D and I think it is gives us confidence that we are never out of it. I think there were at least 2 games last year when you can say definitively that they would not have been won in an empty building. Nebraska comes to mind.

 

[RUB1GTime]

My one and only concern is hos the team adapts to playing in an empty RAC. The talent is there, but home court advantage truly mattered to a team like ours. Let’s hope the players can overcome it.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

18-1 with Rutgers fans
2-10 without Rutgers fans

Being optimistic........
Young was terrible in 1st half
Baker was injured
Myles hit a wall hard

take those 3 things away.......

coaching and chemistry are great
1st time in forever we have a veteran core

You do know it works both ways. As the season wore on in Jan and Feb, they got more comfortable on the road, they lost 8 road games by 8 pts or less because of the road crowd down the stretch last 4 minutes until the Purdue win. Road crowd is non factor this year. Some teams have gotten weaker this year, NW and Nebraska will still be at the bottom. Penn St was 12th and Maryland was 14th in recruiting 2020, they didn't get better. Minnesota was 9th, and lost Oturu and a couple transfers. We match talent with any of the top 8 teams in our conference, you said the same thing when we lost E. Omoruyi and predicted like 13-18 or something like that. Yeboah and Carter were good role players to the team, but the core guys are still here and better with Geo, JY, Mathis, Mulcahy, RHJ, Myles, Cliff >> Carter, Mag, Palmquist > Yeboah, injured 2019 McConnell. We went 20-11 with that team.

 

[Scangg]

You do know it works both ways. As the season wore on in Jan and Feb, they got more comfortable on the road, they lost 8 road games by 8 pts or less because of the road crowd down the stretch last 4 minutes until the Purdue win. Road crowd is non factor this year. Some teams have gotten weaker this year, NW and Nebraska will still be at the bottom. Penn St was 12th and Maryland was 14th in recruiting 2020, they didn't get better. Minnesota was 9th, and lost Oturu and a couple transfers. We match talent with any of the top 8 teams in our conference, you said the same thing when we lost E. Omoruyi and predicted like 13-18 or something like that. Yeboah and Carter were good role players to the team, but the core guys are still here and better with Geo, JY, Mathis, Mulcahy, RHJ, Myles, Cliff >> Carter, Mag, Palmquist > Yeboah, injured 2019 McConnell. We went 20-11 with that team.

Well said. You can't only talk about how no crowd hurts us at home as if it won't hurt the home team in every road game we play. We were so close in so many road losses last season. No hostile road crowd and a more experienced core of the roster should lead to a much better road record this season

 

[RU848789]

Would love for us to win 13-14 B1G games, but the league is very tough, so I'll go with 12-8 and assuming 7 OOC games, 7-0, (maybe4 6-1 if two of those are against high major competition). That's 19-8 and a 6 seed. I know we can do better, but I like underpredicting vs. overpredicting. Dying to see how the new guys do - I truly think Cliff will be a defensive force and his scoring will start coming later in the season. I also think he'll make Myles better, simply by competition in practice and allowing Myles not to worry as much about getting some fouls. And if Young plays as well all year as he did in the 2nd half and the other guys just simply play well, then we could win 14-15 B1G games - just don't want to count on it yet, after 233 years of having Lucy pull the ball away...

For the record, last year I predicted 18-13/8-12 and 2-1 in the tourney for 20-14 and a spot on the bubble.

 

[Plum Street]

I think we are overrating this rutgers team . Anywhere from 9 to 11 wins in conference . Hopefully it’s enough to get to the tournament. .

 

[dollarbill]

We need to play these games to get to these numbers. We will see. $$$$

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

you said the same thing when we lost E. Omoruyi and predicted like 13-18 or something like that.

That wasn’t my base case prediction. I think my base case was one over .500.

there were so manyunknowns last year. There are less this year, but still enough.

