Rutgers Basketball: 2017-18 season preview for the Scarlet Knights

Schedule Overview:

Rutgers has a pretty experienced team who had some early and late season success last year.  Rutgers has a pretty good nonconference schedule. They have an annual game with Seton Hall. They play Seton Hall because of the in-state rivalry and both of those teams used to compete in the Big East. Rutgers is not competing in the Gavitt Tip-Off Games this year but did draw Florida State in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. Florida State presents a challenge for a lot of teams, but it is good that Rutgers is getting tested. The home and home plays in the Big Ten are Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue and Ohio State. These home and home games could not have gotten much worse for Rutgers. For a team that is deficient in talent compared to the rest of the league having to navigate through two of the best teams in the league and two other teams who have the potential to be NCAA tournament teams, things could get ugly. If Rutgers goes 4- 6 in these games that would be exceptional.

Next: Stars of the 2017-18 Big Ten

Conference Finish:

Rutgers does not have the talent top to bottom as some of the other Big Ten teams, but Rutgers seemed to be very well coached last year. At the end of Eddie Jordan’s tenure, it appeared that his team gave up and was no longer playing hard for him. Coach Pikiell has seemed to have everyone buy in during year one. A successful season for Rutgers would seemingly be if they were to still make strides in the right direction as a program. They are still a couple of years away from consistently competing night in and night out in this league, but they could be primed for a couple of program-defining wins this year. If Rutgers were to beat a team like Indiana or Purdue this year, that would really show the fans that this Rutgers team is on the up. With players like DeShawn Freeman and Corey Sanders, it is not unrealistic to think that Rutgers can’t win at least 4-5 games in the league.