Euphoria In Piscataway

A lot has happened since I last sat down at my laptop to write. I had a whole list of things to discuss. Then my opening was usurped last night. 

Rutgers, on the strength of a monster game from Ron Harper, Jr., which included a last second heave from just inside the Block R logo at midcoast, took down #1 Purdue before a raucous crowd inside Jersey Mike’s Arena. The final score was 70-68. 

To the delirious fans who stormed the court after Harper’s bomb swished through the net, it was the biggest thing to happen to RU sports since the football team, ranked #15, downed #3 Louisville on a Thursday night watched in prime time via ESPN with the top announcing team of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth (that turned out to be the third largest ESPN audience at that time). I happened to be there when Jeremy Ito booted the winning field goal with 13 seconds left in the game. 

Same thing with Rutgers-South Florida in 2007, when the Scarlet Knights defeated the then #2 Bulls. I was there.

Last night, I was not at the arena. I was in the comfort of my den, since RU had sold out almost all of their home men’s basketball games for the season without offering an attractive mini-plan (seat backs rather than higher up with bleacher seats which hurt multiple parts of my aging body and were the subject of numerous complaints from my spouse).

Which made it all the more exciting when my wife and daughter were with me and my college roommate was texting me from his den in Maryland as the action unfolded. Three of the four glued to the TV are basketball junkies. 

This was a seesaw affair. Rutgers and the Boilermakers traded leads throughout the game. While RU was ahead at the half by a mere point, there was a time in the second half that  looked as if the team from Indiana was going to prevail as they should, as they were undefeated and Rutgers was a middling 4-4, having lost to the likes of Lafayette, De Paul and U Mass and were most recently blown out by Illinois on the road. Additionally, the Knights  were without the leadership of star guard Geo Baker. 

Some numerology here. Rutgers was 0-11 all-time when facing the top-ranked team in the country. I went to a game at the RAC on December 16, 2007 versus North Carolina. It was  the Dean Smith era, so it was expected that Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough would dominate the smaller Knights. The final score was 93-71, sending the 8,312 home mildly disappointed. 

But RU seemingly has Purdue’s number. Heading into Thursday night’s contest, RU was 3-0 in their past games with the Boilermakers. They were hardly intimidated by their opponents. And the crowd noise in the trapezoid made it seem like there were 20,000 in the building. 

Purdue is a talented team. Sophomore guard Jaden Ivey is the floor general. He is quick and athletic. His math is the head women’s basketball coach at Notre Dame. Senior Sasha Stefanovic is a 6’5” marksman. Canadian sophomore Zach Edey is a 7’4” monster. And reserve senior center Trevion Williams looks like a pro player with his moves a prototypical 6’ 10” 255 pounds of muscle headed to the NBA someday soon. 

Contrast that with RU, which in addition to missing Baker, had only one recognizable name—Ron Harper, Jr. Since I am a Rutgers devotee, I know the names of the players who contributed. But do not be mistaken—they paled in comparison to the talent presented by Purdue coach Matt Painter. 

Yet it was the Rutgers team of relatively unknowns who repeatedly came to the rescue. Caleb Mc Connell, who contributed 12 points, five rebounds and five assists in this game, was the Big Ten leader in assists average thus far this season. He had two and played ferocious defense and attacked the boards relentlessly. 6’7” sophomore forward Mawot Mag, started off on fire with his coring, ending up with 12 points, far exceeding his seasonal average of 4.8 points. Sophomore center Cliff Omoruyi battled the Purdue bigs as best he could, while scoring 11 points on 5 for 10 shooting. 

Rutgers shot 7-14 from three point land, while hitting 13 of 18 free throws. Conversely, Purdue went 7 for 26 from behind the arc and connected on 11 of 16 free throws. 

Purdue had a 10 point lead with 8 minutes left in the game. Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said it best: “We just kept hanging around, fighting. It didn’t look like it was going our way a few times and they just stayed the course and made big plays and made big stops.” 

In his post-game comments, Painter offered this: “When you go on the road, you gotta be 10 points better than somebody, because if you allow it to be close, crazy things happen. Obviously, that was a once-in-a lifetime shot, but we allowed it to be close.”

Rutgers had reduced the Purdue lead to 65-63 when Mc Connell sank a turnaround jump shot with 2:07 to go. Mag pulled the Knights to within one point with a dunk off of a pass from a double-teamed harper with 1:05 remaining. Rutgers forced Ivey into a backcourt trap which resulted in a traveling violation. Ivey had earlier made a windmill dunk and provided some choice words for the Jersey Mike’s crowd. That dunk was so spectacular that it made the ESPN Sports Center Top Ten plays at #6. 

The lead changed hands three times in the final 13.1 seconds. Harper had hit a shot to forge RU ahead at 67-66, its first lead since early in the second half. 

When Rutgers huddled after taking their final timeout, Harper told his teammates that if Purdue scored, ”give the me the ball and I’m going to send them home.” Sure enough, Williams muscled his way into scoring what looked like the backbreaker, putting the Boilermakers ahead, 68-67.

Inbounding the ball with 3.4 ticks left on the clock, Mag gave Harper a perfect lead pass to generate some speed up court. He weaved through the Purdue defenders, aware of how many steps he had before time expired. He squared his body up towards the basket. He let the shot fly. 

It went in. Game over. RU had finally downed a #1 team and in the process, extended its winning streak over Purdue to four. 

Harper’s father, a 5-time NBA champion with the Bulls and Lakers, said he was shaking from what his son did. Magic Johnson, a pretty fair college player from Michigan State simply said “Wow, wow, wow!”

Harper scored a career-best 30 points on 10-15 shooting along with grabbing 10 rebounds. In a twist of irony, this week in 1984, the elder Harper scored 30 points to lead Miami (Ohio) over…drum beat…Purdue. So maybe this outcome was fated to happen?

What happened on a Thursday night in the first full week of December was magical. It will never be forgotten on the banks of the old Raritan. It excised the pain of the Illinois loss. Rutgers gained some credibility for its beleaguered men’s basketball program which finally made the NCAA tournament after a wait of 30 insufferable years, only to inexplicably lose to an eventual Final Four team, Houston. Those losses to Lafayette, De Paul and UMass can be forgiven for a night. 

Now Rutgers has to regroup for its Garden State Hardwood Classic battle with #23 Seton Hall, which topped # 7 Texas at the Prudential Center, the site of this Sunday’s affair. The Hall has two wins over Top 10 teams this season. 

It is not going to be easy. Who knows if this was a one night thing or if RU starts to play like Pikiell expects the team to perform. 

For one golden evening, there was euphoria in Piscataway.