Big Ten Basketball: Updated 2021-22 preseason rankings after NBA Draft decisions

The offseason started out fairly rough for the Scarlet Knights. They lost key guards Jacob Young and Montez Mathis, along with starting center Myles Johnson to the transfer portal. And they had to wait until the final days to find out about the NBA Draft fate of their two top players, Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr.

The good news for Rutgers is that both Harper and Baker decided to come back, giving the team two All-Big Ten caliber players to rely on for next season. The question now is whether or not the new-look supporting cast will be good enough to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

There are good pieces to work with, including former top-50 prospect Cliff Omoruyi. He and Johnson couldn’t play together on the court so his minutes were limited. Now that Johnson is at UCLA, look for Omoruyi to have a breakout campaign of sorts down low for the Scarlet Knights. Transfer pickups Aundre Hyatt and Ralph Agee adds depth at the forward spots as well.

And while they aren’t lethal scorers, both Caleb McConnell and Paul Mulcahy are great “glue guys” for the Scarlet Knights, capable of doing a little bit of everything on the court at both ends. It does put more pressure on Baker and Harper to provide more scoring production but if they can, Rutgers have a reasonable shot to not suffer much of a drop-off.