Sometimes in order to go forward, you have to take a dramatic step back. Such will be the case for Rutgers Basketball, this year, who will be hard pressed to duplicate last years 15 Win effort. 10-13 Wins seem likely and I have been having nightmares of fewer than 10 wins. Need to pack the OOC Schedule with tomato cans, so we can at least get to double digit wins, because wins are going to be difficult to come by during the conference schedule. This is not the time to be adventurous in scheduling.
We are replacing two lottery picks with freshmen, who don’t have the same upside. Last years Freshman Center Will be replaced with a Freshman Center for this year, as we don’t appear to have the money to get a transfer Center, who are going for well over $1M in the portal. Hopefully he can play better defense.
The lack of settlement in the NCAA Court case continues to hinder our recruiting, as we won’t able to hand out concrete offers until the settlement is finalized. Instead we likely talk about dollars in the abstract, contingent on a finalized settlement. In contrast a school like Maryland had NIL Cash Money, so they filled out their basketball roster quite quickly. Having an established coach who brought along transfers helped them immensely in this regard.
So in typical Rutgers fashion, we will do our best, with what we have, so things likely won’t end well, unless players take huge steps in their development, which is frankly, unlikely.
What we need to get out of this year, is to develop our new foundational players, who will pave the way for our future success.
PG - Angelino Mark : has the biggest upside of the players we’re bringing in. He can handle the ball and shoot the 3. We need him to eventually claw his way to PG1, and have a double digit scoring impact, because the players in front of him, aren’t likely to be very good. I see him as eventually having a Geo Baker type impact
SF - Chris Nwuli - poor man’s Ace Bailey. Averaged 10.3 pts for the Nations #2 High School Team after transferring. Combined with his teammates to lead their team to the National High School Finals.
As for the rest, I really don’t know what to expect. Buchanan and Francis are complete wildcards, and I’m not even sure they belong on this level, but we have no other choice, so I’m taking a wait and see approach. Dylan Grant seems to have the biggest upside, but we’ll need him to significantly raise his 5.9 ppg scoring average for us to be decent. Ogbole plays with great effort, but will be overmatched most games. Jamichael Davis has shown flashes of brilliance, but it remains to be seen how much he can improve.
Overall, this year looks like a trainwreck waiting to happen. The lack of NIL Resources hindered our talent acquisition, so we are going to try to do more, with a lot less. As a fan, we always hope for the best, but right now, things aren’t looking good.
This year is a Building year because we are building for our future success. Supposedly we are going back to our defensive style. As long as we can do that, play with upgraded defensive effort, and show some promise for future years, then we should be in decent shape. Key will be holding on to the players we develop this year.
