Rutgers returns to being a ‘traditional’ Steve Pikiell team with hopes of rebound season

The Oxford Advanced American Dictionary defines “intriguing” as “very interesting because of being unusual.”

Rutgers basketball coach Steve Pikiell defines “intriguing” as playing physical defense and hitting the boards.

It’s the adjective that Pikiell uses most frequently to describe a team that was picked to finish No. 17 out of 18 in the Big Ten preseason media poll. Wednesday’s season-opening visit from Rider officially turns the page from a disappointing 15-17 record while developing two of the top five picks in the 2025 NBA Draft.

“I think we’ll be exciting to watch,” Pikiell told The Post. “We’ve been working while no one is watching. We are tough, physical, we’re athletic at all the positions and we’re the biggest we’ve been. I think people are going to like this version of Rutgers.”

After straying from his core beliefs for the once-in-a-generation chance to coach one-and-dones Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, Pikiell assembled a roster of blue-collar grinders reminiscent of the early days of his 10-year tenure: Four returning players — including third-year stalwarts Jamichael Davis and Emmanuel Ogbole, as well as late-season starter Dylan Grant — plus transfers Tariq Francis (NJIT) and Darren Buchanan Jr. (George Washington), and seven freshmen led by four-star recruit Chris Nwuli.

“The last two years we haven’t rebounded a lick, and I think that’s played a huge role in this thing,” Pikiell said. “We got back to those roots. The one thing our guys understand is rebounders are going to play. They’ve heard that song consistently for the last four months.”

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Rutgers outrebounded its opponents in six of Pikiell’s first seven seasons. It is an area that the Scarlet Knights — with relatively small NIL checks to offer to recruits and transfers — can exploit.

“What makes the kids [pop] in the transfer portal is all the offensive numbers,” Pikiell said. “The guys that you have to dig up are the guys with a little more fiber on the other end of the floor — and they are not as expensive, quite honestly.”

So, Rutgers basketball practice now has a lot of screeching sneakers and scraped knees. Old-fashioned rewards — picking the practice music playlist, getting the best seat on the bus, eating first in the buffet line — are available to the winners of drills.

“We play extremely hard on the defensive end and we use that to fuel our offense,” Grant said. “We’re a more traditional Coach Pikiell team. When we are very detailed on defense, we’re a really good team. We have a lot of length, so that makes us a scary defensive team.”

As the rebounding dropped off the past two seasons, so did the defense in general (ranked No. 116 nationally last season).

“We could have eight guys foul out the first game, but I kind of like that,” Pikiell said. “You can always teach them how to figure that out, but that kind of aggressiveness is something we need to have. We’re kind of an intriguing team.”

3 Key Questions

1. Is December survivable?

The Big Ten gifted Rutgers its annual bag of coal at the start of conference play, sending No. 1 Purdue (Dec. 2) and No. 7 Michigan (Dec. 6) to Piscataway in the middle of six straight games against major-conference teams. “The computer doesn’t like me very much,” Pikiell quipped. “It’s fair to say maybe the toughest stretch in the history of Rutgers basketball.” Rutgers has two wins (2021 and 2023) over Purdue when it was ranked No. 1.

2. Can the freshmen make an immediate impact?

Nwuli can guard all five positions. When he is in the post, can he be the kind of shot-blocker that is a Rutgers staple? His scoring will be limited to around the basket as he works on his range. Denis Badalau and the 21-year-old Harun Zrno both played professionally in Europe. They can spot up and shoot, but can they create their own looks? Lino Mark will do some ballhandling. Three of the seven freshmen were four-star recruits. “They come with special tools,” Pikiell said.

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3. Who takes the big shot?

It’s 52-52 with 10 seconds remaining. Who gets the ball out of a timeout? When the answer is “anyone,” the answer is no one has stepped up yet. “I have to be assertive and use my experience to my advantage,” Grant said. “We have a lot of guys who can score. Though we are a defensive-minded team, we have some athleticism, and I think that will turn the crowd up, too.”

Games to Watch

Nov. 25 vs. Notre Dame: One day after No. 18 Tennessee could run Rutgers off the floor to open the three-game Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, it will be interesting to see how the team responds in its first bellwether game against the preseason No. 10 team in the ACC preseason poll. The programs have split two meetings since 2022.

Dec. 13 at Seton Hall: With neither team expected to make much noise, the annual Garden State Hardwood Classic could take on even more of a Super Bowl feel than normal. Rutgers is seeking a third straight win over its rival for the first time since 2012-13, and the second time since 1980. Tempers flare and strange things happen in this rivalry.

Feb. 24 vs. Washington: In this era of transfers and NIL, facing former teammates has become commonplace. But Lathan Sommerville could’ve been Rutgers’ best player if he stayed to emerge from the shadows of Harper and Bailey. Instead, he went cross-country for a payday, but said Rutgers “wasn’t the right situation for me on the court anymore.” The student section could make his return uncomfortable.

X factor

Tariq Francis

Davis led Rutgers in scoring in both of its scrimmages, Pikiell said, but Francis is an “elite shot creator.” Can the Scarlet Knights play two point guards at once or is that lineup too small, especially with the emphasis on using length to defend? Francis led the America East with 19.2 points per game and now wants to see how that translates to the Big Ten. He drained 33.6 percent of his 3s over two years at NJIT — that qualifies as sharpshooting at Rutgers.

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Prediction

14-17, 14th place in Big Ten, NIT

In the old days, this season would be about player development. But that only matters if key players can be retained in free agency. There is no shortage of shoulders carrying chips and the No. 1 through No. 13 roster depth is better, but is there a single Big Ten-caliber starter on the roster? A couple of upsets and restoring Jersey Mike’s Arena as a nightmarish place to visit would constitute a success.