Rutgers University Basketball--the Hardest Rebuilding Job?

For the college hoops fanatic or Rutgers alum

I've been thinking about this during the season, and am coming to the conclusion that it might be.

First off, both Waters and now Hill have said it takes around 7 years to rebuild in this conference. It appears that may be true.

Bannon came very close, and a lot of pundits thought he was going to turn it around, had he not screwed up personally. He had a good recruiting class coming up (reportedly), was starting to breed some success, and had proved he could win. I believe he was fired in his... fourth year? Maybe his fifth. So give his recruiting class a few more years to gel... Maybe?

Waters... year five, he had 3 good years, and 2 horrid years. He thought (judging by most articles) he would have gotten Douby to stick around and in his sixth year he'd have gotten them into the NCAAs. That's about 7 years.

Now Hill has had the worst start of these three, but again... his best recruiting class to date won't be seniors until year 6, and his first full recruiting class won't be seniors until year 5. Will these players mature to get him over the hump?

So far, none of these coaches have gotten the chance to get to a 7th year.

-Other problems:

--You basically have to kiss up to all the HS NJ coaches to recruit NJ. Look at Waters key mistake, not knowing who Hurley was. He basically shut himself out of the NJ recruiting market, which not only angers the HS coaches and keeps them from sending people, but also angers the fans who want a team that keeps NJ kids at home.

--Not to mention there are 4 local big time teams in the area (RU, SHU, St. John's, and Villanova) all after those same HS kids you're trying to recruit... not to mention each year it seems a lot of the big boys come and cherry pick players they want.

--All of the other 3 BE teams in the area have had more recent success than RU. Kids who are being recruited today weren't even born the last time the team made the NCAAs, and they're most clear memory of the team is probably the NIT run. SJU, SHU, and 'Nova especially have all been to the tourney in the last ten years.

--An impossible conference. 16 teams. Nearly all of them having championship tradition. The top 6 are always consistently good. Tough to leapfrog.

--Academics. RU may be the best academic school of the big 4 (though I do believe 'Nova is very good too) and Hill consistently says it's hard to bring JUCOs in. Also, with the Mike Davis issue, we've seen that the school is unlikely to take many more academic risks. It's hard to get in, and it's hard to go the quick fix route.

--Practice facilities aren't even that great. Can't use them to recruit. You split time in the gym with the women's team. And probably the baseball team.

--You may still have a perception problem. I wonder if there are still HS coaches who hear RU and still think "naked free throws."

--An impatient fanbase. Most of the alums remember 1991. Those who are older were there for '76. They don't see that times have changed (it seems), and want to be back NOW. They aren't willing to see a 7 year rebuilding program. They would like to see progress, and steps back are NEVER good and you can NEVER recover.

--A football team that had always been a doormat now sees consistent success. Fans are thirsting for more success. Cuts even more into their patience. The students think they're a bit entitled to success with a good women's hoops team as well.

--No wiggle room. Bannon and Waters made mistakes, and not one has been able to recover. A lot of fans think Hill doesn't even deserve time to try to recover from his mistakes. (Player management seems to be the key.)

Overall, I must say with all this going against you, the players Hill has been able to recruit are amazing. He's getting players, and he seems to be able to continue getting them. Now can he recover from this year and mold them before the well runs dry?

And if not, what of the next coach? It's clear the NJ clique LOVES Hill. Will the next coach get cut out, if the NJ clique don't think Hill got a fair deal? Will he ever start further from behind?

It seems the best way to try and battle the tradition problem is to recruit out of state where you are not battered by headlines of how bad Rutgers is. It's better to never have heard of the school, rather than hear how bad they are. Hill is trying to do this now, getting kids from NY and Penn. He's gotten his share of Jersey kids too, which I find very impressive.

It's clear the next step is to win. Go out and get better next year, set yourself up for a very good year 5.

But thinking about it, this may be one of the toughest schools in the country to build a basketball program