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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Friday / December 13.
  • By MIKE McCURRY

    PISCATAWAY, N.J.Steve Pikiell vividly recalls his Rutgers head coaching debut. The thing is, he’s one of very few.

    For a program that most recently made the NCAA Tournament in 1991 and last registered a winning season in 2005-06, any semblance of quantitative progress represents an upward trajectory.

    Even in the attendance department.

    Pikiell estimates that 1,800 fans were on-hand for Rutgers’ win over Molloy on November 11, 2016. The turnout was embarrassingly low. Expectations were lower still for the Scarlet Knights under Pikiell, the latest to be tasked with one of the more massive rebuilding jobs at the Division-1 level.

    What a difference a year makes.

    Corey Sanders had just one NBA workout this spring.

    And the feedback he got from the Sacramento Kings in late May was enough to propel him back to Rutgers for his junior season.

    “It was a good workout, I got some good feedback, things I need to work on,” the 6-foot-2 Sanders said by phone Sunday from the Adidas Nations event in Houston. “They said they like my quickness, they like my decision-making, it was just up in the air whether they were going to take me or not. I just took that and made my decision to come back. I didn’t want to be out there just hoping that I get drafted and somebody would pick me up or something like that.”

    While a Ben Simmons or a Markelle Fultz can go at the top of the NBA Draft without leading his team to the NCAA Tournament, the same doesn’t go for a guy like Sanders, who averaged 12.8 points, 3.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals during his sophomore campaign but was never projected on any NBA mock drafts. He said the fact that his Rutgers team finished 15-18 overall, 3-15 in the Big Ten didn’t help his stock, either.

    By AMAN KIDWAI

    WASHINGTON D.C. — Rutgers Basketball has not been good for a very long time, but all indications are that’s eventually going to change.

    Under first-year head coach Steve Pikiell, the Scarlet Knights (15-17) have more than doubled their win total from last season and now have their first winning streak in conference play after beating Ohio State, 66-57, in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at the Verizon Center.

    “We learned how to compete this year,” Pikiell said. “We couldn’t close out some games. But it’s a process when you’re building a program. It takes steps.”

    Rutgers advances to face No. 6 Northwestern (21-10) in Thursday’s nightcap. After helping the program get its first Big Ten Tournament win and finally stringing together consecutive conference victories, guard Corey Sanders believes this could be a turning point.

    “To come out the way we did and do something that nobody thought we could do besides our fans… we had faith the whole time,” he said. “I feel like we could do the same thing tomorrow against Northwestern.”

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