COLUMN: It's now or never for Rutgers men's basketball's moral victories to translate to wins
It was all doom and gloom from fans after the Rutgers men's basketball team fell to Kennesaw State just before heading to Las Vegas to take on some much tougher opponents in the Players Era Festival. The feeling was that if the Scarlet Knights (5-3, 0-0) could not win a game or two in Vegas, the expectations for a potentially special season would need to be tremendously altered.
Rutgers went 1-2 on the weekend, picking up a thrilling overtime win over Notre Dame and falling in close battles with ranked foes Alabama and Texas A&M. The Knights finished sixth in the eight-team tournament. While Rutgers did not pull off either of its upset opportunities, the performances were positive signs, especially considering the loss to the Owls (6-3, 0-0) just days prior.
The Knights fell to the Crimson Tide (7-2, 0-0) and the Aggies (7-2, 0-0) by scores of 95-90 and 81-77, respectively, keeping both games tight up until the final whistle. It is often said in sports that there are no moral victories, but I think in Rutgers' case for the Vegas trip, the Knights took a few moral victories home. They made some improvements that should help take them a step further as a team in the coming games.
Rebounding remained an issue for the most part, but Rutgers did manage to out-rebound No. 22 Texas A&M 42-35, which impresses me, considering the Aggies rank sixth in the country in rebounds per game. For the rest of the tournament, the Knights were out-rebounded by 12 to No. 10 Alabama and by four to the Fighting Irish (4-5, 0-0).
While size matters in rebounding, much of it also simply comes down to effort and which team will show more grit on the boards. Rutgers' effort looked extremely poor in the loss to Kennesaw State but looked much improved in Vegas. This effort must remain for the Knights. They have also struggled to defend the three, and if they give up fewer offensive rebounds, in particular, this will lead to fewer open shooters on second-chance opportunities.
The little things matter. This is a moral victory for Rutgers.
For the Knights, another thing to be happy about is the emergence of redshirt senior guard Jeremiah Williams as a tertiary scoring option. Williams scored 10 points apiece in the Notre Dame and Crimson Tide matchups and exploded for 20 against Texas A&M. The freshmen, guard Dylan Harper and forward Ace Bailey, have arguably the biggest scoring load on their shoulders of any freshmen in the country. With this, it is important that a third option steps up alongside the pair — the veteran Williams did just that in Vegas and will need to continue to do so.
Head coach Steve Pikiell still seems to be having trouble finding his best rotations, and it hasn't helped that the guys he likely expected to rely upon heavily, like junior center Emmanuel Ogbole, graduate student forward Zach Martini and fifth-year guard PJ Hayes IV, have struggled.
Personally, I still have a lot of belief in some of the transfers Pikiell brought in, particularly Martini and Hayes. If Rutgers can hang with big dogs like Alabama and the Aggies while still working out the kinks with new players rotationally, I have hope for the squad moving forward if they can continue to gel.
It won't get easier on the road against Ohio State in an arena that has become a house of horrors for the Knights. Rutgers will then head back to Piscataway for a home tilt against Penn State, which looks like a very solid team so far this season.
We will see if these so-called moral victories can carry over into real victories for the Knights, but the way I see it, there is no reason for Rutgers to panic just yet. The Knights missed out on some major resume-boosting opportunities in Vegas, but Big Ten play provides opportunities like these essentially multiple times a week.
Take these losses and the "moral victories" and learn from them. It's now December. Now is the time when teams' true colors start to show. Who does Rutgers want to be this season? Will it be another bubble team of the past or a legit threat? If the Knights want to be the latter, they must take these pieces of positivity and put them all together — 40 minutes at a time.
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