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NEW YORK — The calendar has flipped to February and Rutgers and St. John’s both still find themselves searching for their first conference victories.
Will either or both get at least one league win this year? Or will one or both limp the rest of the way before bottoming out at 0-18?
Let’s start with Rutgers, which is 6-16 overall and 0-9 in the Big Ten in coach Eddie Jordan’s third year as head coach.
The Scarlet Knights are down to seven scholarship players and haven’t won since a Dec. 28 game against UMass-Lowell. That was way back in 2015.
Next up for Rutgers is Wednesday’s home game with Illinois (10-12, 2-7), a team that has lost four of five.
After that the Scarlet Knights visit Nebraska (12-10, 4-5), host Ohio State (14-9, 6-4), visit Illinois and host Penn State (11-11, 2-7).
They play two of their final four games against Minnesota, which is actually worse off than Rutgers at the moment at 6-16, 0-10 in the league.
If Rutgers can’t take out Illinois or Penn State at home, it may come down to that March 5 game against Richard Pitino’s Gophers on the last day of the regular season.
Looking ahead, Rutgers did just land its third pledge in the Class of 2016 in European forward Issa Thiam, but it should be noted that the New Jersey papers have already discussed the possibility of Rutgers buying Jordan out, which would cost $2.065 million before April 23.
At St. John’s, first-year coach Chris Mullin has struggled this season without point guard Marcus LoVett and recently lost big man Yankuba Sima to a hand injury.
Utilizing virtually an entirely new roster, the Red Storm are 7-15 overall, 0-9 in the Big East and have lost 12 straight.
Like Rutgers, their last victory came back in 2015 when they beat Syracuse on Dec. 13 at the Garden.
The Storm’s next four games are at Xavier (19-2, 7-2), home to Butler (14-7, 3-6), at Georgetown (13-9, 6-3) and at Villanova (18-3, 8-1) — none of which looks like an impending win.
Their best chance may come during a three-game stretch after that when they host DePaul (7-14, 1-8), host Seton Hall and then visit DePaul.
The future appears to be brighter, though.
St. John’s expects to get LoVett next season along with incoming guard Shamorie Ponds, wing Bashir Ahmed and likely German small forward Richard Freudenberg.
The Johnnies are also in the mix for Word of God (N.C.) guard Rawle Alkins, who took his first official visit to St. John’s this past weekend, and 7-footer Thon Maker of Athlete Institute (Ontario), who may take an official to St. John’s.
For now, though, the two local schools are just trying to get a league win.
And there’s no guarantee either will be able to make it happen.
