Facing a top-10 team with big March plans was unimportant. Rutgers’ recent struggles were insignificant.
All that mattered was the sold-out crowd could sense the importance of Tuesday night and expressed it with sheer volume and the Scarlet Knights players responded by treating their 40 minutes on the floor with incredible urgency.
Maryland entered this showdown as the leader of the Big Ten, arguably the best conference in the country. But the ninth-ranked Terrapins were just another RAC punching bag in a season full of them. Rutgers, in desperate need of a victory, put together its finest performance of the season at its most pivotal moment, thrashing Maryland 78-67, a win that might be the difference between dancing for the first time since 1991 and having to settle for the colossal letdown that is the NIT.
“There’s a lot of noise going on [from] the outside, social media and that stuff that doesn’t really matter,” coach Steve Pikiell said, referring to the bubble talk. “I just wanted them to play. When we stick with our cores and do what we do, we’re good.”
When the one-sided beatdown was over, ending a three-game losing streak, the crowd stormed the court, celebrating in style the finish of this program-best home season that saw Rutgers win 18 games and lose just once — to Michigan. Rutgers reached double figures in league wins for the first time since joining the Big Ten after outclassing the Terps, out-shooting them, outscoring them in the paint, out-hustling them and outrebounding them. They out-everything’d them.
“Just a really good feeling, especially on Senior Night. We wanted to make it really special for all the seniors that are in our program and you can even say for the seniors in the student section,” junior guard Geo Baker said after notching 11 points and four assists. “Rutgers fans haven’t seen winning in a long time and that’s something that’s really important to us.”
It could come down to Rutgers (19-11, 10-9), which visits Purdue on Saturday before next week’s Big Ten Tournament, winning a game away from the RAC, where it finished with a 18-1 mark. No team has made it to NCAA Tournament since 1994 with fewer than three wins away from home, and Rutgers has just one. But it does now own victories over likely tournament teams Penn State, Seton Hall, Maryland, Illinois and Wisconsin. Tuesday’s thorough rout should only enhance the Scarlet Knights’ standing with the selection committee and improve their 34 NET rating.
“I think we belong in the tournament, but there’s more work to do,” Baker said.
This much is clear: Maryland (23-7, 13-6) didn’t look like a top-10 team against Rutgers, held to 20 percent shooting (6 of 30) from 3-point range, incapable of taking anything away from the Scarlet Knights at the other end of the floor. Rutgers shot 49 percent from the field and hit 7 of 16 from deep. Jacob Young led the way with 17 points and Montez Mathis added 15.
Most of the second half was a coronation of this memorable home season. Rutgers led by 20 at the under-8 timeout. Maryland missed 23 of its first 26 3-pointers. Even with the game in hand, the crowd remained loud, soaking up every bit of what could be its last look at this team, barring an NIT home game.
“I don’t want to be back here for this season,” Baker said. “That was the last home game right there and we’re going to make sure of it.”
It remains to be seen whether this win gets Rutgers into its first NCAA Tournament in 29 years. If a fourth Quadrant 1 home victory will be enough, dominant as Tuesday’s shellacking was.
But there is little doubt that this Rutgers team belongs among the 68 teams in the dance. It now has to prove it can play like this away from Piscataway. It has at least two opportunities left. It couldn’t head back out on the road with any more momentum.
