Game 16: Rutgers
Jan. 6, 2009 6:16 p.m.
Piscataway, N.J. -- Rutgers will be battle-tested heading into its game with MU on Wednesday night.
Having lost to the top three teams in the nation in succession last week will do that for a team.
In a bit of scheduling craziness, the Scarlet Knights had to travel to then-No. 1 North Carolina on Dec. 28 and lost, 97-75, returned home and fought then-No. 3 Pittsburgh tough before losing, 78-72 on Dec. 31, and then headed back out onto the road where they were blown out by then-No. 2 Connecticut, 80-49, on Jan. 3.
"I know it's got to be demoralizing," said Jerel McNeal on Tuesday, when asked how tough a stretch like that can be on a team. "But at the same time, it may be good for their team, getting beat up a little bit early on. They're not going to be afraid of anybody, anywhere for the rest of the year, that's for sure. If they took it the right way, it can definitely help their team."
Golden Eagles coach Buzz Williams echoed McNeal's belief that the stretch could wind up bring a good thing for Rutgers (9-6, 0-2).
"It's a brutal stretch," he said. "I don't know that anybody would have won any of those games, no matter what. But I think what it does, when you play against that level of competition for three consecutive games, you're not going to play against anybody any better.
"So you can probably spin it in a positive or a negative way. I'm sure (Fred Hill's) spinning it in a positive way. It'll be their first home game since the semester is over, the students are back, and they'll be excited to play."
MU crushed Rutgers at the Bradley Center last season, 78-48, but this is a much more talented team thanks to the 1-2 freshman punch of Mike Rosario and Gregory Echenique.
The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Rosario, a high-school teammate of former MU recruit Tyshawn Taylor, has lived up to his McDonald's All-American billing by leading the Scarlet Knights in scoring at 17.3 points per game, three-pointers made with 39 and free-throw shooting at 88.5%.
"He's a very talented player, and he's similar to probably what Jerel, Wes and Dominic walked into in relation to when he came to campus, they needed that spot," Williams said. "There's only 20 guys that are selected McDonald's All-Americans, and he was one of them. He's going to get a touch nearly every possession.
"Of the 200 minutes from last year, they return 155 of them. But what they've replaced them with is two McDonald's All-Americans. Rosario, and then Greg Echenique, who is supposed to be a high-school senior. If he would have graduated in the class that he initially was enrolled in, he would have been a McDonald's All-American as well."
Echenique is a 6-9, 260-pound horse who is averaging 9.6 points and a team-best 8.7 rebounds per game. Throw him into the mix with 6-11 shot blocker Hamady Ndiaye and 6-9 J.R. Inman, and Rutgers definitely has enough size and talent to give MU a run for its money.
"They're athletic, they've got a lot of talent and size," said Wesley Matthews. "They really play two 5 men at the same time (in Echenique and Ndiaye), and then they've got Inman, who's a talented 4 man on the wing, who they bring off the bench. And then the freshman can make plays."
-- Williams and his staff were planning on heading down to watch 2009 signee Brett Roseboro play tonight, but snow scuttled that idea.
"Game just got cancelled," said Williams early in the afternoon. "He was going to come to our game tomorrow, but his game got cancelled and re-scheduled for tomorrow. Terrible. Terrible. I'm not going to get to see him at all. But like I just told him on the phone, "Can't control the weather.'"
-- It will be interesting to see if St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley will be in attendance for the game.
Hurley, of course, coached both Rosario and Taylor in high school. He was vocal throughout the process of getting Taylor released from his letter of intent after Tom Crean left in the spring, a move which ultimately led Taylor to sign with Kansas.
And Hurley's younger son, Danny, coached both Dwight Burke and David Cubillan at St. Benedict's.
-- Delivered by Feed43 servicehttp://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/37175609.html
