Rutgers winless in Cancun Tournament

Added by Jonathan Chen on November 25, 2011.

Rutgers visited Cancun, Mexico this week to battle it out against Illinois State, Illinois, and Richmond and came in 4^th place, losing all of their games. Rutgers took on Illinois State on the 22^nd and came away with a disgraceful loss, 76-70. At the half, the Scarlet Knights were only down by one and seemed as though they were capable of move onto the finals.

With their versatile players, Mike Rice’s new team was knocking on the door and just needed a few more shots to settle in. However, that just turned them around. At nine minutes into the second half, Illinois State took over and pulled the lead to 13 points. Illinois State took more efficient shots while Rutgers continued to fall again. Despite their late stretch at the end, Rutgers fell short of getting their 4^th win of the season.

Similarly, Rutgers depicted the same results during their battle against Richmond. Rutgers started the game off shooting just 34.5% from the field and ended up hurting them. Richmond built off of their mistakes, 18 in total, and put up an 8 point deficit by the first half, once with a 15 point lead. I have to give credit to the bench with putting over half of the total points, 34, on the boards. Austin Carroll and Mike Poole both hit 9 points apiece to help cut down on the lead. But, the game was a one-sided game as there were no lead-changes throughout the game. Again, Rutgers tried to make a late stride in the second half, cutting the lead to single digits but walked away with a 58-53 loss.

Reporters continue to say this team is still developing and Rutgers will become a well-rounded squad off of Mike Rice but I can only see this Rutgers team be like the typical Rutgers season in the early 2000s. Mack is still struggling on the court after scoring zero total points in the consolation match against Richmond. This supposed Top-100 ESPNU prospect is clearly not putting up the points Rutgers fans are expecting.

Rutgers Men Basketball returns back home to the RAC on Monday, November 28 to face UMBC at 7:30 P.M.