2022-23 Big Ten Women's Basketball Preview: Rutgers
It's finally time to talk about the eight-player Scarlet Knights
My projected No. 1 team will have to wait. If Rutgers has gone through media day with its current roster, it’s time for me to talk about it.
Last week’s preview:
I have made the same two stat boxes for each team, but here I’m mixing it up a bit.
Let’s get the first one out of the way, because it should basically be considered irrelevant.
Rutgers was the Big Ten’s second-worst team offensively but remained good on defense. This was in thanks to the Scarlet Knights’ extremely slow pace of play, which, along with great rebounding, helped Rutgers stay close in games they seemed to be outmatched in.
Great, that’s a paragraph about last year’s team. Now let’s throw it all out. The 2021-22 Rutgers roster was world’s different than the 2020-21 unit, both in players and in performance. Legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer missed last season out of fears of COVID-19, then ultimately retired this past offseason. Timothy Eatman was the acting head coach and did what he could with Stringer’s system and a team of almost all transfers, and the result was the not-good 11-20 record.
Now, Rutgers has its third head coach in as many seasons, bringing in Coquese Washington who was most recently on Notre Dame’s staff, but was a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year for Penn State from 2012-14.
I think this is a great long-term hire. Washington found a way to win at a in-conference program far less established than the one she is joining now. But I think it’s going to take a few seasons.
For now, as has been said for months here, Rutgers has eight players on the roster. If you would like to know last year’s departures, just search for the 2021-22 roster. All but three players are gone, so let’s just talk about the eight that are here.
I’m going to go through these players in three categories: returnees, transfers and freshmen. Funny enough, I actually like all eight players and what they bring to the team. But it is such a big, big ask of this roster to come together, under a new coach, and succeed immediately. Since every non-freshman is an upperclassmen, that is pretty much what is required from them.
Returnees
Chyna Cornwell, 6-3 F, Junior
Erica Lafayette, 6-0 G/F, Junior
Awa Sidibe, 5-11 G, Senior
The three players that come back from last year’s team combined for under 7 PPG in 2021-22, but it is clear that the window of opportunity has never been larger. These players are all going to see significant minutes compared to the year prior, and will be pivotal if Rutgers is hoping for anything outside of a last-place finish.
Sidibe saw the most action last year, and her 1.7 win shares was fourth-best on the team. She had the best offensive player rating (101.0) of anyone who played more than two games and was very efficient from the field. She could see a big numbers increase if Washington, whose offenses dominated at Penn State, gets her system working.
Cornwell didn’t see tons of action, but did shoot 60.5 percent from the field on her 38 attempts. Her free-throw shooting was, um, rough (6 of 20, 30 percent), but she is tied for the tallest player on the current roster and could see time at center because of it.
Finally, Lafayette is a former three-star prospect who has not yet gotten time to prove herself at the collegiate level. She was praised for her athleticism and ability to get to the hoop in high school, all of which would be valuable considering the three-point help brought in.
Transfers
Kassondra Brown, 6-2 C, Senior
Kai Carter, 6-0 G, Senior
Abby Streeter, 5-11 G, Graduate
This is an exciting trio of players brought in to help the Scarlet Knights be competitive, roster size be damned.
Brown was an excellent player on a bad Saint Peter’s team, shooting well from all parts of the floor (46.0 FG%, 36.2 3PT%) and got to the free throw line often (4.2 attempts per game). She is also one of the country’s best rebounders, ranking 36th with 10.1 per contest, excelling both on the offensive (3.3 oRPG) and defensive (6.8 dRPG) glass.
There are concerns with Brown — her 3.8 turnovers and 2.8 fouls per game were among the worst in the nation — and it is not easy to transition to the Big Ten, but she has loads of talent and should do well with the amount of minutes she’s likely going to receive.
Carter was also a great player on an even worse UNC Asheville team, and that allowed her to fire without hesitation all season. That made her a top-200 scorer nationally, but her shooting percentage, while a career best, was still not very good (38.4 FG%). More troubling was Carter’s three-point percentage which dipped from 34.0 percent in 2020-21 to 28.6 percent last year on similar attempt totals.
There’s a real chance Carter improves her efficiency on a team where she doesn’t have to be a star. The problem is that she still has to be one for Rutgers to win some games considering the current roster in place. Washington’s coaching absolutely could unlock something for the talented guard, though.
Efficiency was not a problem for Streeter who was, you guessed it, a good player on a terrible team. This time, it was for the 4-26 Hartford Hawks. For Streeter to shoot 41.7 percent on that bad of a team says a lot for her ability to knock them down from deep, she will just have to improve her all-around game (2.5 RPG, 0.8 APG in 2021-22) to bring more to the roster.
Freshmen
Antonia Bates, 6-3 G/F
Kaylene Smikle, 6-0 G
There is reason to be excited about both of these players if you are a Rutgers fan, and this roster better be built to give each of them significant minutes and development.
Bates was listed as a guard in the ESPN database but is now up to 6-3 (from 6-0) on the Rutgers website. She seems like a high-potential player who was a solid interior player already, and now could be counted on for it even more with the size boost. She feels like a player to remember down the line.
Smikle had more praise of the two out of high school as a top-65 prospect, and she was specifically complimented on her shooting game. Washington’s offense needs some pure scorers and Smikle fits the billing based on her scouting report.
Outlook
Rutgers is almost certainly going to be at the bottom of the standings this year. This is an eight-player roster in late September and, despite me liking pretty much every piece that they added, it would take a true miracle for each player to transition seamlessly into Big Ten basketball, under a new head coach, in just a few months.
What is so weird about doing this preview is looking down the line for this team. Most of these players will have run out of eligibility in two years, and the Scarlet Knights almost certainly will not be competing for any postseason play in either season. I like both freshmen and am excited to see them both get significant time this year, but there is no way to predict the future of Rutgers basketball at this point.
It is not all doom and gloom for a program that had been coached by one of the legends of the sport for nearly 30 years. I think Washington is a great hire, and the transfer portal makes the potential for a speedy rebuild possible. Rutgers also could bring in more exciting players this season, but it seems more likely that this roster will be filled with walk-ons considering it’s, you know, September 19th.
This will be an interesting team to watch because of how weird the situation of it is. The talent in the eight players here isn’t bad, but it’s just not enough to think the Scarlet Knights are going to improve on what was already a down year.
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