Welcome back to a special New Year's Eve edition of Bulls Recon. Helping us out today is Dave White, who is the basketball editor for our Rutgers site On The Banks. In this edition of Bulls Recon, I ask Dave about Rutgers talented freshman guard, a possible let down for the Scarlet Knights, and of course, Big East expansion.
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1. Well Thursday's Double OT win over Florida didn't suck. How big of a win was that for the program, especially with former Rutgers player Mike Rosario on the other sideline?
First off, after having season tickets for about 10 years, that was the best game I've ever attended. It was back and forth and exciting. Each team threw haymakers and the other team just kept getting up. The best part was-other than the actual win-since he was on the bench for all of crunch time, Rosario was a non-factor. It's a huge win for the program, as they build, because the freshman now know what it's like. When your biggest win before this game is Stony Brook, the team has no idea what it takes to win, how to grind out possessions and stay in big games. Now the team knows and they can keep building going forward.
2. I was extremely impressed with your freshman guards Eli Carter and Myles Mack. For those that haven't seen them play, what to they bring to the table?
We have a 3 headed freshman monster at guard. Eli, Myles, and Jerome Seagears can all do the same things. They can all play a little point. They can all shoot, and they're all fast. Carter is the biggest scorer of the three, as you saw against Florida. He can flat out fill it up on the score sheet and makes a ton of circus shots when he's on. Mack has range, as he showed in OT, but he excels in transtion. Seagears is sneaky, and grabs offensive rebounds and can really get in the lane.
3. Kadeem Jack finally made his Rutgers debut against Florida, albeit for only 3 minutes. Will he see some more minutes on Sunday?
Assuming he came out of the Florida game healthy, he should get more time. They're going to shake the rust of him some more before he gets major minutes, but I'd expect him to do more and more as the season goes on, until he's an integral part of the team.
4. With the short turnaround and the flight down, do you think the team might have a let down against the Bulls?
I think any team would be ripe for a let down on Sunday, but especially this one. Florida was their first big win and I'm not sure how much of that had to do with the hype and the crowd. I don't know USF too well, but I'm expecting a much smaller crowd Sunday. It wouldn't surprise me if RU came out a bit flat. They've had a lot of trouble starting games as it is.
5. How do you feel about new additions to the Big East?
I'm a hoops fan first, honestly. I'm going to miss playing against WVU, Pitt, and 'Cuse. The football additions should make the conference more interesting from that aspect, but the Big East lost some luster in my eyes.
6. Finally, any predictions for the game?
Oof. Tough one. I think RU pulls out a close, low scoring game, 55-53 on late free throws and a defensive stop. But it's not going to be pretty.
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Thanks again to Dave for helping us out today. Make sure to head over to OtB for my answers to his questions later on in the day.