The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Though both Rutgers basketball teams were bounced from their respective Big East Tournaments this week in unceremonious fashion, plenty of memorable moments arose from their short trips in the conference playoffs.
The Daily Targum’s Sports Editor Matthew Stein runs down those lasting images, as well as the rest of the things that made the past week in Rutgers sports so great, in this week’s installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good

Kia Vaughn’s death stare — After taking an elbow from Louisville’s Gwen Rucker, Vaughn got right in Rucker’s face and gave her one of the nastiest looks I have ever seen on the basketball court. She literally did not blink an eye as she looked right through Rucker, who eventually backed down. It looked like Hulk Hogan staring down Andre the Giant.

Quarterback of the future? — Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano said the quarterback spot is anyone’s to win. That’s good to know, because it sets up one hell of a competition between seniors Dom Natale and Jabu Lovelace, redshirt freshmen DC Jefferson (who is an absolute freak of an athlete at 6’6”, 240 and has a gun for an arm) and incoming freshman Tom Savage, who is ranked on multiple boards as one of the top-10 pocket passers in the country coming out of high school.
Jefferson has to be the choice. He’s very raw, but he has all the physical tools to succeed and can max out as a Daunte Culpepper in his prime. Lovelace and Natale just aren’t the answers.

N’Diaye two, Harangody zero — The reigning Big East Player of the Year was befuddled by Hyperman (yes, N’Diaye told the Targum last year that if he could be any superhero he would be Hyperman) for the second time this season. Notre Dame’s go-to scorer was limited to seven points on a horrendous 3-of-17 shooting night, but Rutgers’ season ended in the first round. More on that later.

Five straight and counting — The Rutgers baseball team continues their hot stretch now that they are back in the northeast and not playing top-15 teams. The Knights swept Old Dominion and have taken back-to-back contests over Temple and NJIT.

Chief Kickingstallionsims — Yes, that is his real name, and it has officially replaced Longar Longar as my favorite college basketball name of the last decade. The Alabama State senior center has no hopes of moving on to the NBA, but this is straight awesome nonetheless. Somebody buy me a jersey.

The Bad

Big East Tourney exits — Men’s basketball head coach Fred Hill Jr. to the media following their win over South Florida Saturday: “None of you are giving us a chance to beat Notre Dame anyway.” This is why, and the game wasn’t really all that close.
On the women’s side of things, the loss to Louisville was almost inconsequential because losing to them had virtually no effect on what will be a middle-seed in the NCAA Tournament and playing the first two rounds at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. We’ll see if the loss proved to be a confidence-killer or a motivational boost.

Melde Missing Out — Two wrestlers were on the bubble, but only one earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament in St. Louis. Senior 165 lbs. Matt Pletcher will join teammates DJ Russo and Scott Winston at Nationals, but freshman 141 lbs. Trevor Melde just missed the cut, an unfortunate happening for a very promising freshman.

Lowly Lacrosse — A 1-4 start is not what head coach Jim Stagnitta had in mind, especially considering the lofty expectations placed upon them. ECAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Justin Pennington has not scored in his last three games.

Men’s Basketball — Do I need to say anything?

The Ugly

Where’s the timeout? — As head coach C. Vivian Stringer frantically tried to call for a timeout with a chance to break the tie and win the game late in the first overtime period, the referees completely ignored her. Junior guard Epiphanny Prince, clearly not recognizing the situation, made a boneheaded play trying to go one-on-three and was called for a charge, her fifth and final foul. Not the best decision for your best player to make.

Where’s Waters — When former head coach Gary Waters got the axe in favor of Hill, the Knights were expected to exponentially improve. Yet three years later, Waters has taken his Cleveland State team to the NCAA Tournament with a Horizon League championship game victory over nationally-ranked Butler.
On the other side, Hill guided RU to consecutive 20-loss seasons. Waters’ 25 wins this season are more than Hill has given Rutgers in the past two seasons combined.

Where’s Wideout? — Tim Brown is penciled in as one of the starting wide receivers. Tell me if you have heard of the rest of this group — Pat Brown, Marcus Cooper, Julian Hayes, Brandon Jones and Keith Stroud. Those are the front-runners to earn a lot of time at wide receiver, and not to say that they don’t have talent, because they have a ton of it, but there is barely an ounce of game experience in any of them.