Ace Bailey has turned into a superstar, but it may be too late to save Rutgers season

If you watch sports long enough, you will be able to see it. Transcendent stars that change the game and change the way we view positions. In the NBA ranks you have Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the obvious ones, but then you have guys like Steph Curry and Nikola Jokic who have fundamentally changed how their position is viewed and played. In college basketball most would view Zion Williamson and Zach Edey as those types of players. They changed how the game was played for the duration of their careers. The hard part about the transcendent stars is once they are gone, they are gone, and we then realize those were once-in-a-generation type talents.

Lucky for all of us who love college basketball, there are two more of the generational-type talents this year. Cooper Flagg from Duke and Ace Bailey from Rutgers. Everyone has heard about Flagg and his talent and what he will bring to an NBA team when he is likely the first pick in the NBA draft. What we don’t hear about enough is Ace Bailey and his ability.

Bailey is one of the best players to ever play college basketball, and he is the most talented freshman I have watched in my long basketball-watching career and that is not an exaggeration. The 6’10” forward is as athletic as LeBron James, runs the floor like Giannis, and can shoot like Steph Curry. So then why is no one talking about him?  Well, he plays for Rutgers, and the Scarlet Knights' season is not headed for any significant postseason run, so he gets lost in the mix.

Do yourself a favor and watch one Rutgers game, Bailey will be hard to not pay attention to. There is not a single Big Ten opponent who has figured out how to guard him or how to neutralize him. He has scored 30 points in 2 of the last 3 games. 30 is a feat in high-major college basketball, but for Bailey, It has become the norm. He has a 39-point game and a 37-point game on the ledger in the last month, and in that month, which started with a 39-point effort against Indiana, the forward is shooting 49% from the floor, 49% from deep, and 72% from the line. He is the engine that makes Rutgers go and has turned himself into one of the games superstars.

While his numbers are incredibly impressive and efficient, the past month has been about Bailey's athleticism. He is impossible to box out and jumps over everyone for rebounds and putback dunks. He has a very quick first step on defense that allows him to defend without fouling and protect the rim at an elite level. He uses his quick first step and his athleticism to get his spots on offense. Rutgers tries to get him the ball at the elbow to operate the offense. As a defense, if you let Bailey get to the elbow it is already too late as he is elite at the midrange elbow jumper, which he will often shoot with his off hand or off one foot. There is no one in the game that have seen make that shot as consistently as Bailey does.

The last month turned the freshman into a superstar, but he showed flashes of this early in the year in a game against Alabama. On paper, the Scarlet Knights had zero business being in a game with Alabama but with Bailey and other freshman superstar Dylan Harper, they were able to stay in the game for the duration. That was the game for me that Bailey had his arrival game. He was consistently beating Grant Nelson and whoever else Alabama wanted to put on him to his spot and he was able to hit the elbow jumper, get to the rim with ease, and destroy the defense for Alabama.

After the Alabama game head coach Nate Oats was quoted as saying “He is the best midrange shot-maker I have seen, he just kinda rises up over guys and has a tough floater with touch” That was the game when it all began to come together for Bailey and when he finally started to realize his potential in college basketball. After that game it was the sky is the limit for the Rutgers freshman.

The hard part about all of this is Bailey is the type of player that everyone needs to see in the NCAA tournament. The NBA knows who he is and there are NBA scouts at just about every game the Scarlet Knights play to evaluate the potential No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft. As we all know basketball is a team sport and the team around Bailey, outside of point guard and future top 5 pick Dylan Harper, is not great and it is not good enough to get the job done most nights.

Every win Rutgers has had this year is due to the play of the superstar freshman and lately, It has been because of the play of Bailey. He was fantastic down the stretch in the win at Nebraska, he was excellent on the defensive end in the win over UCLA, and he scored 37 points in the win over Northwestern. It would be hard to figure out how many wins Rutgers would have without Bailey on the roster.

There is no question that his college career ends with the Scarlet Knights season will end this year, the question then becomes will he be the first pick of the draft over Cooper Flagg? This wasn’t meant to break down his chances of becoming the first pick, even if they are pretty good, it was meant to show the country that there is another player at another school doing big things on the hardwood.

The biggest superstar in college basketball plays in the Big Ten for a school with very little history, and very little chance of making the NCAA tournament. Ace Bailey is his name and watch him light the rest of the league on fire every time he steps foot on the floor before he heads to the NBA and does the same thing. All eyes should be on New Jersey for the rest of the season.