Ok two separate followups:
#1. If Rutgere had won this year with Ace/Dylan on their way out before even arriving and all the transfers, how excited and interested would you have been? Say they made the Sweet 16
There are 4 outcomes for winning/veterans and I'd wager this is the priority for most:
1. Win with program veterans
2. Win with "mercenaries"
3. Lose with program veterans
4. Lose with program "mercenaries".
This season was a 4. But could have easily been a 2 and then all this "disinterest" would be gone.
#2 If the Rutgers specific issues aren't the cause, then why the disinterest in the tournament? Why was it boring?
I can't imagine Rutgers fans caring if Flordia or Texas Tech had massive roster turnover.
#1 - I was really exited about this season in the latter part of 2023-24. Swapping Fernandez/Hyatt for Harper/Bailey would have made a huge difference in the fortunes of the 2023-24 team. Then we lost Omoruyi, Mag, Simpson, and Woolf, too.... and brought in a bunch of mercs to replace them. The team in November was a who's-who of "who's-that?"
The writing was on the wall very early that we were not making the tournament. I had us as "out" on 12/23 in SBP's thread. Had fortunes been different, and we'd had an entirely different season than we had, and made the Sweet 16 - I'd have been excited to watch our first every Sweet 16 in my lifetime.
The "disinterest" isn't in Rutgers - it's in the sport in general. There was a time 8-10 years back when I'd have watched literally any college basketball game on television, from any conference, regular season or tournament. I just don't feel that way anymore..
#2 - The first weekend was dull as hell. Virtually no drama at all. The opening rounds produced pretty much zero surprises, aside from maybe SJU having a poor shooting game against a good Arkansas team. Only one buzzer beater (Maryland), no overtime games, no real upsets, and most games weren't very close in the final 5 min - with the higher seeded team just keeping the lower seeded one at arm's length until the clock ran out.
Only 4 of the first 32 games were decided by fewer than 7 points, and only 5 of the next 16 games... only 7 games of 48 were single-score finishes, and some of those were on last possession desperation shots to cut it to a single score. The only "upset" games where a team beat someone seeded at least 4 spots higher were: 12 CSU over 5 Memphis, 12 McNeese over 5 Clemson, 11 Drake over 6 Missouri, and 10 Arkansas over 2 SJU.
But why? In part because the best players from these lower seeded teams were harvested after last season. For example, FAU had a great tournament run in 2022-23.... and now their top 4 players from that team are all on tournament rosters this year (Goldin on Michigan, Davis on Arkansas, Martin on Florida, Boyd on SDSU). Danny Wolf left Yale early, which is a rare thing from the Ivy League, which defanged Yale in the first round.
