Why Rutgers Is In NIT, Where They Belong

This is a surprise.

No, not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament. They did not even get an invite to Dayton for a chance to play in the dance.

The Scarlet Knights will be playing in the NIT instead of the NCAA Tournament. They will face Hofstra at Jersey Mike’s Arena as the No. 1 seed on Tuesday night.

Fans were worked up Sunday night when the Knights were snubbed, but it’s hard to be outraged about their predicament.

They lost seven of their last ten games to finish the season, including falling to the worst team in the Big Ten in Minnesota by failing to finish after they led by 10 with 65 seconds left. They lost their final three home games, where they are usually dominant, all by double figures. Their offense was dreadful near the end of the regular season, although it was much better against Michigan and Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament.

Go ahead and talk about Rutgers being better than Arizona State, Nevada and Providence, all of which made the tournament. Cite its net ranking or whatever.

What counted the most in the eyes of the selection committee was how the Scarlet Knights finished the season. That’s always going to carry more weight. Rutgers picked the wrong time to go into a slump.

Rutgers needed a better showing in the Big Ten Tournament to convince the committee it belongs there. The team beat Michigan in the second round before losing to No. 1 seed Purdue in the quarterfinals. That wasn’t going to be enough to get to the tournament. The best it could have done was make a trip to Dayton to show that the team deserved to be there and advance. It didn’t happen.

If we are being real, Rutgers was who it was this season: a nice, middling team that could have a hard time making the tournament. It looked great for a while when Rutgers beat Purdue, Michigan State and Wisconsin, but eventually, things evened out, and it did so at the wrong time.

Rutgers never had a reliable guard play, which is why the offense was often inconsistent. The offense was a liability all season long, which explains why Rutgers had long scoring droughts.

The Scarlet Knights played well defensively, but even down the stretch, the defense had so many breakdowns in the end. Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer combined to score 30 points against Rutgers in Northwestern’s 65-53 victory against the Scarlet Knights last Sunday, and Matthew Nicholson broke down Rutgers’ interior defense by scoring 10 points in that game.

That’s the problem with relying on defense too much to win games. The defense wears down in the end. When Mawot Mag went down with an ACL injury that had him done for the season, Rutgers seemingly lost its identity on both ends of the floor.

The issues on offense may have influenced the committee to pick Rutgers to be left out of the tournament.

The Scarlet Knights needed to get at least 20 or 21 wins to qualify for the tournament. For the most part, that has been the minimum but they fell short of that number by one, and that’s why the Minnesota loss hurt them in the end. A win against the Gophers could have gotten them to No. 18, and that would mean maybe the Knights would get to 20 with a better seeding in the Big Ten Tournament.

10-10 in conference play was simply not going to do it, either. This is where Rutgers blew it, losing to Minnesota and Northwestern and losing three straight home games that the team should have won in Nebraska, Michigan and Northwestern. Had the Scarlet Knights done their job, their conference record would be better, and that would have been good enough for them to get by in making the tournament.

We can talk about the strength of the non-conference schedule, and yes, Rutgers should be at the point where it should schedule tougher teams, even if that requires going on the road. But let’s not make this complicated. Rutgers failed to control its own destiny down the stretch.

It’s hard to complain about Rutgers’ fate here. Not even a good showing at the Big Ten Tournament was a guarantee to make the dance. Their ceiling would have been a game at Dayton at best. Even then, it wasn’t good enough.

Let this be a lesson for Rutgers. Don’t ever be put yourself in a position where your playoff hopes are in the hands of the committee. This should have never happened to begin with. When it does, that team deserves its fate.

This was the case for Rutgers. This should also remind them that being good enough is not enough. Expectations will be raised moving forward. It’s time to be better than being around .500. It should be in a position where it shouldn’t have to wait for Selection Sunday to determine its fate with the situation the team knows it will be in.

Credit Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell for not whining about his team’s fate, publicly at least. Deep down, he probably knew his team deserved its fate. He has to know his team did not finish well enough to be there, which probably explains why he did not campaign for his team earlier this week.

The Scarlet Knights played like an NIT team down the stretch, and that’s why they host a matchup against Hofstra on Tuesday night in the National Invitation Tournament.

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