If you are a frequenter of the Rutgers Message Boards, the New Jersey sports blogs, and the New Jersey newspapers, you know that when it comes to Rutgers basketball, there are those that want RU Men's basketball coach Fred Hill Jr. fired, and those that feel he deserves more time to build his program.
As this season progresses, the faction that wants him fired are screaming a little bit louder and its number of members have grown. Some that may have been "on the fence" are now leaning toward the call for Hill's dismissal.
The latest wooden log added to this fire (so to speak) was RU's latest loss; the 14th of the season, the 10th in Big East play, and the second consecutive loss to arch rival; Seton Hall. While it's embarrassing enough to lose 10 of 11 league games, the program and its fans have great difficulty with going zero for the season against The Hall.
The positives about Hill are that he has brought the best talent to Rutgers in the past 15 years, and continues to have great success recruiting locally. Despite losing the overwhelming majority of his first two-and-a-half seasons of games, no major recruit has de-committed from RU nor has the program lost any major transfers, despite more than sufficient reason to do so.
Somehow, the kids are buying into what this man is saying and promising.
However, the negatives are: mind-boggling in-game decisions that have RU fans questioning Hill's knowledge of the game, and most obviously, the consistency of losing that the basketball team has done under Hill's watch.
It's frustrating for the Rutgers fan to hear about growth and development, as programs that were recently in the same position as Rutgers, have risen to the middle and top of the Big East. It was a few short years ago that Rutgers beat SHU in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
It was a few short years ago that Rutgers routinely beat Villanova and West Virginia. And finally, it was a few years ago that St John's hit rock bottom with major scandals and embarrassing NCAA sanctions.
However, St John's sits today with three league wins (two more than RU), an above .500 overall season's record, and a legitamate shot at post-season play. RU meanwhile, sits in second to last place. Even lowly South Florida is ahead of them! It's certainly tough to take.
Looking at the overall situation, Rutgers has to hope and pray Hill gets it done. He has to be the man to do it. Rutgers simply will not pay a big name coach to take over this team. In fact, I'm not even sure a big name coach would want to coach at RU.
Rutgers has many obstacles in its path towards Big East Basketball competence. Obviously, it competes in a monstrous 16 team league. Louisville, UConn, Pitt, Villanova and Syracuse have top flight coaches that will always have their teams at the top of the league. That means RU will have all it can handle just to get to the middle of the pack in this league.
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