Latest news with #RutgersBasketball
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rutgers basketball fans, take note: Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper could soon fund the team
The email about Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper arrived a few hours before the NBA Draft, and it echoed the sentiments of more than a few Rutgers basketball fans regarding this historic occasion for the Scarlet Knights. 'I don't understand all the praise,' it read. 'This season was an incredible embarrassment.' Advertisement 'I don't get it.' Because their one season at Rutgers yielded a losing record, there seems to be a feeling of indifference or worse among the much of the faithful about these two teammates becoming top-five draft picks – an unprecedented achievement in New Jersey college basketball. Jun 25, 2025; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Dylan Harper celebrates with Ace Bailey after being selected as the second pick by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images If you can't separate the magnitude of that from the shocking disappointment of a 15-17 season, or appreciate the fact that these guys will only call Rutgers their alma mater in an age of incessant school-hopping, then here's another thing to think about. There are potentially $60 million reasons why Rutgers fans should get behind Ace Bailey's and Dylan Harper's fortunes. Advertisement One day, not too long from now, one or both of them could be bankrolling the basketball program's roster. Don't scoff. Stuff like this is already happening elsewhere. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is the assistant general manager for the men's and women's basketball programs at his alma mater, Davidson College. Curry will 'start an eight-figure fund for both the men and women's programs,' ESPN reported earlier this year. In March, Oklahoma hired alum and NBA All-Star Trae Young as an assistant general manager for its men's basketball program and announced his $1 million donation to the program. Advertisement Last offseason, NBA star James Harden made what was reported as a 'high six-figure' donation to help his alma mater Arizona State land forward Jayden Quaintance, who decommitted from Kentucky. 'I wanted to be a part of helping the team and the school get players,' Harden told Front Office Sports, 'and if NIL is the problem, then I can help with that.' The reporter who wrote the Harden story, Westfield native Alex Schiffer, thinks this could be the start of a trend – especially now that, unlike most current pros, Harper and Bailey benefitted from NIL during their time in college. 'With the way the NBA's (salary) cap is going, it wouldn't surprise me if either of those guys is making $60-million plus a year in a couple of years with their second contracts if they live up to the hype,' Schiffer said on the Jersey Jump Shot podcast. 'A month's interest on that contract, a game check – they give that to Rutgers and that can go a really long way.' Advertisement Rutgers has to do its part, continuing to cultivate the relationships. That's something head coach Steve Pikiell and his staff have been very good at. You see former players around the program all the time – at practices, at games, dropping by Pikiell's office. 'Ron (Harper Jr.) is back all the time,' Pikiell said after the draft. 'Caleb (McConnell) is coming back in a couple of weeks, which I love. Aundre Hyatt's back right now; he's going to play in France. These guys (Bailey and Dylan Harper) are part of our family, too. I'm looking forward to seeing them play a lot, which I will as much as I can, but I'm also looking forward to them coming back and sharing their lessons with our younger guys.' Count on it, both players said before the draft. 'That's home for me,' Dylan Harper said. 'I'm tight with the coaching staff. I'll definitely be returning.' Advertisement When Bailey threw out the first pitch before the New York Mets' game June 24, he bought and signed Mets jerseys for Rutgers staffers who accompanied him to Citi Field. It's a thoughtful gift, probably the first of many. 'I plan on going back and watching my fellow teammates and the new teammates there whenever I can,' he said. Rutgers basketball coach Steve Pikiell embraces former Scarlet Knight Ace Bailey after his press conference at the NBA Draft Much has been said and written about Rutgers Athletics' financial struggles, how it lags peers in the funding department. In this new pay-for-play era, the results on the court reflect that. 'Rutgers hasn't exactly been on the cutting edge of NIL,' Pikiell said recently. Bailey and Harper could change that with the stroke of a pen, and not 20 years from now, either. Advertisement 'It's the biggest gift that Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper can give Rutgers, given that it didn't work out in their one year here,' Schiffer said. 'If you're Steve Pikiell and you're the coach at Rutgers when these guys are getting paychecks like that, that's the hope.' After the draft Pikiell was asked about that possibility. 'They will be great – they'll give back to their community,' he said. 'Hope they sign many, many contracts. They're generous people and good people – and that (the idea of them donating) is never anything I think about. Rutgers, though, really benefitted from these two guys being here. And I appreciate them.' Given just how deep their pockets are going to be, Rutgers fans should appreciate them, too. Advertisement Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper could soon fund the team
New York Times
26-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jazz draft Rutgers star Ace Bailey with No. 5 pic
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft The Utah Jazz selected Ace Bailey with the No. 5 pick Wednesday night. Bailey, the 2024 Mr. Georgia Basketball, played his only collegiate season for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, whom he led in minutes and total rebounds this past season. He started in 30 of Rutgers' 32 games, averaging 17.6 points, 1.3 assists, 7.2 rebounds and a steal per game. Bailey, 18, made 46 percent of his shots and 69 percent of his free throws. Advertisement Bailey led his team with 38 blocks and scored 527 points, the second most for a true freshman in Rutgers history. He also tied the program's single-game freshman scoring record with a 39-point performance against Indiana. Rutgers, which struggled mightily whenever Bailey was off the court, posted a 15-17 record and lost to USC in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament. Going into Wednesday, Bailey drew substantial attention and speculation with his decision not to visit any NBA teams before the draft. It's anyone's guess whether that impacted who ultimately took him. The Athletic's Sam Vecenie projected him as a clear top 10 pick ahead of the draft, with huge potential upside. The ceiling for Bailey is the second-best player in this class if he improves his areas of need. Particularly, he needs to improve his flexibility and ability to play with bend while also getting stronger. That would allow him to access more power and use his gifts across the court in a more functional manner. Once he does that, Bailey would be able to start working on improving his gathers and ball pickups around the rim on his drives to improve his finishing, which would also hopefully get defenders more off-balance and give him more options. That would improve his shooting percentages, which again, even on pull-ups this year, were markedly low. Then, on defense, it would allow him to play the leverage game better. Hopefully, better engagement on that end would follow, too, but he showed enough upside on that end to become a player. If all of this happens, there's serious All-Star upside. Anyone who says that doesn't exist is flat-out wrong. There is a chance Bailey could morph into a playmaker and star-level difference-maker on the wing. Ultimately, though, it all feels like a bit of a house of cards. He needs to improve the bend and flexibility, which would then improve certain parts of his game. Then, he'd need to also keep improving the shooting percentage, and oh, by the way, he'd also need to keep improving his ability to make decisions off his drives as a passer, and then on top of that he needs to get locked in more consistently and showcase better engagement on defense regularly. There are just a lot of moving parts that make me somewhat uncomfortable with drafting a player like this in the top five. There are so many areas that need improvement. The good news is there's a floor. Already, Bailey is a shooter off the catch and a player with size, length and athleticism who has shown moments on defense at 18 years old. That should allow him to stick in the NBA for a long while, even if the upside case doesn't totally come together. Advertisement Where Bailey lands is probably going to tell the tale of his career. I would love to see him end up in a situation where he can learn to play more consistently off the ball early in his career, develop his feel for the game a bit more and not be thrust into a primary scoring role. That would allow him to develop slowly and work on all the many parts of his game that need development. Think of the players like this archetype who have had success. Jayson Tatum landed in a Boston situation that didn't rely on him to be the guy until Year 3. Paul George basically came off the bench in Year 1 before blossoming in his third year. Kawhi Leonard didn't play much on the ball until his fourth year. Bailey is a project. He's one worth investing in, but it's going to take time as he continues to mature. Hopefully, he lands in a situation that gives him that chance. — Sam Vecenie This story will be updated.
