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Rutgers Basketball: Rutgers Scarlet Knights 2015-16 Season Preview

By James Fitzgerald

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Rutgers Scarlet Knights

2014-2015 Record: 10-22 (2-16, Big Ten)
Postseason: None

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Head Coach Eddie Jordan had a tall task ahead of him when he took over at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights basketball program was coming off of a huge player mistreatment scandal and Jordan was trying to make things work for his alma mater with holdovers from the previous regime.

The results in Jordan’s first two seasons are not great given the fact that Rutgers is 22-43 over that span.

However, there was a glimmer of hope last season that Eddie Jordan might be able to build off of with the Scarlet Knight getting a victory over the eventual National Runner-Up Wisconsin Badgers.

Going into the 2015-16 season, the Scarlet Knights will have to replace three of their top four leading scorers from last season.

This season could be viewed as the official beginning of the Rutgers rebuilding process.

 Newcomers

F – Ibrahima Diallo (Dakar, Senegal Redshirt 2014-15)
F – Deshawn Freeman (Rocky Mount, NC/ Hutchinson Community College [KS])
G – Justin Goode (Roanoke, VA/ Redshirt 2014-15)
G – Omari Grier (Erial, NJ/Transfer from Bradley)
F – Jonathan Laurent (Orlando,FL/Dr. Phillips)
G – Corey Sanders (Lakeland,FL/West Oaks Academy)

Key Non-Conference Games

Nov. 19 at St. John’s – This is the first road game of the season for the Scarlet Knights and it is going to be a tough one. This would be St. John’s third consecutive home game, and when it comes down to it, this could be looked at as a recruiting advertisement for New York/New Jersey for both Eddie Jordan and new St.John’s head coach Chris Mullin.

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    • Dec. 5 vs Seton Hall – When you are trying to rebuild a program recruiting war games are important and this is a New Jersey turf battle. There is going to be an element of revenge in this game also because Seton Hall beat the breaks off of Rutgers last season 81-54.

    Key Players

    Greg Lewis – Lewis started in all 32 games for the Scarlet Knights last season and will without a doubt be a starter again. Jordan will be looking for Lewis to make a leap in his productivity after Lewis averaged 5.3 points and 4.5 rebounds last season.

    Bishop Daniels – Daniels showed that he is capable of  scoring points in the Big Ten averaging 8.4 points last season after transferring from junior college. It is important that he builds on last season’s success because there is a lot of youth behind him in the backcourt, and this team is going to need a leader.

    Season Outlook

    Rutger lost their last 15 games of the season in 2014-15. Then they lose three major contributors from that squad. That should add up to things continuing to be bleak for Rutgers. One of the few upsides to this season  is that Eddie Jordan is slowly starting to get his players into the fold for the program. Fortunately for him Rutgers is well aware that the rebuilding process is going to take time and there is no need to put pressure on him just yet.

    A sign of improvement for Rutgers would be simply looking competitive and exceeding their win total of 10 games. That is actually possible.

    Next: Big Ten Season Preview

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