Rutgers basketball has seen increased flak on social media in recent weeks as the San Antonio Spurs have made their way through the playoffs to the NBA Championship, with former Rutgers superstar Dylan Harper being a major contributor to that run. One message regarding Rutgers basketball has been amplified over social media over that time: “How did Rutgers not make the NCAA tournament with both Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey on the roster?”
We know the truth as Rutgers basketball fans and college basketball fans in
general. While the team had two superstars, the rest of the team around them was essentially a low-major team that severely lacked talent in areas of need, such as center. Whether you blame Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell or former AD Pat Hobbs for that reality, it doesn’t change the fact that it was a reality.
Now, the Scarlet Knights are facing national backlash for that failure almost a full calendar year later.
This post isn’t meant to defame Harper or Bailey for being superstars, quite the opposite. However, their success is giving Rutgers basketball a lot of indirect publicity, and not in a good way for the program. In short, their success is bringing the failure of Rutgers basketball that season into the national conversation, with thousands on Twitter/X and other social media sites asking how Rutgers did not make the tournament that year.
Even Ron Harper, Dylan’s father, responded to the constant questions of how Rutgers didn’t make the tournament in his own way.
On top of that, even Harper’s mom reminded the country in a post-game interview about Rutgers’ struggles last season while describing what she told her son after the Spurs’ Game 7 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Last year was a tough year; it all lines up for this.”
Due to the failures of the 2024-2025 season being brought to light, now it appears that there is a darker cloud being cast upon the program than the one it has had before. Rutgers basketball has had somewhat of a dark cloud around it for a while now. A 30-year March Madness drought will do that to any power program, and not making the tournament for the past four years has not helped matters. However, with the failure of the 2024-2025 season being constantly promoted on a national scale, that dark cloud is now even darker.
It remains to be seen how this could have an effect on the program going forward if Pikiell is kept around until the remainder of his contract. It didn’t affect Rutgers efforts in the transfer portal this year, as they have seemingly pulled in their best portal class to date, but much of that was already done before this trend started to pick up momentum. Will it hamper the Knights’ efforts in high school recruiting this off-season and the transfer portal going forward? That remains to be seen.
The best way to remedy a situation like this is to return to winning, because in the end, winning solves everything.
