"Obviously they've got some problems": The Sad State of Rutgers Basketball

Last Saturday, Pat Hobbs, the new Rutgers athletic director, watched the waning minutes of yet another men's basketball loss from a corner of the court at the Rutgers Athletic Center. The Scarlet Knights have been an unmitigated disaster this season, perhaps the most dysfunctional men's basketball program in the country.

A middling to moribund program for the last 25 years, Rutgers, at 6-23, seems to have hit a new low. They are winless in the Big Ten. Their best player, Corey Sanders, is suspended and the team is down to just seven scholarship players. Their coach, Eddie Jordan, once a favorite son of Rutgers fans for having been a hero of one of the university's greatest teams, is now drawing the ire of the fanbase as the leader of one of its worst.

When Jordan walked off the court that afternoon, he didn't even exchange a glance with Hobbs, who was standing only a few feet away. Such is life at Rutgers, where nothing comes easy.

Before they faced Minnesota on Tuesday—the second-worst team in the Big Ten and also winless in-conference before last week—Jonathan Laurent, a freshman forward, mused that if the Gophers could upset No. 6 Maryland, there was no reason to think that Rutgers couldn't upset the Gophers. Three days later, Minnesota won by 22. Saturday, they lost to Northwestern — the long-time epitome of college basketball ineptitude — by 39.

"Obviously they've got some problems," said one high-ranking Rutgers athletic department official.

Rutgers has not made the NCAA tournament since 1991. In 2001, its coach was fired after orchestrating a naked free throw drill. In 2013, another coach, Mike Rice, was fired, after being caught on video berating his players with homophobic slurs and pelting them with basketballs. Rice's manic personality could be off-putting, and just as flagrant as the video showed. Success never came, but under his reign, Rutgers could at least present respectability on the court and in recruiting.

Now, Rutgers is just bad. After Penn State's win over Rutgers, Patrick Chambers, the Nittany Lions coach, tried to equivocate on his opponent's behalf.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Corey [Sanders] is out. When you have more guys in sweat suits than uniforms, you get an understanding of what he's going through. I've been there. I'm still there – come on, let's keep it real here. I'm still there."

But Chambers is wrong. Penn State may be near the Big Ten basement, but it still has six conference wins, just beat a top-10 team and isn't routinely blown out. None of that is true for Rutgers this season. They're even a tier below the dregs of their own league.

Their No. 307 ranking on KenPom.com is the lowest ever in the site's history for a power conference team—Utah was four spots higher in 2012 but that was in its first year in the Pac-12. Boston College, one of two other teams without a win in its conference so far, is 47 places higher. Rutgers was the worst power conference team last season too.

They're even the worst team in New Jersey—all seven other D-I schools in the state rank above them. Monmouth, the MAAC darling of college basketball this season, has four wins over power conference teams this year. Rutgers, which plays in one, has four in 39 games over the last two years.

Rutgers is also riding the third-longest Big Ten losing streak of all-time. Since upsetting No. 4 Wisconsin last January, they've lost 30 straight conference games. The record-holders, the University of Chicago, lost 56 straight in the 1940s—and left the conference soon after.

"It's not good," said Dave White, an author, Rutgers fan, and blogger for the site, On The Banks. "I feel like they're not where they should be. I don't know how else to say it. It doesn't feel like they're that well-coached. They're hurt, but in year three I feel like they should be in some close games. There should be optimism. Whereas, right now, it feels like there's none."

White has been a Rutgers fan and season-ticket holder for the last 20 years. This team, he says, is the saddest he's seen. When Sanders was suspended for four games earlier this month for a violation of team rules, it stripped the Scarlet Knights of its lone bright spot.

"In terms of optimism," he said. "There's very little."

Rutgers has three regular-season games remaining and each will be an upward climb. Due to injuries and suspensions, Jordan barely has enough players to make out a rotation. Recruiting is at a drag — their 2016 class ranks 83rd in the country according to 247 sports.

Hobbs, who has already hired a new football coach in his first three months on the job, declined to talk about the program, citing his personal policy to not discuss teams that are playing mid-season. That leaves Jordan to maintain and mitigate the PR machine. He drew indignation two weeks ago when he responded to growing unrest from the fans with indifference. "I don't care about the reaction," he said.

His proclaimed defiance was a misstep that only served to make an already-woebegone season bleaker. The turnaround from Jordan's heyday at the school is stark. He was the point guard of the 1976 team that went undefeated before losing in the Final Four. Now, he's just trying to avoid a winless slate in the Big Ten.

Still, he says, each loss does not leaving him wondering if this is the worst it can get.

"I look at it as this is another way to get in the gym tomorrow and keep them excited and keep them spirited," Jordan said. "It's a heck of a test, and I'm looking to pass the test. It doesn't matter about the W's and the L's. Passing the test is to keep doing your job, keep them spirited, keep them organized, and continue to give great effort. That's the test. The test is that as a coach."