PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Tourniquet? Check.
Sutures? Check.
Notre Dame’s lack of grit? Check.
Rutgers got every thing it needed last night to stop the bleeding, snap a nine- game losing streak and become the last team in the Big East with a conference win.
The Scarlet Knights held off the Fighting Irish, 74-73, at the RAC, and for one day, coach Fred Hill’s contention that Rutgers’ program is close to turning the corner seemed plausible.
“We can talk all we want, we talk about the fine line between winning and losing, sometimes you don’t realize you’re standing on the line, so you don’t know when you’re ready to cross it,” said Hill. “It just gives them the feeling that, ‘O.K. we are there.’ ”
Not yet. Before last night Rutgers (10-11, 1-8 Big East) last won a game in 2009. The nine-game skid started with a defeat at North Carolina and then slid through eight Big East games. In six of those, Rutgers trailed by 17 or more by halftime.
Nevertheless, Hill never changed his approach. He is in the fourth year of a seven-year deal and his vision is to establish the Scarlet Knights in hoops as Greg Schiano has done in football. Hill’s not interested in winning respectably, and neither was Schiano — who once lost 80-7 to West Virginia.
“This is my dream job,” Hill told The Post. “All I want is to be the guy that turned it around. I hope they see it.”
“They” is the administration, led by athletic director Tim Pernetti, who was a football player at Rutgers and has grand visions for the program. Pernetti, like Hill, whose father, Fred Sr., is the longtime baseball coach, bleeds red.
“I’m evaluating the program as we go,” Pernetti told The Post. “I’ll finish my evaluation at the end of the season.”
Pernetti must have liked some things he saw last night. A excitable crowd of 7,049 jammed the RAC. Sophomore guard Mike Rosario, who told The Post he would be back at Rutgers next season and gave Hill a ringing endorsement, played a heady game, knocking down 8-of-15 shots and finishing with 24 points. Freshman Dane Miller posted his first double-double (12 points, 10 boards).
But Pernetti, who helped build CSTV into a college sports player, understands wins and losses are just part of bigger picture. Big East expansion looms, a big reason why Rutgers Stadium was recently upgraded. The RAC could be one of the best home courts anywhere, when it’s filled with a rabid crowd.
The crowd last night, however, had too many Notre Dame fans, most of who were shocked to see Rutgers center Hamady Ndiaye (10 points) make consecutive blocks of Irish stud Luke Harangody (19 points) in the final 33 seconds.
“You’re halfway through the league, you’re disappointed you’re not 5-4,” said Irish coach Mike Brey, whose team is 15-8, 4-5 in the Big East and has lost 4-of-5. “If you look at this league, it’s still really interesting in the middle.”
Rutgers remains at the bottom with DePaul, which fired coach Jerry Wainwright earlier this season. The Scarlet Knights have a long way to go just to get to the middle — and there are only so many bandages to go around.
