Previewing the 2023-24 Rutgers Basketball Season
In the month of October, The Floor Slap will be launching our College Basketball Preview. We will be previewing all 14 Big Ten Teams, making predictions, covering the biggest storylines across the country and more! Follow @thefloorslap to stay up to date on all our Basketball coverage before the season tips off on November 5th.
End of an Era
Steve Pikiell is already one of the best coaches in Rutgers history.
Here’s a list of Rutgers Coaches who have made the NCAA tournament:
- Tom Young (4 times)
- Bob Wenzel (2 times)
- Steve Pikiell (2 times)
That’s it. That’s the list.
Pikiell should have more too. Last year, Rutgers was universally recognized as the biggest snub from the March Madness field. In the 2019-20 season, Rutgers probably would have made it too, if Covid-19 didn’t prevent the best single-elimination tournament in the world from happening.
Pikiell’s 117 wins in his seven year tenure places him as the 5th most wins for a coach in program history already. Rutgers fans should feel about as good as they have ever felt right now under him.
There is considerable hype for this Rutgers program too as they have the no. 2 class in 2024. The Scarlet Knights already locked down 5-star player and no. 3 overall recruit Ace Bailey and the fans are patiently waiting for legacy kid and 5-star Dylan Harper to commit. Harper is the no. 2 overall recruit in 2024 class and could push Rutgers to have the no. 1 class in the country. Rutgers!
Dylan Harper is the younger brother of Ron Harper Jr, a four year player and star at Rutgers under Pikiell. Much of Pikiell’s success has been built on the back of a core of Ron Harper Jr, Geo Baker, Caleb McConnell, and Paul Mulcahy.
That core is all gone now. Harper Jr and Baker have been gone for over a year. Rutgers will be without McConnell who was the defensive linchpin for the past few seasons. A longtime leader, steadying force and culture setter in Paul Mulcahy transferred to Washington this offseason. The Scarlet Knights even lost last year’s star transfer Cam Spencer to UConn in the offseason.
Truly, the last remaining core player of the past few seasons is Cliff Omoruyi. Big Cliff will have to shoulder even more leadership and burden this time around than he did last year. Can he carry that load?
Rutgers could be a year away from not just their best class ever, but one of the best to ever come to the Big Ten. Just don’t tell them that they are a year away.
Rutgers under Steve Pikiell has been defined by its defense, tenacity, all out hustle, and insert any term you want to convey that Rutgers plays harder, more disciplined basketball trying to bully their way to victories over softer opponents.
Why would you expect that to change? Rutgers will have a new batch of players who might be overlooked, but are ready to prove themselves this season. They won’t be waiting a year to make an impact.
Roster Breakdown
Guards: Noah Fernandes, Austin Williams, Derek Simpson, Jeremiah Williams, Jamichael Davis
Rutgers will have almost an entirely new backcourt this season. Derek Simpson is the lone returning guard and Pikiell will expect big things from the sophomore after a chippy first season. Fernandes is the presumed starting partner next to Simpson. Fernandes and Simpson started in all of their foreign tour exhibitions and in every game Rutgers released stats for they both had 10+ points and 5+ assists.
Austin Williams and Jeremiah Williams are the other two transfers in the backcourt. The unrelated Williams’ are replacements for the surprise exits of Mulcahy and Spencer.
Austin is a grad transfer with plenty of experience who has played four seasons between Marist and Hartford averaging 16.1 points, 3.4 apg and 30% from three last season.
Jeremiah originally committed to Illinois out of the portal before later decommitting and committing to Rutgers. Jeremiah is coming off an achilles injury that took his entire junior season and only season at Iowa State. Two years ago he averaged 9.5 points, 4 apg and 23% from three for Temple.
Finally, Jamichael Davis is a freshman with some slippery ball skills. Davis played at the same high school as Ace Bailey. Don’t be surprised if he earns a major role on this team with the exodus of last year’s backcourt.
