The Big 10 Tournament is a wrap and the Michigan Wolverines are your back to back conference tournament champions. More on that in another article. This event began under a cloud of negative criticism, mainly around the condensed schedule and the venue being Madison Square Garden in NYC. To be fair a lot of that criticism was correct and warranted. Take away the closest member school to Madison Square Garden (Rutgers is in Piscataway, NJ is only 31 miles away), and the next closest is Penn State which is 201 miles away. The distance to travel was ludicrous and having conference games start in December and forcing certain teams to play several games in a week was criminal. They are students after all, right? We know this was about money and commissioner Jim Delany all but admitted as much without actually saying it. But, that doesn’t mean the tournament wasn’t a success and a school like Rutgers has a chance to really build something off the strength of this past week.
Since joining the Big 10 in 2014 the Rutgers Scarlet Knights have been bottom feeders in the league. The program hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament in 27 years and hasn’t posted a winning record in 12. But there was something different about this year’s team and it’s quarterfinal run during the conference tournament in NYC. Second-year head coach Steve Pikiell’s team was competitive during regular season conference play, despite only posting 3 league wins. The Scarlet Knights defeated in-state rival Seton Hall for the first time in 5 years. A Seton Hall team that was ranked in the top 25. Then there was the spirited play in NYC at Madison Square Garden, that included a win against Minnesota, a 16-point comeback in an upset of Indiana, and a tough hard fought 7-point loss to championship runner-up Purdue.
Pikiell is building something on the Banks of Piscataway, NJ. It will take some time but Rutgers’ run showed he is developing the foundation for a solid program poised for long-term success in the future. Earlier last week in the leadup to the tournament he was asked about what he’s building at Rutgers, saying:
It feels really good. I’ve got great teammates and a great coach, always telling me to stay confident and ready. I was really just playing for the seniors, to be honest with you. I really didn’t want to go home because I know when we go home it’s their last game ever in this program. But in terms for me, it felt really good going forward.
