CCSU bolsters OOC season with second P5 win, convincingly defeating Rutgers

Darin Smith, Jr. (5) goes up to defend shot by Rutgers’ Harun Zrno. Blue Devils would have last word, scoring 67-54 upset of Scarlet Knights. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Just ten days ago, Central Connecticut State had only one lifetime win to its name against Power 5 schools. You would have to go all the way back to 1999 to find it, as that was when the Blue Devils defeated Providence, to this day the program’s only victory against a Big East opponent.

And after last March’s heartbreak in the NEC tournament championship game, where CCSU fell three agonizing points short against Saint Francis University, it could be argued that this year’s iteration of basketball in New Britain had something to prove.

Whatever chip CCSU has on its collective shoulder has doubled in size over the last two weeks.

Ten days after Darin Smith, Jr. shocked Boston College in the final seconds to ground the Eagles, the Blue Devils turned in a splendid encore in New Jersey, using a 13-0 run midway through the first half to go ahead for good and pull away to a 67-54 win over Rutgers at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

This victory, the first in six attempts against the Scarlet Knights and first over a Big Ten opponent, is the latest sign of growth from a team that did not even have its roster finalized when the summer workout period began.

“We’re one of these teams without the NIL, so we went the first two weeks of the summer still piecing our roster together,” head coach Patrick Sellers explained. “But we’ve got a group of guys, solid core guys, who have been here before, they know the system, and they’re really good teachers. They’re teaching the new guys what it’s like, how we travel, what we do. So with that being said, those guys lead and the new guys we brought in really are good followers. They’re following these guys’ lead and it’s been helping us.”

“We have grown men with the basketball on offense and they know how to play with each other, so a lot of times when you watch us play, we’re not even running anything set. We’re just playing basketball. We get the ball ahead and then we just start playing basketball.”

A concern going into the season for the Blue Devils, as it is for most mid-major teams having to now retool annually as their rosters are ransacked by the transfer portal, was how Sellers would replace the production of Devin Haid and Jordan Jones, the latter of whom was the NEC Player of the Year last season. In Smith, who scored 21 points in Friday’s win over Rutgers, Sellers has a proven veteran with a killer instinct who is unafraid to ask for or take the big shot when the situation calls for it.

“Smitty’s super confident,” point guard Jay Rodgers said. “That’s the biggest thing. Every day, he’s talking to the guys in practice and just challenging them. We knew this would be a big year for him because he does it every day. We knew he was gonna take that step. Last year, he had flashes where he could have done it, but we just had older guys, so now he’s just ready for that moment.”

“Three years ago, (Smith) was with Allan Jeanne-Rose, who was a really good player for us,” Sellers echoed. “Allan came in, a fifth-year guy, smart, under control, organized like an adult. Smitty was a freshman, so he learned from Allan Jeanne-Rose that year sitting out, and last year he had Jayden Brown, who was a really good team guy. So he had two years to learn from a group of guys, and like Jay said, his confidence got better and better. So he’s playing at a high clip right now because of his confidence.”

Of arguably greater importance, and more impressive on Friday, was CCSU’s supporting cast, an instrumental piece to last season’s success. While Joe Ostrowsky and Abdul Momoh were the two-pronged Robin to the Batman of Haid and Jones then, Rodgers and Siena transfer Max Frazier appear poised to fill those voids now. Rodgers, who was a starter in the backcourt last year prior to injuries, supplemented his 15 points with nine assists, while Frazier tallied a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

“We put it in this guy’s hands right here,” Sellers said of Rodgers. “He kind of picks and chooses what goes on offense, and it really helps us. He had a stretch a couple years ago of 25 assists and one turnover, so we’ve seen this before. But now he’s sat those two years and saw all the little things it takes to help a team win, so he’s bought into it and that’s why he’s playing at such a high level.”

“Being able to play with Joe and Ab on the court, I’ve learned a lot,” Frazier added. “Especially Ab, because I’m playing his role this year and he showed me a lot of things, like the little defensive things that we showed today. He’s a big mentor for us, and Joe because J-Rod sitting out for two years watching Joe, being able to have Jay following behind Joe’s footsteps is a big thing for us to keep pushing our team to do more.”

Regardless of how the remainder of the non-conference slate plays out, CCSU has already exceeded expectations in the first half of its schedule with its two high-major wins. It will be those victories that will hopefully serve as building blocks for what would be the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007 if the Blue Devils can survive three games in March. The recipe for that level of success is easier dictated than cooked, but nights like Friday have Sellers believing there will ultimately be little, if any, dropoff from where his team was a year ago.

“Last year, we had a special year,” he said. “And in one 40-minute game, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. But I don’t look at that last game, I look at the whole season of what we did. This is a whole new season with a new cast of characters. We say the same thing: If we defend, we rebound, we share the ball on offense and everybody picks each other up, I think we’ll have a chance to be in every game. It doesn’t matter if it’s Rutgers, Boston College, LIU, Mercyhurst. We have to do those four things and we’ll have a chance to win games.”