Rutgers women’s basketball lost to Indiana 72-65 in its last home game of the season. With one game left on the schedule, the team’s chances to make the Big Ten tournament are completely out the window, as the Scarlet Knights only have one win in conference play. Despite this and the team’s performance over the last four seasons, head coach Coquese Washington stated that she believes she has done enough to earn a fifth season during her post game press conference last night.
Nj Advanced Media reporter
Brian Fonseca started the post-game press conference by asking Washington if she thinks she has done enough to earn another year with the program.
Without hesitation, Washington replied yes, followed up by stating that she has not had discussions with Rutgers’ athletics administration regarding her status for next season.
When asked why she thinks she will turn things around next season, she talked about how the biggest issue this season was the availability of players and how they haven’t had proper time to gel as a starting lineup due to the number of players coming in and out of the lineup. She went as far as to say that their top six players only played around 45 minutes total together heading into the last week of the season.
When she was asked how the NIL situation affected their ability to be competitive, she did not give a straight answer but alluded to the notion that they need to have the resources in place to be able to compete before going on to praise the current administration for the work they have done behind the scenes to improve that.
No matter how you look at it, or what lens you see it through, Washington’s four years at Rutgers have been rough, finishing at the bottom of the Big Ten standings two out of those four years. Washington’s overall record with the Knights stands at 42-83 overall and 11-59 in Big Ten play, with the team going 6-50 over the last 56 games of Big Ten play. They have lost 13 games this season by double digits, three games by 40 or more points, and have an average margin of defeat of 23.4 points. While it should be acknowledged that injuries have taken a major toll on the Knights this season, the abysmal results of this season, on top of the lack of overall success, make giving Washington another season a tough pill to swallow for Rutgers fans.
If Washington were to be fired this off-season, she would be owed $1.675 million as she still has two years remaining on her contract.
The Knights will conclude the regular season at Nebraska on Saturday, February 28th. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 PM, with live coverage on Big Ten Plus at 2 PM.
