Rutgers finally has its win to build on. Now, where do Scarlet Knights go from here?

Rutgers snapped skid of four losses in five games with Monday’s win over UCLA, perhaps a sign of resurgence to come for Scarlet Knights. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — After his Purdue team walked into Jersey Mike’s Arena and comfortably defeated a Rutgers squad that had given it several fits in the past few years, Matt Painter offered a refreshing perspective on the issues plaguing the Scarlet Knights this season.

Despite the all-world talent of a pair of players in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, both of whom will likely hear their names announced by NBA commissioner Adam Silver within the first hour of the NBA Draft this coming June, Rutgers stood 8-8 following a 68-50 loss to the Boilermakers. To further diagnose the new difficulties in building a culture in a fluid college basketball landscape, Gannett New Jersey reporter Jerry Carino asked Painter what the hardest part of creating something at this level was. The Purdue coach, a longtime assistant to Gene Keady who assumed the reins following a one-year layover at Southern Illinois another year of apprenticeship in West Lafayette, offered a very thoughtful answer.

“You just need to get a win, more than anything,” Painter assessed. “You gotta build on something, right? I always say this after practices: I always feel like we can beat anybody in the country or we can’t beat anybody. I never feel in between. You just gotta get a win, and then when you do that, you gotta build on that and try to get the next one and build confidence from there.”

“It’s the landscape. It’s not something that any of us created, but here it is. You’ve got people leaving, going in the draft, getting hurt, whatever it is, and then you’ve got new guys and you’re trying to build with all new guys. And it’s really hard because what Rutgers has always had is a great defensive foundation, and then what (Steve Pikiell) got from Coach (Jim) Calhoun was that toughness, that nastiness, that ability to rebound, and now you don’t have the buildup as much. So what I think a lot of people are doing, besides just getting really talented guys is finding those guys in the portal that have those winning qualities, because you don’t have the time to instill it. You get them in the summer, you get them in the fall, and then you might lose them in the spring, right? It’s like dating in eighth grade. Everything’s changing, everything’s going a million miles an hour.”

Four days later, Rutgers was able to right the ship, catching a slumping UCLA team at an opportune time Monday to post a 75-68 home victory. With three of the Scarlet Knights’ next four games on the road—and the one home game against Michigan State (January 25) being played at Madison Square Garden—the win was of greater significance for a team Steve Pikiell said would ultimately get better with more repetitions.

“We just connected,” Pikiell said on a night where Rutgers got 20 points and 10 rebounds from Ace Bailey, while Dylan Harper showed no signs of being hampered by the flu that compromised him for the previous week, posting 18 points of his own. “We’ve shown signs of it. In this league, you’d better be connected for 40 (minutes), and I think we were connected for 40.”

“I think (it was) a much-needed win, especially after losing some games at home,” senior guard Jeremiah Williams added. “The vibe’s been down a little bit, and to capitalize and win the Rutgers basketball way—the way Coach Pikiell wants us (to)—I think it kind of alerts everyone else that’s in the program on how this program wants to play, how this program’s used to winning. It’s a step in the right direction.”

Rutgers’ next tests are by no means easy, starting Thursday at Nebraska and continuing Monday at Penn State. For a team that has won just ten Big Ten games away from Piscataway since 2021, the season is not lost, but the sense of urgency is clear.

“We’re just learning from our mistakes,” Harper said. “Even though (UCLA) threw the first punch, we recovered well. This gives us a lot of confidence, and I think we’ll stick with the same confidence and the same fight we’ve been swinging with. This win just really helps us out with team morale and just staying together.”

“Any win is going to help going forward,” Williams added. “I think the mindset we’re gonna keep is continue to improve in practice and continue to show up to games with energy, and try to use this game as a stepping stone.”

It should also be noted that Rutgers is no stranger to the situation it currently navigates, only one game over .500 and with its back almost against the wall. Pikiell has overseen similar circumstances in recent years that have resulted in NCAA Tournament berths. For now, though, the message is one game at a time, one win at a time, with Monday being the starting point.

“All we need is one win,” Bailey admitted. “We were 8-8, (now we) start over. We ain’t got too many wins, we ain’t got too many losses. There’s only one way you can go, you can go backwards or you can go forward. (Monday), we took that step forward.”