‘Making Rutgers cool’: How two future top-5 picks are attempting to vary the college’s rep — and legacy
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — On show in Steve Pikiell’s workplace on the fourth flooring of Rutgers’ Athletic Efficiency Heart are three basketball-sized glass show circumstances.
The underside one, on the wall behind the place the Rutgers males’s basketball coach sits, is labeled “NCAA Match.” There is a ball inside commemorating Rutgers’ win over Clemson within the 2021 event, this system’s first NCAA event look since 1991 and their first win since 1983.
The opposite two circumstances are empty. One is marked “Closing 4″; the opposite, “Nationwide Championship.”
Pikiell had them constructed when he took over this system in 2016, when the Scarlet Knights hadn’t had a profitable season in additional than a decade and hadn’t completed above .500 in convention play in 25 years. Since then, Pikiell has guided Rutgers to a pair of NCAA event appearances and its first top-25 rating in additional than 40 years. However as these unoccupied circumstances point out, he has loftier targets nonetheless unfulfilled.
“We’re getting dusty,” Pikiell instructed ESPN in late November. “We have to fill a pair extra.”
Which brings us to this season. The Scarlet Knights earned a preseason top-25 rating for simply the second time since 1979, because of the addition of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, two of the highest three recruits within the 2024 highschool class and projected top-five picks in subsequent summer time’s NBA draft.
It is uncommon for the central New Jersey college to have one participant as adorned as Bailey or Harper, not to mention two. Now the trick might be dwelling as much as that potential. Rutgers received its first 4 video games in opposition to mid-major opponents however fell out of the AP Prime 25 with a loss to Kennesaw State. Now, it faces the hardest stretch of its schedule: the Gamers Period Competition — together with video games in opposition to Notre Dame and Alabama — and a visit to Ohio State in simply the following 12 days. It’ll go a good distance towards figuring out whether or not the staff Pikiell has constructed round his two stars has an opportunity to fill these glass circumstances.
“Dylan and Ace can do issues that standard folks do not do,” he mentioned. “Then now we have guys round them that may do some issues. So if we are able to put all of it collectively, we’re fairly thrilling, I feel.”
THE FIRST TIME Bailey and Harper teamed up was April 2023, on an Athletes of Tomorrow grassroots staff on the Tip-Off Traditional in Atlanta.
Bailey had spent three years enjoying on the spring and summer time AOT staff and had simply dedicated to Rutgers three months earlier than, turning into the highest-ranked recruit in program historical past.
Harper, in the meantime, hadn’t dedicated to a faculty but, although Rutgers was excessive on his record of potential locations: His older brother, Ron Harper Jr., was a two-time All-Massive Ten choice and one of many winningest gamers prior to now 40 years of Rutgers basketball. Bailey and Harper had teamed up a bit of in USA Basketball, however Bailey noticed a chance to point out Harper what it could imply for them to pair up at AOT. He instructed program director Damon Wilson, who had recognized folks in Harper’s circle for years, that he wished to ask Harper to fly down for a weekend.
And the 2 elite recruits instantly clicked.
“That s— was enjoyable,” Bailey mentioned. “The entire health club was simply eyes on us, too. Realizing the entire health club was coming in to observe us, simply to placed on a present, doing what we do finest, after which we’re enjoying collectively. It is simply enjoyable.”
“He instructed me from day one, he mentioned the ball is in your arms. Like, I will depend on you,” Harper added. “So that basically hit me as a result of, the belief he has in me, I do know that I obtained simply as a lot in him.”
Whereas a groin challenge hampered Harper later within the weekend, onlookers noticed more than enough from the two stars to point the potential for a high-level duo sooner or later.
“All of us noticed it was pure,” Wilson mentioned. “There was no selfishness, there was no, ‘I need to attempt to outdo you, I will present you.’ They have been passing the ball to 1 one other. They have been pushing one another. Encouraging one another, it was like they have been enjoying collectively perpetually. The chemistry was there. That they had the makings of a particular duo.”
Wilson added that the off-court friendship between Bailey and Harper additionally developed throughout that weekend in Atlanta.
“It was extra so the bonding that passed off exterior of the video games,” he mentioned. “Hanging out, going to dinner, listening to music, speaking. Spending an entire weekend collectively, that is the place they grew. I really feel like at that time, that is when Dylan trusted Ace. And with the bond these two had, they ended up trusting one another.”
From that time on, Bailey performed a key position in recruiting Harper to Rutgers. Bailey wasn’t calling Harper on a regular basis with a gross sales pitch, however the two gamers continued to construct a relationship.
“I talked to Dylan, however we did not discuss basketball on a regular basis,” Bailey mentioned. “Checking on his psychological, checking on his household. … I do know everyone else is in his ear about the place you going, what you doing and all that. So I wasn’t attempting to be a type of pests.”
For Harper, the most important eye-opener was much more simple: a top-five recruit from nowhere close to New Jersey committing to Rutgers. For context, earlier than Bailey and Harper dedicated, Rutgers had signed simply six complete top-100 prospects since ESPN’s recruiting database started in 2007 – with only one participant ranked inside the highest 50, in-state guard Mike Rosario in 2008.
“We now have a bunch of nice gamers right here, however when Ace dedicated, it was like, dang, he is coming right here,” Harper mentioned. “He is from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he believes in this system. Why should not I — a child that is been across the program for about all my life, my brother was right here and simply I do know all of the ins and outs, I do know all the good folks which are right here. … So why not come right here and do what he did?”
