Written by Sam Gutkin
On the 12th day of Christmas Coach Pikiell gave to me, a trip to the round of 16.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knight's Basketball team is fresh off their worst loss (and only loss) of this young season, vs the Ohio State Buckeyes. It's nothing new though, disappointment such as this has been a consistent theme in Rutgers basketball for most of their history. In 1976 the Scarlet Knights made their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance (after losing in the first round the previous year) as an undefeated team. Despite being one of only a handful of teams to ever enter the tournament undefeated, they lost in the final four and lost the third-place game to finish fourth overall. They won a game in '79 and '83, only to lose their second game each time, and they haven't won in the tournament since (not even appearing since 1991). The final disappointment came last season where Rutgers was a shoo-in for a bid, and a contender for a run, before the season was cut short and the tournament was canceled.
This string of misfortune seems primed to change this year though, as the Scarlet Knights entered the week ranked #11 in the country, their highest rank in 44 years. Losing to Ohio State will certainly knock them down a peg, but the Buckeyes were #23 in the nation entering the game, so it isn't a total killer. Rutgers will also have plenty of opportunities to bump themselves back up, as they will be playing a ranked team just about every week from now until March. On the 29th of December, they get their first shot at redemption vs unranked Purdue, and only four days later they play #4 Iowa with a chance to really put themselves on the map.
Coach Steve Pikiell took over in 2016 and ever since the Knights have been Big Ten competitors who play a fun-to-watch breed of smart unselfish basketball, and seem to have the ability to beat anyone on any given day. In only his second year Rutgers was able to upset three ranked opponents (Seton Hall, Northwestern, Minnesota), and only two seasons after that Rutgers cracked the AP poll for the first time since 1979.
The goal for Rutgers is going to be to end up on the 4 line for the big dance, and this is a realistic goal according to Andy Katz who had them as a 4 seed in his mock bracket way back in September. Should they achieve this first goal, goal number two is to win two games and make it to the sweet sixteen, which will be the deepest tournament run since the 1976 season. As a four seed, they will have approximately a 47.1% chance at this. While that obviously means there's a more likely 52.9% chance they don't make it, this seems like the perfect situation for my final Ridin' Pine wish. Hopefully at this point a few years from now I'll be wishing for a national championship.