“Super special” win makes Rutgers’ journey worth the wait

Geo Baker (0) is embraced by his teammates after layup in final seconds sealed Rutgers’ win over Clemson Friday, the first for Scarlet Knights in NCAA Tournament since 1983. (Photo by NCAA Photos)

It stands to reason that Rutgers’ NCAA Tournament victory Friday night — the program’s first since 1983 and its first appearance since 1991 — began and ended with Geo Baker.

After all, who else but Baker, the scrappy point guard ranked 414th in his recruiting class four years ago and one who spoke so eloquently of making and rewriting history before the Scarlet Knights converged upon Indianapolis, would be a more apropos author of a lasting impression?

The senior drew first blood for Rutgers Friday, connecting on the first of his two 3-pointers against a Clemson team that essentially served as a mirror image of sorts for the State University of New Jersey. Then, inside the final four minutes of regulation with the score tied at 55, he launched another trifecta to give his team the lead for good. Not done yet, and in need of one more body blow to put the Tigers away, he put on a master class in playmaking in a give-and-go with Ron Harper, Jr. that culminated in a layup and the final tally in a 60-56 final score of a battle that was so deliciously, unabashedly, typical Rutgers.

“It was everything I hoped for,” Baker gushed. “This experience today? It’s better than I imagined, honestly. Just knowing that we survived and advanced in March, it was crazier than I ever expected. It’s just super special. I can’t think of any other type of word, honestly.”

“It feels like we did a big thing,” Jacob Young added. “This is what we’ve been working for, not just to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but to win games in the NCAA Tournament. It’s just been a blessing doing it with these guys, and now finally being here and getting that win, my emotions are going crazy.”

Baker made the plays that mattered in crunch time, but without Caleb McConnell flying all over the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, Rutgers may not have been in position to win in the final minute. McConnell, who missed the beginning of the season after initially planning to take a medical redshirt to rehab an injured back, saved his best effort for the most opportune time, posting 13 points and 10 rebounds. More than that, though, it was his nose for the basketball on both ends that saved Rutgers when it appeared Clemson and guard Clyde Trapp were on the verge of driving away with the game, and his awareness to place himself in the right spots to ensure the bounces fell his and his teammates’ way.

“It was really just my will to win, my will to get stops on the defensive end,” McConnell said of his adrenaline. “That just led me to rebound, getting stops and getting steals. It was just my will, wanting it a little more tonight.”

Baker concurred, highlighting the necessity of McConnell-like cogs in a postseason team’s identity.

“You need players like that,” he advised.

Now five years after head coach Steve Pikiell was steadfast in his conviction that Rutgers would dance — on the basketball court, not in a nightclub, as he put it in his introductory press conference — the Scarlet Knights get to continue their magical narrative Sunday against a formidable No. 2 seed in Houston, who overpowered Cleveland State and possess several matchup problems. Regardless of the name on the opposing jersey, the positive energy that has propelled Rutgers to this stage is ubiquitous, and that alone gives it more than a puncher’s chance against Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars.

“I was always confident it was supposed to happen,” said Pikiell. “Last year was supposed to happen, but because of COVID, it cut our season short. But we had to fight back this year and prove it again, and our guys did. When we stay focused and we’re together, we can do some good things.” 

“We just feel like a special unit, man,” an emotional Baker declared. “For some of us, it’s been two years now that we’ve been waiting for this moment, and at the same time, we feel like this is meant to be and we should be here. We just knew it was going to happen.”