 

[bac2therac]

was hoping to not do this until a FULL schedule with all the non conference games was out there but I guess we are basically set except for maybe a game added somewhere


Nov. 25th: Sacred Heart at Rutgers W 1-0

Nov. 27th: FDU at Rutgers W 2-0

Nov. 29th: Hofstra at Rutgers W 3-0

Dec. 8th: Syracuse at Rutgers W4-0

Dec. 14th: Rutgers at Maryland W 5-0/1-0

Dec. 20th: Illinois at Rutgers W 6-0/2-0

Dec. 23rd: Rutgers at Ohio State L 6-1/2-1

Dec. 29th: Purdue at Rutgers W 7-1/3-1

Jan. 2nd: Iowa at Rutgers L 7-2/3-2

Jan. 5th: Rutgers at Michigan State L 7-3/3-3

Jan. 9th: Ohio State at Rutgers W 8-3/4-3

Jan 12th: Rutgers at Penn State W 9-3/5-3

Jan. 15th: Wisconsin at Rutgers W 10-3/6-3

Jan. 24th: Rutgers at Indiana L 10-4/6-4

Jan. 28th: Michigan State at Rutgers L 10-5/6-5

Jan. 31st: Rutgers at Northwestern W 11-5/7-5

Feb 4th: Minnesota at Rutgers W 12-5/8-5

Feb. 10th: Rutgers at Iowa L 12-6/8-6

Feb. 13th: Northwestern at Rutgers W 13-6/9-6

Feb. 18th: Rutgers at Michigan L 13-7/9-7

Feb. 21st: Maryland at Rutgers L 13-8/9-8

Feb. 24th: Indiana at Rutgers W 14-8/10-8

Feb 28th: Rutgers at Nebraska W 15-8/11-8

Mar. 6th or 7th: Rutgers at Minnesota W16-8/12-8


Final record: 16-8
Big 10: 12-8....tied for 4th

I see RU anywhere from 11-13/8-12 worst case to 18-6/14-6 best case

Geo back for Maryland and Illinois is huge. The first 6 league games are brutal..at minimum RU needs to go 2-4, not sure they can recover with less than that. 2nd half of season is favorable but I would be a wary of that last 2 game road trip especially the one at Minnesota.

I see RU moving up the top 25 poll early maybe as high as 12 before perhaps even dropping out for a time but hovering in the 20-25 range by seasons end.

I see RU as a 6 seed in the NCAA tourney where they win their first round game vs 11 seed Memphis before falling in the 2nd round to 3 seed Texas

 

[Sweet Pea's Corner]

OOC 3-1
Conference 11=9

14-10
1 win BET

15-11 who knows if this is good enough for NCAA with games being canceled.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

OOC 3-1
Conference 11=9

14-10
1 win BET

15-11 who knows if this is good enough for NCAA with games being canceled.

I know......and it is certainly good enough.

 

[ru66]

can we beat Syracuse first? posts like this is why our fans jump off the band wagon so quickly

 

[Scangg]

can we beat Syracuse first? posts like this is why our fans jump off the band wagon so quickly

Lol are you really complaining about predictions in a season prediction thread? Save the lame hold your horses posts for more relevant threads at least

 

[cubuffsdoug_rivals]

One thing to keep in mind is the team is more experienced, so home or away shouldn't be as big of a factor. We saw at the end of last year how the team stepped up away from the RAC.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

Home, Neutral, or Road are worth NOTHING this year, Talent wins. There are no fans anywhere. As much as I hate Duke, it was sad watching Michigan St. beat Duke 75-69 in Cameron without the Crazies. Michigan St(1 Sr. 4 Jr 4 So. Top 9)won because they have more talent and experience than Duke(1 Sr. 1 Jr. 2 So. 5 Fr. out of top 9). Duke wins with fans. That's why Rutgers will win games home or road because of depth and experience of talent(2 Sr. 3 Jr. 1 So. 3 Fr top 9), no home adrenaline or no road atmosphere in any game. May the more talented, depth, and experience win.