Rutgers Declines NIT After Missing March Madness as Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper Eye Draft

Basketball fans hoping to see more of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper taking the court might have to wait until they are in the NBA.

Jerry Carino of the Asbury Park Press relayed a Sunday statement from the Rutgers men's basketball program that revealed the Scarlet Knights will not participate in the NIT or the College Basketball Crown this season.

"The Rutgers men's basketball program will not participate in any postseason tournaments this season," the statement said. "We would like to thank our players and staff for their hard work this year and our fans for their continued support."

The College Basketball Crown is a new tournament sponsored by Fox that will include teams that do not qualify for the NCAA tournament. It will have a 16-team field in Las Vegas that features at least two programs from each of the Big Ten, Big East and Big 12. 

Yet the timing of both that tournament and the NIT is less than ideal for teams and players looking ahead to next season.

Some players such as Harper and Bailey likely have their eyes on the NBA draft, while Rutgers' coaching staff has to focus on roster building. After all, the transfer portal opens on March 24, which is before the Crown even starts and the NIT ends.

Given the presence of two of the top draft prospects in the country, the Scarlet Knights are surely disappointed to be in this position instead of preparing for the Big Dance. They haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2022 and were well-positioned to perhaps change that with two stars.

Instead, they went 15-17 overall and 8-12 in Big Ten play.

They lost their first Big Ten tournament game against USC and struggled in large part because they didn't have enough firepower outside of their two go-to options.

While Harper (19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game) and Bailey (17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game) played well from a statistical standpoint, they were the only players on Rutgers who averaged double-figure scoring totals throughout the campaign.

Attention now turns to their looming NBA draft decisions as two of the best prospects behind Duke's Cooper Flagg.

B/R's Jonathan Wasserman released a big board of prospects Friday and ranked Harper at No. 2 and Bailey at No. 5. Flagg was first, while Baylor's VJ Edgecombe checked in at No. 3 and Michigan State's Jase Richardson slotted fourth.