THEY STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR…
On this season’s craziest Sunday, when Northwestern defeated Michigan in double overtime and Wisconsin recovered from a 22-point third quarter deficit to knock off Purdue, Rutgers (the Big Ten’s worst offense) made some noise in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knight’s 28 (!) fourth quarter points erased an 8-point deficit and delivered not only a victory over Penn State; but also halted an 0-12 start to the conference season. Rutgers, which averages 54 points and 4 threes per game in Big Ten play, scored 71 points and went 9-17 from beyond the arc. Adding to the crazy, graduate guard
Victoria Morris, who was 0-7 from behind the arc in conference games, went 2-2 from three. Rutgers finally got to celebrate a Big Ten win at the RAC.
I’d just started believing that Rutgers could match the 0-18 record put up by Michigan’s 1993-94 team That would’ve been a memorable achievement. Anyway, I skimmed through the yearly standings looking for no win futility. The most recent winless season was Illinois’ 0-16 effort in 2017-18. There were four other 0-16 seasons: Michigan in 2005-06, Northwestern in 2001-02 and 2000-01, and Minnesota in 1995-96.
Unfortunately, the winless hook that could’ve made this Rutgers season memorable has dissolved. I’m sure the players are fine with it; but the rest of us must turn to wondering what’s up at Rutgers. But it’ll probably be season’s end, or summertime, or next fall before questions surrounding the Scarlet Knights are answered. A once mighty program has fallen on its own sword.
SOME QUESTIONS: is
C Vivian Stringer returning? If not, is acting head coach
Timothy Eatman returning? Eatman has had an awful season, so I don’t see a particular ground swell for him. Who’s going to play for the Scarlet Knights. They went big on portal players to fill this year’s roster. Subsequently most of the playing time is taken up by grad students. Player development hasn’t seemed a high priority.
There isn’t really much left to discuss about the current lineup. The starters have been shuffled and reshuffled. Rutgers has played a bit better and a few players have emerged:
Ball State transfer,
Osh Brown, has lived up to expectations. She racked up her ninth double double of the season against Penn State. Not surprisingly Brown leads Rutgers in scoring, rebounding and minutes played.
Sayawni Lassiter, the Florida State transfer, has also been on a recent run. Against Ohio State she scored 15 points (5-8 from three) and versus Penn State 11 points (3-5 from three).
Both Brown and Lassiter are grad students and won’t return next season. As is third leading scorer
Shug Dickson, who arrived from Missouri.
It would be best for Minnesota to do what they did in the first meeting-except we can skip
Lindsay Whalen’s appendectomy. And of course, we need to replace
Jasmine Powell’s 19 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in the 62-49 win. For Rutgers,
Osh Brown had 13 points and 10 rebounds and
Shug Dickson led the Scarlett Knights with 17 points. Whatever Rutgers was looking for this season is now of far less importance than what the winter thaw will bring to Piscataway.
RUTGERS B1G RECORD (1-12):
Wins: Penn State 71-62
Losses: Maryland 59-73, @ Penn State 48-52 and @ Purdue 58-60, Minnesota 49-62, @ Michigan 47-76, @ Northwestern 63-68, Wisconsin 45-49, Ohio State 71-80, @ Maryland 55-72, Michigan State 45-61, @Nebraska 38-50 and @ Ohio State 57-61..
Osh Brown Last Six Big Ten Games:
Team | Pts | Reb | Asst | Min | Foul | | | | |
Ohio State | 24 | 8 | 2 | 38 | 4 | | | | |
Maryland | 10 | 12 | 0 | 37 | 2 | | | | |
Michigan State | 10 | 6 | 0 | 25 | 5 | | | | |
Nebraska | 13 | 11 | 1 | 38 | 3 | | | | |
Ohio State | 11 | 9 | 2 | 36 | 1 | | | | |
Penn State | 20 | 11 | 1 | 37 | 1 | | | | |
Lasha Petree Last Six Big Ten Games:
Team | Pts | Reb | Asst | Min | Foul | | | | |
Ohio State | 18 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 1 | | | | |
Maryland | 7 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 0 | | | | |
Michigan State | 15 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 3 | | | | |
Nebraska | 2 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 | | | | |
Ohio State | 8 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 1 | | | | |
Penn State | 17 | 4 | 2 | 37 | 4 | | | | |
Probable Starters:
HGT | POS | YR | PLAYER | MIN | AVG | REB |
6’1” | F | GS | Osh Brown | 32.5 | 12.5 | 9.2 |
6’0” | G | Sr | Lasha Petree | 24.4 | 9.5 | 2.0 |
6’2” | F | RJr | Tyia Singleton | 21.7 | 5.2 | 6.2 |
5’10” | G | GS | Sayawni Lassiter | 21.2 | 4.5 | 2.4 |
5’9” | G | GS | Jailyn Mason | 20.4 | 1.6 | 0.8 |
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Others:
HGT | POS | YR | PLAYER | MIN | AVG | REB |
5’10” | G | GS | Shug Dickson | 26.3 | 8.1 | 2.6 |
5’8” | G | GS | Victoria Morris | 12.3 | 3.8 | 1.2 |
5’11” | G | Jr | Awa Sidibe | 14.5 | 3.0 | 1.5 |
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