Its identity reaffirmed, Rutgers is now getting back to business of rewriting history

Geo Baker and Rutgers have put midseason slump to rest with four straight wins to move closer to NCAA Tournament. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

Two weeks ago, after Rutgers walked off the floor against Penn State with its fifth consecutive loss and sixth in seven contests to whitewash the good will built up in a 6-0 start and a national ranking just outside the top ten, the obituaries were being prepared.

Since then? A commitment to doing what the Scarlet Knights do best has resulted in four straight wins, the most recent being a scintillating comeback in the final minutes Thursday night against Minnesota, to author a new streak of four wins in a row to get the waves rising once more on the banks of the old Raritan.

“The team figured it out,” Steve Pikiell said Thursday, as he oversees the latest act of the renaissance in and around Piscataway. “They decided that they wanted to be a really good defensive basketball team, they wanted to get back to doing the things that made us successful, but this league is so good. I don’t think anybody realizes the challenges that are in this league, but our team — and a tip of the hat to all of them — credit to all of them for stepping it up and doing just a terrific job. It’s their season, and they can make what they want out of it.”

“I’m just really proud of the way we’re defending now, and rebounding too. Everyone wanted a piece of a rebound down the stretch. We just kept kind of fighting through it. They never flinched. In every timeout and every huddle, they were together and they were like, ‘we got this, we got this.’”

Thursday saw that resolve manifested in the form of Caleb McConnell first fending off Marcus Carr’s take-charge effort to will Minnesota back from an early 9-0 hole, then burying a critical 3-pointer to vault Rutgers back into the lead after it looked like the Golden Gophers would drive away after taking a four-point advantage. Moments after conceding the lead, Geo Baker — as he did many times in last season’s captivating stretch drive — took matters into his own hands, draining a fadeaway teardrop from the left elbow with a minute remaining to give the hosts the lead for good.

“It’s not even taking pride in being clutch,” Baker said of his motivation. “I think it’s just taking pride in being a winning player, being a winning team. I hate losing more than I enjoy winning, and when we that had five-game stretch, we all remember what we felt like after every single loss.”

“We always talk about just having one agenda, and that’s to win the game. We just stuck together, and that’s our one goal, every single game. That’s what a winning program looks like, where things aren’t going your way but you still find a way.”

Rutgers appeared lost in the woods at times just a fortnight ago, like a deer caught in the headlights of a nomadic car in the middle of the night, before its galvanizing win against Indiana, the program’s first at historic Assembly Hall. That victory forged a strong-willed domination of Michigan State, followed by workmanlike wins over Northwestern and Minnesota more reminiscent of last season’s tenor. So what exactly changed inside the walls of the locker room and Athletic Performance Center?

“The program that we were two weeks ago, we really didn’t know who we were, we weren’t playing to our strengths,” Myles Johnson admitted. “Now after those two weeks, you see we’ve picked up our defense, we’re back to doing what we do. We know who we are now. Just having that one mindset and playing defense like we normally do, and rebounding the ball, really put us over the edge. We just got our identity together.”

Baker compounded that statement by reiterating what he and Johnson, his roommate, were lured to Rutgers by, the opportunity to weave a legacy into a long-folded-up quilt in the closet of New Jersey basketball. And with the newest works of art on full display over the past 15 months, the mission statement finally has justification.

“Every single game, every single day, we’re trying to make a new piece of history,” Baker said, delineating the common goal of the program. “That’s all we ever really think about, is making history. That’s what we came here for. Now we’re all veterans, but we’ve been talking about it for a long time, so this is what we expected. And now, we’re doing it.”