As Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped in “My Shot,” from his masterpiece Hamilton, “this is not a moment, it’s the movement.” Only time will tell if Steve Pikiell takes the Rutgers basketball program to that level or not, but this upcoming season will be momentous. Pikiell, in 2016, inherited a program from Eddie Jordan that had won just three Big Ten games during their first two seasons in their new conference.
When he took over Rutgers, the previous season’s Scarlet Knights team had finished 14th out of 14, 1-17 in the Big Ten, 7-25 overall.
The Big Ten now has a whopping 18 teams, and only four of them are ranked in the AP preseason poll.
Purdue is 14, Indiana 17, UCLA 22 and Rutgers 25. If these projections are somewhat accurate, the Knights will be among the top teams in the conference, led by their highly rated freshmen class.
It includes Ace Bailey, who could easily be the number one pick in next June’s NBA Draft (for our NBA Mock Draft go here).
“Right now, I’m in college,” Bailey said to Responsible Gambler. “I don’t worry about that right now, winning the NCAA, winning the Big 10- that’s my main focus right now.”
Bailey is big and lean, with the ability to play all five positions (he’s listed as a guard/forward), thus he fits in perfect, at any level, in today’s ethos of “position-less basketball.”
He projects as a top three or four overall selection.
Senior guard Jeremiah Williams, who played high school ball for legendary prep powerhouse Simeon, answered an intriguing question at Big Ten Media Day.
A reporter asked him what it’s like to hear Rutgers basketball talked about in a way that it has never been discussed before.
“Yeah, it’s amazing,” he responded.
“It means a lot to the university, to the people that’s been there a long time, Rutgers has come a long way, and where the program’s going, where coach Pike is taking this thing- I’m happy to be a part of it.
There isn’t much, in the history book of Rutgers basketball, so this dynamic duo of freshmen should easily be able to write their own page(s).
Bailey answered a similar question about what this team’s potential could be.
“In my first year, I can be able to do this, I mean, not too many freshmen can do that,” Bailey answered.
“So it’d be a blessing. We can do this and succeed all the way.”
There is, of course, a whole lot more to this freshmen class, and to the squad as a whole, beyond just Bailey and Harper, with Coach Pike pointing out what makes the freshmen class on this Rutgers basketball team so special.
“It’s exciting,” he said during his individual table session at Big Ten Media Day.
“I’m thankful my staff did a fantastic job, and those two freshmen are excellent, but we have three other freshmen you know, Lathan Somerville is really good.
“Bryce Dortch is 6-11, athletic, with a great motor.
“And then Dylan Grant is maybe, next to ace, the most athletic player we’ve had.
“He shoots threes. He’s out of Toronto.
“Great kids. So, you know that entire class, really, it started with Ace’s commitment, but they all wanted to play with each other, and they give us tremendous size and athleticism and a great energy, all five.”
Bringing talented recruits to the Rutgers basketball program was not an easy task for Coach Pike’s predecessors, but it all started in 2017 with stellar shooting guard Geo Baker, and then, over time, the stellar recruits started to trickle in to Piscataway, New Jersey.
This is the highest rated recruiting class that Rutgers basketball has ever had. Let’s see how far Pikiell can take them.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.