Wings: Gavin Griffiths, Aundre Hyatt, Oskar Palmquist, Mawot Mag, Antwone Woolfolk, Antonio Chol
Rutgers’ roster is weird and hard to group based on my three position groups because the Scarlet Knights have essentially 5 dudes who are 6’8” PFs and 1 true wing.
Spoiler, those power forwards are going to have to play the 3 a little bit this year. The guys who will play the 3 the most are Aundre Hyatt and Gavin Griffiths.
Griffiths is a sharp shooting 4-star freshman who will immediately be ready to make an impact, while Hyatt is poised to have a breakout year based on their foreign tour.
Palmquist is a guy who will see some spot minutes and have a couple big stretches in games off the bench as a stretch-the-floor guy. Woolfolk is a sophomore forward who could be a breakout candidate. Antonio Chol is also a redshirt-freshman and is more of a mystery guy off the bench. Chol played 4 games before an injury that landed him a redshirt season last season.
Finally, Mag is the presumptive starter at the 4. He brings great defense, rebounding, hustle and potential to score more with a bigger role.
Bigs: Cliff Omoruyi, Emmanuel Ogbole
Rutgers roster is rounded out by Big Cliff Omoruyi who will be making a push for All-Big Ten teams this season. He has been the anchor of the defense and is a terror on the glass and blocking shots. How much offense can he bring to this team? I was disappointed with his production last season. I wanted to see him take more responsibility for scoring/creation. Maybe he will now.
Ogbole is a JUCO transfer who is originally from Nigeria. He has the type of body you want in a big, but the question is all about converting that potential ability into utilized production. He will be a backup center and play like 8 minutes a game max.
Rutgers roster is loaded with long bodies capable of smart defensive basketball. However, they are missing a ton of production from last year. How will they replace that?
On their foreign tour, Rutgers shot over 30 threes in a game for the first time ever under Pikiell. I don’t hate the idea of a dual guard look and them slinging up threes. It might lead to some bad shooting nights, but it will also lead to an outgunned defensive minded team maybe having a couple upsets they shouldn’t.
The stars of the show are set up to be Derek Simpson, Aundre Hyatt and Cliff Omoruyi. I think it is fair to doubt that trio as a top half of the Big Ten team, but that’s what Rutgers wants you to do. Doubt them.
Calm Before the Storm
Every step of the way for Steve Pikiell has been filled with doubters.
Most of his players were doubted. They didn’t belong in College Basketball because of all the things they couldn’t do. Pikiell, like many coaches, saw the players for what they can do.
Geo Baker, Caleb McConnell and Ron Harper Jr. were 3-stars who were nonexistent on national recruiting boards. McConnell became a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Harper Jr. and Baker scored over 1500+ points at Rutgers and are on the Scarlet Knight leaderboards forever.
So when guys like me who write previews look at this roster and say they don’t have the horses to run this race, remember that Rutgers has never had the guys to do it under Pikiell.
By the end of the year we could be talking about Omoruyi as first team All-Big Ten, Mawot Mag could be Big Ten All defense, Aundre Hyatt or Derek Simpson could be some of the leading scorers in the conference, unproven guys like Woolfolk or Chol could pop with a bigger role, etc.
When you read about this Rutgers team you are going to see a lot of ‘could be’ or ‘ifs’ to describe them. Most projections will likely settle on placing the Knights towards the mid to lower part of the Big Ten.
The positive spin will be “what if” blank happens and the negative spin will be “wait til next year’s team.”
Keep doubting Rutgers and Steve Pikiell. This team is just going to keep outworking the projections, the recruiting rankings, the expectations, etc. Next year’s team could be special, but don’t tell this year’s team that. They believe they can be special now.
Read more about Rutgers Basketball on The Floor Slap:
Observations from all 7 Big Ten Foreign Tours
2022-23 Rutgers Basketball Exit Survey
An Amateur Scouting Report for the 2023 Big Ten Basketball Class: Part 2