Let’s have sone fun here …
I was not born for Bobby Lloyd and the 1967 NIT and a little too young to witness Phil sellers owning the Garden in 1976, but at almost of all of them after that and I have a lot of fun memories of Rutgers basketball in the Garden …a place we need to play games at (yeah I know , don’t give up a big ten home game , I’m with you guys…)
Let’s have For sone pregame fun …here are some Rutgers basketball superlatives catagories at the Garden from this long time RU fan
Most bizarre ending :
#15 Rutgers v the people republic of China …November 1978. Game ends in. …..TIE. China didn’t want to play overtime . So china left the court to a bewildard Rutgers crowd. Hours later , Rutgers accepted its first bowl bid to the 1978 Garden state bowl after beating holy cross
Greatest scoring binge :
Quincy Douby 2006 BET Rutgers v #1 Villanova …27 points in the first half single handly kept Rutgers with a one point deficit over deficit . Still a BET record . It’s was a thing of beauty …
Greatest Dunk
Corey sanders 2018 exclamation point dunk Against Indiana in the 17 point come back win against Indiana in the big ten tourney in 2018
(Honorable mention to Jeff Greer exclamation slam against 23 WVU in the 1999 BET and to James Bailey game winning dunk in the 1978 triple OT win over Ohio state to win the ECAC holiday festival)
Most frustrating loss ….1983 loss to top 10 Louisville …who went in a 9 minute stall at the 13 minute mark up by three to shorten the game ….year before the shot clock hit the mainstream
Best and favorite loss
…...was the 2018 BTN quarterfinal against number 7 Purdue . A day where a top 10 team needed their absolute A game to beat a Rutgers team playing with its third game in three nights . , needling to shoot 53% to hold off RU. A night the scarlet national came out in pretty good force on a really bad weather night ….-anI left the building with a feeling that we finally had the right coach to get this done , the torch was passed by Corey sanders, whose amazing tournmwnt run was a thing of Beauty, to a young frosh named geo baker, who didn’t know better that you were supposed to be a little nervous playing in the garden as a frosh, had 25 points on the big stage in Manhattan ….
Most memorable shot
Geoff Billets runner at the lane at the buzzer against Georgetown in the 1998 BET quarterfinal . An exclamation mark on a game that changed lead five times in the last minute on a Thursday afternoon. …No one wanted to lay a hand on billet , a high 80% free throw shooter As he lowerred his sholder to get around a defende to get to top of the lane and let it rip ….and the roar still resonates …the game was the talk of the Mike and the mad dog for the drive time ….
Michael Jordan was a frosh once …
….And played his first game in MSG….against Rutgers in December 1981. A game that 5-1 Rutgers that already beat top 10 UCLA earlier in the month, and hung with the eventual national chanpiona until it went ice cold in the 2nd half (carbon copy of michgan final four second half) and lost by 17…..
Lastly
Most exciting game …and best win in MSG:
Rutgers 97 Ohio state 96 in triple overtime to win the 1978 ECAC holiday festival ….this one was a barn burner. EC/C holiday festival has duke coming in at number one (with crack assistant coach Bob Wenzel) and My dad did me good as a nine year old kid , taking me first to the night before to see Rutgers smack St Johns ….and then getting tickets for $10 each for a sold out garden from a scalper outside right as St. John’s /Duke tipped off in the consolation. ….and they were in the sixth or seventh row under the basket !!! So, RU scorer twice in the last four seconds to force the sexond OT (abdel anderson with the steal) and saw James Bailey game winning dunk with 15 seconds to go. Lot of names on that OSU team : a young Clark Kellogg, herb Williams and a spectulat kelvin Ramsey…who was great , but a little less great than JB that night …..
Hoping with the emergence of a RU basketball …we play some more memorable games in the Garden against the biggest names in college basketball.
I was not born for Bobby Lloyd and the 1967 NIT and a little too young to witness Phil sellers owning the Garden in 1976, but at almost of all of them after that and I have a lot of fun memories of Rutgers basketball in the Garden …a place we need to play games at (yeah I know , don’t give up a big ten home game , I’m with you guys…)
Let’s have For sone pregame fun …here are some Rutgers basketball superlatives catagories at the Garden from this long time RU fan
Most bizarre ending :
#15 Rutgers v the people republic of China …November 1978. Game ends in. …..TIE. China didn’t want to play overtime . So china left the court to a bewildard Rutgers crowd. Hours later , Rutgers accepted its first bowl bid to the 1978 Garden state bowl after beating holy cross
Greatest scoring binge :
Quincy Douby 2006 BET Rutgers v #1 Villanova …27 points in the first half single handly kept Rutgers with a one point deficit over deficit . Still a BET record . It’s was a thing of beauty …
Greatest Dunk
Corey sanders 2018 exclamation point dunk Against Indiana in the 17 point come back win against Indiana in the big ten tourney in 2018
(Honorable mention to Jeff Greer exclamation slam against 23 WVU in the 1999 BET and to James Bailey game winning dunk in the 1978 triple OT win over Ohio state to win the ECAC holiday festival)
Most frustrating loss ….1983 loss to top 10 Louisville …who went in a 9 minute stall at the 13 minute mark up by three to shorten the game ….year before the shot clock hit the mainstream
Best and favorite loss
…...was the 2018 BTN quarterfinal against number 7 Purdue . A day where a top 10 team needed their absolute A game to beat a Rutgers team playing with its third game in three nights . , needling to shoot 53% to hold off RU. A night the scarlet national came out in pretty good force on a really bad weather night ….-anI left the building with a feeling that we finally had the right coach to get this done , the torch was passed by Corey sanders, whose amazing tournmwnt run was a thing of Beauty, to a young frosh named geo baker, who didn’t know better that you were supposed to be a little nervous playing in the garden as a frosh, had 25 points on the big stage in Manhattan ….
Most memorable shot
Geoff Billets runner at the lane at the buzzer against Georgetown in the 1998 BET quarterfinal . An exclamation mark on a game that changed lead five times in the last minute on a Thursday afternoon. …No one wanted to lay a hand on billet , a high 80% free throw shooter As he lowerred his sholder to get around a defende to get to top of the lane and let it rip ….and the roar still resonates …the game was the talk of the Mike and the mad dog for the drive time ….
Michael Jordan was a frosh once …
….And played his first game in MSG….against Rutgers in December 1981. A game that 5-1 Rutgers that already beat top 10 UCLA earlier in the month, and hung with the eventual national chanpiona until it went ice cold in the 2nd half (carbon copy of michgan final four second half) and lost by 17…..
Lastly
Most exciting game …and best win in MSG:
Rutgers 97 Ohio state 96 in triple overtime to win the 1978 ECAC holiday festival ….this one was a barn burner. EC/C holiday festival has duke coming in at number one (with crack assistant coach Bob Wenzel) and My dad did me good as a nine year old kid , taking me first to the night before to see Rutgers smack St Johns ….and then getting tickets for $10 each for a sold out garden from a scalper outside right as St. John’s /Duke tipped off in the consolation. ….and they were in the sixth or seventh row under the basket !!! So, RU scorer twice in the last four seconds to force the sexond OT (abdel anderson with the steal) and saw James Bailey game winning dunk with 15 seconds to go. Lot of names on that OSU team : a young Clark Kellogg, herb Williams and a spectulat kelvin Ramsey…who was great , but a little less great than JB that night …..
Hoping with the emergence of a RU basketball …we play some more memorable games in the Garden against the biggest names in college basketball.
