Rutgers Falls to South Florida, Starts Big East Season 0-1

Added by Jonathan Chen on January 3, 2012.

The Scarlet Knights started 2012 with a loss, falling 67-65 to USF. Once again, Eli Carter has become the main leader of the team. He was 9-for-18 from the field with four from behind the arc, totaling 23 points. Carter is starting to take the role of the go-to guy whenever in desperate need of points.

Rutgers came out in the first half only shooting 35%, and trailing by seven at the half. Eventually, Rice got Mack and Randall to chip in and recoup the team. Myles Mack added up 14 points with two of the other three pointers Rutgers made in the game. True freshman Derrick Randall along with sophomore Biruta had a big game with 10 points each and grabbing four rebounds apiece.

Evidently, their shooting went up and took wiser shots, 16-of-29 from the field. Yet, it all came down to the final seconds when Carter took the shot. From Myles Mack’s previous attempts during Florida’s match, Eli had the pressure on him and ended up hitting the rim to end the game. Rutgers came back down from a nine point deficit and fell short of putting the icing on top of the cake.

Fans are now seeing Rutgers’ plays becoming more efficient. They now have their main player for scoring and two big men, Randall and Biruta, down low to collect the rebounds. Mack is improving from his slumps and hitting key shots in the game and now working more as a team. But, I still want people like Dane Miller and Biruta to get more touches and become more involved in the setups. Those two seem like they are just standing there in space, waiting for something to happen. Rice should try to draw up plays that will implement the bigger players and end with easy scores.

Rutgers takes onWest Virginia in their Big East Opener on Wednesday at the RAC at 7:00 P.M.