Just to be clear, I looked at a 10 year stretch, I don't remember if it was the seasons ending in 2000 through 2009 or 2001 through 2010. Those 5 years beginning around 2005 were the best of it, although no matter what metric I looked at - total wins, regular season finish, NCAA tournament seed, NCAA tournament finish - for the period I looked at, we consistently in almost every metric were top 10, but barely, and then it declined. All those teams were - for the period - top 10 and higher than we were.
The largest point is that we were not really first rate long enough to establish Rutgers as an elite program. Very good, yes, but before that decade and after it (as we read ad infinitum on here) we just were not.
Those years you mention were years when UConn for one reason or another did not win a championship - but they did before and after. Tennessee has slipped a lot since those days as well - but neither as far as Rutgers and with a far more notable history.
I am very pleased with Rutgers success over the years, but it just is what it is.