Guard Mike Rosario of Jersey City, New Jersey committed to RU despite its 11-20 season and just three conference wins. Rosario is considered one of the premiere freshman guards in the country and a McDonald's All-American.
Now enter in Gregory Echenique, a top-notch forward/center combo who will eventually be able to bang inside with the Big East's top big men. Where's he from? St. Benedict's Prep, another New Jersey school.
Coach Fred Hill needs to build off those two players and continue to reel in the top prospects from the New York City area. Both Rosario and Echenique come from two of the most impressive prep schools in the country and could become the piece of the pipeline that will consistently send very talented players to Rutgers.
Hill has a great location to work with and probably the toughest place to play in the Big East, the RAC. No matter how bad Rutgers is, almost every year some top tier team (some years multiple teams) come into the RAC and leave with a stunning defeat.
Last season, Villanova and Pittsburgh (who was actually at home) went down with head-scratching losses.
Rosario and Echenique will also have talent around them in their first year with the team.
Then freshmen, Corey Chandler and Mike Coburn gained valuable experience throughout Big East play combining for 52 minutes and 20 points per game.
Rutgers also has solid upper-classmen leadership. Seniors JR Inman and Anthony Farmer will play major roles in mentoring the young players and the leading RU in an upset or two in 2009. Junior Hamady Ndiaye will serve as Echenique's tutor as a tough, shot blocking, defensive center.
Once again, it goes back to how Rutgers would fare in a normal conference. Maybe in a PAC-10 or an SEC, two conferences that will struggle this season, could the Scarlet Knights finish in the middle of the pack.
But with a ridiculous group of teams in the Big East, Rutgers is looking at a finish no better than 12th.
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Cincinnati used to fall under the same category as a Memphis or a Gonzaga. They were a mid-major powerhouse. Now they are a BCS laughing-stock.
The transition from Conference USA basketball to Big East basketball has come with some major lumps. The switching of conference came at a bad point in Cincinnati's program.
Current coach Mick Cronin has only been around for two years, and a pretty bad two years at that. The Bearcats have fallen to the depths of mediocrity, but are on the way back up.
In Cronin's first year, Cincinnati won just two games in the Big East; last season, they won eight games. Vast improvement, but still not good enough for the standards of Bearcats fans.
Despite losing stud guard Devan Downey who transferred to South Carolina, Cronin has quickly reassembled the Bearcat roster into a group of players who can win.
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