Rutgers’ season deserves to be remembered for more highs than its heartbreaking end

Rutgers’ final game of 2020-21 will show a loss on paper, but program’s defining memory of this season should be that of raising bar in Piscataway for future success. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops)

Rutgers alumnus Jim Valvano said it best when he took Iona on a magic carpet ride just over four decades ago.

Dare to dream.

Years later, with his coaching career having ended and in a fight for his life, the affable and colorful Valvano offered more sage advice.

“Think about it,” he said in his iconic speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. If you do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

Sunday night, Valvano’s alma mater ran that emotional gamut and then some, leading Houston by eight with just over four minutes remaining and just the program’s third-ever appearance in a regional semifinal awaiting it. But when Myles Johnson’s missed dunk led to a 3-pointer by DeJon Jarreau at the other end, a five-point swing set the wheels in motion for what became a game-ending 14-2 run and a 63-60 victory for the Cougars in what amounted to a double dose of heartbreak for the Scarlet Knights, who learned after the game that beloved radio analyst and former assistant coach Joe Boylan had passed away earlier in the day at the age of 82.

But the fact remains that this Rutgers season should be remembered less for how it ended than for how it began, and the program-changing milestones along the way.

A 6-0 start. A victory over eventual No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed Illinois. Road wins against Maryland and Indiana for the first time in program history. Defeating Michigan State, a perennial Big Ten heavyweight, for the first time and holding the Spartans to just 37 points in the process. The maturation of Geo Baker, Myles Johnson and Jacob Young into three senior bedrocks and standards for which Rutgers should come to expect from its upperclassmen. The emergence of Ron Harper, Jr. as the flag-bearer for the next iteration of Scarlet Knights. The upside of Montez Mathis, Caleb McConnell and Paul Mulcahy. The potential of Cliff Omoruyi after leading a four-pronged freshman class into their baptism to college basketball.

All those accomplishments outweigh the agony of a three-point loss and a handful of unlucky bounces.

“We need this group to be remembered for a long time,” a visibly dejected Steve Pikiell, no stranger to the cruel realities of March anguish from his four near-misses at Stony Brook before finally breaking through in 2016, concurred. “I’m just sad for us. I never wanted to put these uniforms away. This group has been awesome. Whenever we got knocked down, this group always got back up.”

“This team made history. They got through a two-year journey — COVID, never missing a day, never having a pause — all the obstacles they had to fight through. They now become the standard for what we want to be at Rutgers.”

So much has been made over the years of Rutgers — before Pikiell arrived in Piscataway five years ago today — having never been able to punch above its weight class, to survive a heavyweight fight with its dignity not shattered, its overall reputation enhanced. In winning its first NCAA Tournament contest since 1983, the colors on the mural that is Rutgers basketball became ever more vibrant, richer and more symbolic. Baker proved that in a poignant postgame press conference, noting that while he blames himself for his turnover in the final minutes as Rutgers looked to steal a victory, a moment like that only lays the groundwork for a comeback.

“Losses are lessons,” the senior point guard reflected in what could be the coda to a four-year career that will be forever remembered on the banks for a belief in something bigger and a litany of step-back jumpers emulated by thousands of fans young and old. “This is probably just going to be another one of those.”

“How do you take it in? How do you react to it? How do you bounce back and make something positive out of it? But there are better days ahead. You just have to understand that and work through it, just continue on.”

Rutgers will do that now, possibly without Baker, most likely without Young, who hinted on social media in a thank-you post that is likely taking the next step. The core of the team should return largely intact, and in prime position to make this season one that harkens back to Pikiell’s own senior year at UConn in 1990, when the Huskies reached an improbable regional final:

Only the beginning.