Rutgers scored its first Big East win of the season Wednesday with a wire-to-wire domination of No. 18 Villanova, 80-68 at the RAC.
The Scarlet Knights, who entered as the only winless team in the conference, raced out with tremendous energy to take a 16-2 lead and then held off Villanova to seize a 40-32 halftime edge.
Junior guard Anthony Farmer of Millville played perhaps the best game of his career, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with three steals. Freshman guard Mike Coburn was also sensational in scoring 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Coburn made several acrobatic shots early, and also did a great job involving his teammates.
Rutgers (9-11, 1-6 Big East), which has had trouble shooting the basketball all season, finally put together a complete game and shot 50 percent from the field to just 36 percent for Villanova (13-4, 3-3).
Malcolm Grant paced the Wildcats with 23 points and Scottie Reynolds, the Big East Player of the Week, had an off night with 19 points on 5-of-19 shooting.
The victory -- RU's first against Villanova since 2004 -- must have been especially satisfying for RU head coach Fred Hill, who was an Associate Head Coach at Villanova under Jay Wright.
NELSON INELIGIBLE
Scout.com also reports that Rutgers guard Courtney Nelson was ruled academically ineligible and will not compete for the remainder of the season.
"It is very disappointing, both for the team and for Courtney," Hill told Scout. “We look forward to Courtney meeting this challenge, so that he can return in good standing for his senior season. His loss will affect our depth at the guard position.”
Without Nelson, the Knights cannot afford any more injuries at the guard position.
Also, if Nelson were not to return next season, that would leave RU with two scholarships instead of one. That would allow the program to bring in two frontcourt players, the most sorely needed position.
RECRUITS ON HAND
The victory also came with several key coaches and recruits in the stands, including St. Benedict's coach Danny Hurley and St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle, who lead two of the top programs in the nation.
Among the recruits on hand for this upset were big men Greg Echenique and Tristan Thompson of St. Benedict's, No. 2 in the ZAGSBLOG Top 10; freshman Michael Gilchrist of No. 3 St. Patrick; and junior wing Kevin Parrom of Mount Vernon, Coburn's alma mater.
Rutgers is involved with all of those players and surely could use them going forward.
The 6-9 Echenique, a junior who is a potential program-changer, previously told ZAGSBLOG he is considering Rutgers, along with Duke, Miami, Maryland, Penn and Pitt.
PITT UP NEXT
Next up for Rutgers is a date at No. 17 Pittsburgh (16-3) on Saturday.
The Panthers (16-3, 4-2) routed St. John's, 81-57, Wednesday at Madison Square Garden behind 26 points from Sam Young on 10-of-18 shooting and 16 from Ronald Ramon.
Anthony Mason Jr. paced the Johnnies with a game-high 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting, and Justin Burrell had just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting.
St. John's plays at Louisville (14-5) on Saturday.
I'll be headed up to Providence Thursday for the Seton Hall at Providence game. Look for a big feature on Pirates sharpshooting guard Jeremy Hazell in Thursday's editions.
(PHotos courtesy Jim O'Connor, NJ Sport Pics' Rivals; Scout)
THANK YOU OFFICIALS!!
We played well, but I have to thank the officials for that gift win.
Posted by: essexknight | January 23, 2008 at 10:21 PM
We may be a gutless, poorly coached team, but the officials gave us a win against my most hated team, so I am happy!!
Posted by: scarletrat | January 23, 2008 at 10:24 PM
RU RAH-RAH, RU RAH-RAH, HOO-RAH, HOO-RAH, RUTGERS RAH!!!!
Great win for RU and Coach Hill!!
(and note: I'm not a troll like the Nova loser who posts on this board as RU and SHU fans....Adam, when are you going to clean this place up?)
Posted by: ejgonz2 | January 23, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Wow, in the 30 seconds or so it took me to type that message, the nova troll pumped out a bunch of posts.
That's insane dedication, emphasis on insane...
Posted by: ejgonz2 | January 23, 2008 at 10:28 PM
GREAT WIN.
ps
Adam, you are allowing this blog to become unreadable (the comments at least) by allowing ncaaballz to continually log in and impersonate/create known Rivals/Scout board members users names.
It's a sad sign of the times when folks need to create a TypePad account just to keep nuts like him from impersonating us all.
FYI FOLKS: the above comments were NOT made by the forum members you've come to know for the most part.
Posted by: TripleRLtd | January 24, 2008 at 01:35 AM
Thanks for the update on the recruits Adam. And I'm glad none of the RU fans are tools like ncaablueballs. That guy needs to get laid.
Posted by: hoochie302 | January 24, 2008 at 06:08 AM