NCAA Basketball: 7 biggest takeaways on opening day of 2023-24 season
By Joey Loose
5. Another upset in the Big Ten
We’ve already talked about the troubles at Michigan State, but they weren’t the only Big Ten team that didn’t survive opening night. It’s a conference that hasn’t won a national title in nearly a quarter century but regularly boasts a team or two that contends for national glory. That could certainly be true about this year’s crop of teams, though it looks like Rutgers may be an afterthought in that conversation based on opening night.
In a game played in Trenton by a pair of schools from New Jersey, Princeton got the better of Rutgers, securing a 68-61 victory to start the season. This is the same Tigers program that advanced to the Sweet Sixteen as a 15-seed last year, though stars Tosan Evbuomwan and Ryan Langborg are gone. Regardless, the Tigers got 21 points and 9 rebounds from Matt Allocco and outshot and outrebounded the Scarlet Knights as a team.
The Scarlet Knights have been in much better shape in recent years under Steve Pikiell, though they got their bubble popped on Selection Sunday last season. This year they might not even be on that bubble, especially with new and less experienced talent leading the way behind Cliff Omoruyi. A performance like this isn’t the end of the world; it wasn’t a home game after all, but it’s not the opening salvo that anyone at Rutgers wanted.