I was going through KenPom last night looking for straws to grasp onto, and the KSU game bears some remarkable similarities to the St. Bonaventure loss in 2019.
After some unconvincing performances at home against weak, local competition, Rutgers led 5-0 against the Bonnies before a disastrous first half saw them fall behind 43-24 right before the break. Rutgers cut the lead to four with five minutes remaining in a furious rally but ultimately couldn’t get over the hump.
St. Bonaventure was KenPom 166 entering the game compared to KSUs 178, quite similar when you factor in game location, and went down as a Q3 loss. Rutgers dipped to 79 in KP after starting the year at 64, almost identical to this year’s movement.
From there, Rutgers played elite basketball during its next 14 games, the only dud being a bad road loss at Pitt. You can’t derive anything of real significance from these similarities, but they are kind of remarkable and present a pathway for this season.
