From the sad body language to the soft one-handed drives, from the long faces to the lackadaisical defense, it was as poor an effort as Rutgers had given under coach Mike Rice. When Rutgers’ 55-37 beating at the hands of Louisville was over Tuesday night, he could only do one thing.
Apologize.
“I should be out in the parking lot right now, apologizing,” he said. “We have sad individuals on our team. It was the first time all year guys were sad. Something was going on. I told them, ‘Great season, you tried your hardest, we have three games left, but if that’s the performance we’re going to do, we’ll pack it in.’
“Whether [it was] a lack toughness going to the hoop with one hand, whether it was the lack purpose and execution against a matchup zone I thought we were prepared to face, [whether it was] a lack of want, a lack of need, that’s on me.”
The Scarlet Knights (13-14, 4-11 Big East) have lost seven of eight, but it’s this last one that had Rice seething, his team held to 29.5-percent shooting a matching their lowest point total since January 2007.
Rick Pitino’s team opened the game on a 17-2 run, as Rutgers missed seven of its first eight shots, and Cardinals guard Preston Knowles (14 points) hitting three 3-pointers, the last from straight ahead for a 15-point cushion that they never erased.
“It was frustrating because we’re a better team than that,” said senior forward Jonathan Mitchell, who had four points on 2-of-8 shooting with four turnovers. “We just let those guys in our homecourt and treat us like little kids of the poor. They just came in here from the jump and it was just an old fashioned butt-whipping.”
Oh, this was a thorough thrashing as No. 16 Louisville (21-7, 10-5) drained six of its first nine from behind the arc to run out to a 26-8 lead.
Rutgers finally dug in on defense after the break — forcing the suddenly cold Cardinals to miss 10 of their first dozen shots — and climbed within 39-30 on two free throws from center Gil Biruta (12 points, six boards). But that’s as close as they could get.
“There were 10-minute stretches where I thought some guys might step up,” said Rice, who summed the game up as “bad performances by so many individuals, including your head coach.”
“We can’t have Gil give heart to every single one of our players; but he tried,” Rice said. “I want to apologize to the students who came, the fans. It’s a shame they have this much pride in Rutgers basketball and their players and coach couldn’t put on good performance.”
Rutgers hadn’t suffered a double-digit loss at home under Rice, and was coming off an 84-80 overtime loss at No. 17 Syracuse.
Rice said he thought the string of heartbreaking losses took a toll on his team.
“No question,” he said. “I never thought that possible, but what am I gonna do, lie to you? It’s more gut-check time. Put your head down and slump your shoulders or are you going to fight?”