PISCATAWAY, NJ — Three basketball-sized glass display cases are on display in Steve Pikiell’s office on the fourth floor of Rutgers’ Athletic Performance Center.
The bottom one, on the wall behind where the Rutgers men’s basketball coach sits, is labeled “NCAA Tournament.” There is a ball commemorating Rutgers’ win over Clemson in the 2021 tournament, the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1991 and their first since 1983.
The remaining two cases are empty. One is marked. “Final Four”; second, “National Championship.”
Pikiell made them when he took over the program in 2016, when the Scarlet Knights hadn’t had a winning season in more than a decade and hadn’t finished above .500 in conference play in 25 years. Since then, Pikiell has guided Rutgers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and its first top-25 ranking in more than 40 years. But as these unpopular cases show, his lofty goals have yet to materialize.
“We’re getting dusted,” Paykel told ESPN in late November. “We need to fill in some more.”
Which brings us to this season. The Scarlet Knights earned a preseason Top 25 ranking for just the second time since 1979, thanks to the additions of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, two of the top three recruits in the 2024 high school class and all next summer. There is a possibility of picking five above. The NBA Draft.
It’s rare for a Central New Jersey school to have one player as decorated as Bailey or Harper, let alone two. Now the trick will be according to this ability. Rutgers won its first four games against mid-major opponents but fell out of the AP Top 25 with a loss to Kennesaw State. Now, he faces the toughest stretch of his schedule: the Players’ Era Festival — including games against Notre Dame and Alabama — and a visit to Ohio State in just the next 12 days. That will go a long way toward determining whether the team Pikiell has built around his two stars has a chance to fill those glass cases.
“Dylan and Ace can do things that normal people don’t,” he said. “Then we have people around us that can do some things. So if we can put it all together, we’re pretty excited, I think.”
The first time Bailey and Harper teamed up with the Athletes of Tomorrow grassroots team at the April 2023 Tip Off Classic in Atlanta.
Bailey spent three years playing on the spring and summer AOT team and committed to Rutgers just three months ago, the highest-rated recruit in program history.
Harper, meanwhile, had not yet committed to a school, although Rutgers was at the top of his list of potential destinations: his older brother, Ron Harper Jr., was a two-time All-Big Ten selection and was one of the winning players. The last 40 years of Rutgers basketball. Bailey and Harper had paired up a bit in USA Basketball, but Bailey saw an opportunity to show Harper what a pairing in AOT would mean to him. He told program director Damon Wilson, who had known people in Harper’s circle for years, that he wanted to invite Harper to fly out for the weekend.
And the two elite recruits clicked immediately.
“It was– fun,” Bailey said. “The whole gym’s eyes were on us, too.” Knowing that the whole gym was coming to see us, just to put on a show, to do what we do best, and then we’re playing together. It’s just fun.”
“He told me from day one, he said the ball is in your hands. Like, I’m going to trust you,” Harper added. “So that really affected me because, the trust he has in me, I know I trusted him as much.”
Although a groin issue held Harper back over the weekend, spectators watched More than enough two stars To identify potential future high-level pairings.
“We all saw it was natural,” Wilson said. “There was no selfishness, no, ‘I want to try to outdo you, I’m going to show you.’ They were pushing each other, it seemed like they were always playing together.”
Wilson added that the off-court friendship between Bailey and Harper also blossomed this weekend in Atlanta.
“It was more that happened outside of sports,” he said. “Walking around, going to dinner, listening to music, talking. Spending the whole weekend together, that’s where they grew up. I think that’s when Dylan trusted Ace. And the bond they had. With, they lost trust in each other.”
From that point on, Bailey played a key role in recruiting Harper to Rutgers. Bailey wasn’t calling Harper every day with a sales pitch, but the two players continued to develop a relationship.
“I talked to Dylan, but we didn’t talk about basketball all the time,” Bailey said. “Checking his mind, checking his family. … I know everyone else is in his ear about where you’re going, what you’re doing and all that. He So I wasn’t trying to be one of those insects.”
For Harper, the biggest eye-opener was even more straightforward: a top-five recruit from nowhere near New Jersey, committing to Rutgers. For context, before Bailey and Harper committed, Rutgers had signed just six top-100 prospects since ESPN’s recruiting database began in 2007 — including just one player ranked in the top 50. , State Guard Mike Rosario in 2008.
“We have a lot of great players here, but when Ace committed it was like, dang, he’s coming here,” Harper said. “He’s from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he believes in the program. Why shouldn’t I — a kid who’s been around the program almost his whole life, my brother was here and I just know all the ins and outs. , I know all the great people that are here … so why not come here and do what?”
