If RU loses to Michigan and then gets bumped off in the first tournament round in the B1G, the team potentially could plummet to the very bottom of all Div. 1 teams. Fifteen straight defeats and the deep bottom. It's depressing, after being an avid follower for 45 years. In a recent thread the OP asked if this was worse than the Littlepage era in the 2nd half of the 1980's. The present situation, I replied, is infinitely worse. Bob Wentzel brought the team to the NCAA's the very next year, the first of 4 consecutive NCAA or NIT appearances. The current program is not about to do that, or even reach the double digit win total.
In the latter part of this post I am going to state in a constructive way what I think is the only realistic approach to improving the program in the long term. I will admit, however, that all I feel about the CURRENT Rutgers Men's basketball program is sadness. I have no anger or frustration left; I am beyond that, as some of you probably are as well. I am not mad at Eddie; it is still amazing to me that he agreed to jump onto this careening train wreck, and he stopped RU MBB from being nothing more than a comedian's TV punch line after the Rice mess. I am not mad at the players; they're just kids and I'm grateful to Mack and Jack for staying during this tough time. I'm not mad at Julie Hermann; she hasn't been here that long and we can't expect instant fixes or miracles. I'm not even mad at Pres. Barchi, who, we should remember, has an academic institution to run, first and foremost, not a semi-pro athletic league.
Here's what I am mad about: the complete decline of RU MBB goes back 9 years, to when AD Bob Mulcahy foisted Fred Hill Jr. on a decent coach, Gary Waters, and then cynically found a lame excuse to push Waters out. Waters brought us the last modest success the program has had, even if he wasn't a great NJ recruiter or a perfect coach. RU MBB has been in free fall ever since, and the ensuing athletic departments and administrations never made it a priority to stop the plunge. Mulcahy and those who backed him in this move screwed up; perhaps he deserves kudos for helping to build up football, but he certainly didn't do it with hoops.
So here's what I think will have to happen over a period of years:
1) For the umpteenth time, there is no quick and dramatic fix to this; RU MBB has fallen too far. It's going to take years to bring about some tangible gain. One aspect of this is that it makes little sense to target Eddie as a convenient scapegoat in the short term. That does not mean he should be free of criticism, but blaming him for the whole mess is too simple. Give him a maximum of 4 years and then make a change. Removing him now would do far more harm than good.
2) Be prepared for a few more grim seasons. Yes, I know there are a few who look for that little bit of silver lining in this dark cloud, but the fact is, we lose our two best players (yes, I know that Jack had an off year and Mack carried an unrealistic burden, but they are still the two current best) and we have a roster full of bench-level players compared to the rest of the conference, and a bunch of unproven newcomers. Corey Sanders, if he's still with us, isn't going to be an instant miracle worker, and it's likely that one or more of our more promising players will transfer. Sorry, but next year is going to be worse than this one.
3) The only way, IMHO, to begin to chip away even slightly at this mountain is to do it the old fashioned way, knocking on one door at a time, just the way Greg Schiano did it when he first came here, inheriting a truly dreadful FB team. One by one, he persuaded NJ (and FL) kids to come here, but it took 4 or even 5 seasons to reach even minimal respectability. We've got to be prepared to take the same approach, although hopefully success will come sooner in BB. Get a young, high energy hustler in here to coach if EJ can't do it and try like hell, one recruit at a time, to get first one, then two, then another to come to RU MBB. The great news is that BB requires far fewer players to persuade to come here than FB.
4) As for a practice facility, apparently that expensive toy is an absolutely necessary part of the price to play in today's hyper-competitive, super-conference game of big time college sports. However, even if a multi-billionaire benefactor, or less likely, the NJ legislature, shocked us tomorrow with a check for the full cost of such a facility, it'd be years before it was constructed and ready to use. So pursue that goal with a capital campaign, by all means, and include in it upgrades to our aging arena, but know that a practice facility isn't going to be a magic fix all by itself.
5) See # 3 above.
6) See #3 above.
In the latter part of this post I am going to state in a constructive way what I think is the only realistic approach to improving the program in the long term. I will admit, however, that all I feel about the CURRENT Rutgers Men's basketball program is sadness. I have no anger or frustration left; I am beyond that, as some of you probably are as well. I am not mad at Eddie; it is still amazing to me that he agreed to jump onto this careening train wreck, and he stopped RU MBB from being nothing more than a comedian's TV punch line after the Rice mess. I am not mad at the players; they're just kids and I'm grateful to Mack and Jack for staying during this tough time. I'm not mad at Julie Hermann; she hasn't been here that long and we can't expect instant fixes or miracles. I'm not even mad at Pres. Barchi, who, we should remember, has an academic institution to run, first and foremost, not a semi-pro athletic league.
Here's what I am mad about: the complete decline of RU MBB goes back 9 years, to when AD Bob Mulcahy foisted Fred Hill Jr. on a decent coach, Gary Waters, and then cynically found a lame excuse to push Waters out. Waters brought us the last modest success the program has had, even if he wasn't a great NJ recruiter or a perfect coach. RU MBB has been in free fall ever since, and the ensuing athletic departments and administrations never made it a priority to stop the plunge. Mulcahy and those who backed him in this move screwed up; perhaps he deserves kudos for helping to build up football, but he certainly didn't do it with hoops.
So here's what I think will have to happen over a period of years:
1) For the umpteenth time, there is no quick and dramatic fix to this; RU MBB has fallen too far. It's going to take years to bring about some tangible gain. One aspect of this is that it makes little sense to target Eddie as a convenient scapegoat in the short term. That does not mean he should be free of criticism, but blaming him for the whole mess is too simple. Give him a maximum of 4 years and then make a change. Removing him now would do far more harm than good.
2) Be prepared for a few more grim seasons. Yes, I know there are a few who look for that little bit of silver lining in this dark cloud, but the fact is, we lose our two best players (yes, I know that Jack had an off year and Mack carried an unrealistic burden, but they are still the two current best) and we have a roster full of bench-level players compared to the rest of the conference, and a bunch of unproven newcomers. Corey Sanders, if he's still with us, isn't going to be an instant miracle worker, and it's likely that one or more of our more promising players will transfer. Sorry, but next year is going to be worse than this one.
3) The only way, IMHO, to begin to chip away even slightly at this mountain is to do it the old fashioned way, knocking on one door at a time, just the way Greg Schiano did it when he first came here, inheriting a truly dreadful FB team. One by one, he persuaded NJ (and FL) kids to come here, but it took 4 or even 5 seasons to reach even minimal respectability. We've got to be prepared to take the same approach, although hopefully success will come sooner in BB. Get a young, high energy hustler in here to coach if EJ can't do it and try like hell, one recruit at a time, to get first one, then two, then another to come to RU MBB. The great news is that BB requires far fewer players to persuade to come here than FB.
4) As for a practice facility, apparently that expensive toy is an absolutely necessary part of the price to play in today's hyper-competitive, super-conference game of big time college sports. However, even if a multi-billionaire benefactor, or less likely, the NJ legislature, shocked us tomorrow with a check for the full cost of such a facility, it'd be years before it was constructed and ready to use. So pursue that goal with a capital campaign, by all means, and include in it upgrades to our aging arena, but know that a practice facility isn't going to be a magic fix all by itself.
5) See # 3 above.
6) See #3 above.
