PISCATAWAY – Even as the Rutgers-Seton Hall rivalry has become increasingly one-sided, it never has lacked for drama.
From verbal sparring to flagrant fouls to ejections, this Garden State rivalry always has provided plenty of copy. And with chemistry issues bubbling over on both teams, last night’s game was no different.
The Scarlet Knights, with the look of a team in turmoil, had lost five in a row to the Hall, and five straight overall. And after the Hall’s heartbreaking loss to Boston College, coach Louis Orr questioned his team’s toughness, while John Allen snapped back that his coach’s remarks were “offensive.”
Both could’ve faced a crossroads last night at the RAC, and it was only fitting that it came against the other.
Seton Hall’s Marcus Toney-El leveled RU’s Mike Sherrod to start a brawl in 2002. Last year RU’s Marquis Webb was ejected for a shoving match with – and admitted flop by – Andrew Sweet.
After the Hall routed Rutgers 74-58 back on Jan. 22, Scarlet Knights coach Gary Waters proclaimed that it wouldn’t happen again. But he’d made a similar guarantee after a loss last year, only to have his squad lose again, so he has Patrick Ewing-like status as a prognosticator.
And after BC had bludgeoned the Hall on the boards, Orr said, “There’s a sense of toughness that we have to establish.”
It was a comment that rankled his veterans, particularly Allen, who snapped, “We played tough. I don’t think there’s anybody tougher than us. That [comment] is offensive.”
Orr made his players watch and re-watch the tape of that loss during the Super Bowl, but Allen still disagreed with his coach, saying, “I don’t take back anything I said, and I’m sure he doesn’t. When I went home that night, my body was hurting from playing tough.”
For his money, toughness wasn’t what was lacking, but execution.
“Our execution during the game, it ain’t right,” Allen understated.
The Pirates had four double-figure scorers back from the third-highest-scoring offense in the Big East, but this season they were mired in last in the league in both scoring and shooting. Such is life breaking in a freshman point guard.
“It’s too late [for growing pains],” Allen said. “It’s not like we can let him learn on the job. You’ve got to get somebody in there who can do the job. But it’s all of us, not just Justin.”
With former star Andre Barrett now in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, Justin Cerasoli has tried to fill his shoes, showing flashes of brilliance, most of them obscured by inconsistent play.
“He’s got to learn to understand why we do what we do, why we want to execute a certain way,” Orr said. “It’s tough. It’s hard to learn it when the game’s on the line. I’m not putting this on Justin. We’ve got some veterans that need to step up. But at the end of games he’s got to be more efficient.”
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On the football front, RU defensive line coach Randy Melvin left to join Ron Zook at Illinois.