Around everyone The Rutgers program talks about Bailey’s infectious energy, and it’s on full display as he bounces around in practice the day before Rutgers hosts Merrimack, shaking hands with everyone on the coaching staff. and sings Curtis Blue’s classic 1984 song, “Basketball.”
“… I like the pick and roll, I like the give and go…”
While Harper isn’t as enthusiastic as Bailey, he’s not far behind his classmates as what Pikiell calls an “energiser.” Two new stars are aggressive in a 2-on-1 drill. They are busy running the Scarlet Knights zone offense. They finish first and second in the post-drill full-court sprint.
He’s projected to be the second and third picks in ESPN’s mock draft, but he has a clear motivation to leave a legacy before Rutgers turns pro.
“Me and Ace and the rest of the team, we can do something really big that people haven’t seen in New Jersey in a long time,” Harper said. “We can make it a school. [where] People, not just from Jersey but outside of Jersey, want to come here and do what we did… change the culture and just make Rutgers cool, I guess. Why can’t another recruit come in and do the same thing we’re doing?”
Part of the process was Pikiell getting the most out of his 10 months with the Scarlet Knights by moving pieces around his two stars.
Only three players return from last season — led by leading scorer Jeremiah Williams and Jameel Davis, Bailey’s high school teammate — but Pikiell landed four veterans from the transfer portal, including the NEC Player of the Year. Jordan Derkack from Merrimack.
Having two headliners at the top of the roster can be both a gift and a curse when it comes to recruiting out of the portal. Some players will understandably be concerned about available shots and minutes. Sometimes there are personality issues or ego conflicts with players who were highly touted at the high school level.
But Pikiell used Bailey and Harper at the top of his sales pitch last spring: Let’s play with two top-five picks. Come practice and play in front of NBA scouts and executives on a daily basis.
For Williams, who is entering his fifth year of college basketball and has played at about three different programs, it didn’t take long to recognize the talent upgrade in Piscataway.
“For Ace, the first day we started playing, I got some of those ‘Oh s—‘ moments often from him,” Williams said. “And that was our first time around him, seeing for the first time how he plays, just the plays he’s been able to create. About myself … I’ve learned a lot from him and he help maintain that youthfulness.”
Through five games In the young season, Rutgers’ ceiling is still an enigma. There are positives: Four wins to start the season over mid-major opponents, each by double digits.
“The plays out of bounds work better now,” Pickell joked before last week’s game against Merrimack.
Harper is averaging 19.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists. Bailey, after missing the first two games of the season with an injury, had 17 points in his debut and then went for 23 points and 10 rebounds against Merrimack — including A shot that only a select few 18-year-olds in the world can make..
“He’s different,” Merrimack coach Joe Gallo said of Bailey. “There were some shots he made that you couldn’t do anything about.
But after leaving the confines of Jersey Mike’s Arena — the RAC, as it will forever be known to hoops diehards — and its 68 consecutive sellout home games, Rutgers and its newest phenoms. got a rough introduction to the unpredictability of college basketball. .
The Scarlet Knights went to Kennesaw State, a game scheduled to be Bailey’s homecoming, and lost 79-77. They trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half, then just two on the final possession. Bailey brought it to the left side of the floor, but instead of driving to the basket or finding his shot, he picked up his dribble and attempted a cross-court pass to a teammate that was intercepted by Canesa.
“Ace’s a good player, and you’ve got to go through those opportunities and go through some of those experiences,” Pikiell said after the loss. “I have a lot of confidence in him. … He’s a good player, and so is the rest of my team, and we’ll bounce back.”
Now, not only do the Scarlet Knights need to bounce back from Sunday’s loss, but they also need to do so while taking a big step up in the competition. The Players Era Festival in Las Vegas begins this week, with Rutgers facing Notre Dame on Tuesday, Alabama on Wednesday and an undetermined opponent on Saturday. And then there’s a road trip to Ohio State next weekend to start Big Ten play.
“You’ve got to get off the mat. It’s a big boys league and we’re playing Notre Dame and Alabama and somebody else, so we don’t have a lot of time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Pickel said. “We have to figure it out.”
Does the loss to Kennesaw State turn into a long losing streak and change the narrative surrounding the team? Or do the Scarlet Knights show determination and can they compete with the best teams in Vegas?
It’s a streak that some Rutgers players have circled on their calendars, a chance to make a statement on a national stage. If the Scarlet Knights are going to come out on the other side with the expectations they had this preseason, it will be largely due to their two leading scorers, their two future lottery picks and perhaps their two most Will come across attractive personalities, Bailey and Harper.
“We’re happy to have them here for a year,” Pikiell said. “And we smile a lot.”