EVERYONE AROUND THE Rutgers program talks about Bailey’s infectious vitality, and it is on full show as he bounces into observe the day earlier than Rutgers is about to host Merrimack, shaking arms with everybody on the teaching workers and singing Kurtis Blow’s 1984 basic, “Basketball.”
“… I just like the pick-and-roll, I just like the give-and-go …”
Whereas Harper is not as spirited as Bailey, he isn’t far behind his classmate as what Pikiell calls an “vitality giver.” The 2 freshman stars are aggressive in a 2-on-1 drill. They’re engaged whereas operating the Scarlet Knights’ zone offense. They end first and second in a post-drill full-court dash.
They may be projected to be the second and third picks in ESPN’s mock draft, however there is a clear motivation to depart a legacy at Rutgers earlier than they go professional.
“Me and Ace and the remainder of the staff, we are able to do one thing very massive that folks have not seen in New Jersey in a very long time,” Harper mentioned. “We will make this a faculty [where] folks, not simply from Jersey however out of Jersey, need to come right here and do what we did … altering the tradition and simply making Rutgers cool, I suppose. Why cannot one other recruit come and do the identical factor we’re doing?”
A part of that course of was Pikiell placing the items round his two stars to benefit from their 10 months with the Scarlet Knights.
Solely three gamers returned from final season — led by main scorer Jeremiah Williams and Jamichael Davis, Bailey’s highschool teammate — however Pikiell landed 4 veterans from the switch portal, together with NEC Participant of the Yr Jordan Derkack from Merrimack.
Having two headliners on the high of the roster generally is a reward and curse relating to recruiting out of the portal. Some gamers will understandably be involved about obtainable pictures and minutes. Generally there are character points or ego clashes with gamers who had a lot hype at the highschool degree.
However Pikiell used Bailey and Harper on the high of his gross sales pitch final spring: Come play with two top-five picks. Come observe and play in entrance of NBA scouts and executives each day.
For Williams, who’s coming into his fifth yr of faculty basketball and has been round three completely different applications, it did not take lengthy to acknowledge the expertise improve in Piscataway.
“For Ace, the primary days we began enjoying, I obtained a few of these ‘Oh s—‘ moments fairly typically from him,” Williams mentioned. “And that was our first time being round him, first time seeing how he performs, simply the performs he was in a position to create. And for Dylan, when he got here again, one thing that stood out to me was his maturity. He has a very good presence about himself. … I discovered rather a lot from them. They create vitality to me and so they hold that youth and assist instill it in me.”
THROUGH FIVE GAMES of the younger season, Rutgers’ ceiling remains to be one thing of a thriller. There have been positives: 4 wins to begin the season over mid-major opponents, every by double digits.
“The out-of-bounds performs work higher now,” Pikiell joked earlier than final week’s sport in opposition to Merrimack.
Harper is averaging 19.8 factors, 5.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists. Bailey, after lacking the primary two video games of the season due to an damage, had 17 factors in his debut after which went for 23 factors and 10 rebounds in opposition to Merrimack — together with a shot that only a select few 18-year-olds in the world can make.
“He’s completely different,” Merrimack coach Joe Gallo mentioned of Bailey. “There are some pictures that he made that you would not do something about. He’s nearly as good of a participant as I’ve ever coached in opposition to.”
However after leaving the confines of Jersey Mike’s Enviornment — the RAC, as it will likely be perpetually recognized by hoops diehards — and its 68 consecutive sold-out house video games, Rutgers and its freshman phenoms acquired a troublesome introduction to the unpredictability of faculty basketball.
The Scarlet Knights went to Kennesaw State, a sport scheduled as a homecoming for Bailey, and misplaced 79-77. They trailed by as many as 21 factors within the second half, then simply two on the ultimate possession. Bailey introduced it up the left aspect of the ground, however as an alternative of driving to the basket or on the lookout for his personal shot, he picked up his dribble and tried a cross-court go to a teammate that was intercepted by Kennesaw.
“Ace is an efficient participant, and you bought to stay by way of these alternatives and stay by way of a few of these experiences,” Pikiell mentioned after the loss. “I’ve quite a lot of religion in him. … He is an efficient participant, and so are the remainder of the fellows on my staff, and we are going to bounce again.”
Now, not solely do the Scarlet Knights have to rebound from Sunday’s loss, they should do it whereas additionally adjusting to an enormous step up in competitors. The Gamers Period Competition in Las Vegas begins this week, with Rutgers dealing with Notre Dame on Tuesday, Alabama on Wednesday and a to-be-determined opponent Saturday. After which there is a highway journey to Ohio State to begin Massive Ten play subsequent weekend.
“You bought to get off the mat. It is a massive boy league and we’re enjoying Notre Dame and Alabama and whoever else, so we do not have quite a lot of time to really feel sorry for ourselves,” Pikiell mentioned. “We obtained to determine it out.”
Does the Kennesaw State loss spiral into an extended dropping streak and alter the narrative surrounding the staff? Or do the Scarlet Knights present resolve and that they will compete with one of the best groups in Vegas?
It is a stretch that some Rutgers gamers have circled on their calendars, an opportunity to make a press release on a nationwide stage. If the Scarlet Knights are to come back out the opposite aspect with the expectations they’d this preseason, a lot of it’ll come right down to their two main scorers, their two future lottery picks and maybe their two most participating personalities, Bailey and Harper.
“We’re blessed to have them right here for a yr,” Pikiell mentioned. “And we smile much more.”
