The St. John's Red Storm, not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, should be stringing together early-season victories during non-conference play of the men's basketball season, right?.
At least that's how the preseason season polls said it would work out.
Fortunately for the Scarlet Knights (8-2), their play, not votes, decides who's going to make early-season noise.
Rutgers, which beat the Monmouth Hawks, 79-56, Saturday to win its fifth straight game, has played solid basketball under first-year head coach Mike Rice. The quality play has produced some clatter.
"Rutgers doesn't have the personnel yet to challenge the top of the Big East," wrote MSG.com's college basketball insider Jon Rothstein last Monday. "But if you watch the Scarlet Knights you will notice that Mike Rice has the Scarlet Knights in the exact spot they're supposed to be in on each and every defensive possession."
This week, Rutgers earned two lopsided non-conference wins, the first was a 79-65 victory against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (3-7, 2-0 Northeast Conference) on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
Senior Johnathon Mitchell, the team's leading scorer, netted 22 points to help Rutgers earn its sixth straight win at home, a mark that hasn't been reached since 2005.
On Saturday, Mitchell scored 16 to guide Rutgers to its first road victory of the season. But he isn't the reason why the Scarlet Knights are winning, says Rice.
"The unselfishness off our offense and the ability to move without the ball and give yourself up searching for a great shot, we did that tonight against a defense that’s difficult to prepare for," Rice told Scarletknights.com after Saturday's game.
The Scarlet Knights have two more non-conference games before traveling to the Villanova Wildcats, Jan. 2, for their first Big East game.
St. John's Red Storm
The Johnnies (5-3) didn't play a game this week and that's probably a good thing.
The Red Storm are trying to regroup after losing to New York rivals, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies and the Fordham Rams, in the same week.
"I know the Red Storm changed coaches and put together probably the best recruiting class in school history for 2011," wrote Rothstein in the same blog post last Monday. "But by no means does that mean that this current crop of players is capable of finishing in the top half of the best conference in college basketball."
"The buzz Lavin has created around the program is palpable throughout the five boroughs but reality is reality."
"This group has never executed well in end of game situations and they don't have a legitimate Big East playmaker that can break people down off the bounce and create for others."
On Monday, The Red Storm play the Davidson Wildcats (5-4, 1-1 Southern Conference) at 9:15 p.m. (MSG Network) in the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival.
The winner advances to play either the Northwestern Wildcats (7-0) or the St. Francis Terriers (6-3, 2-0 NEC) on Tuesday.
Syracuse Orange
Forward Kris Joseph scored 21 points Saturday night to help the No. 5 ranked Orange beat the Iona Gaels, 83-77.
It was the only game that Syracuse played all week.
The Orange improved to 11-0 but probably will not climb up the newest college basketball polls, which are released on Monday.
On Wednesday, SU will play its toughest non-conference home game as the Drexel Dragons (8-1) travel to the Carrier Dome.
The Dragons beat the Louisville Cardinals, 52-46, on Dec. 14:
"Coach warned us, told us Drexel could beat us if we didn't bring our 'A' game," Louisville forward Stephan Van Treese said after the loss. "We obviously didn't bring our 'A' game."
Wednesday's game will cap the non-conference schedule for SU, which begins Big East play against Providence on Dec. 28.
Big East Confernece
The Big East went 10-1 Saturday and now has three (Syracuse, the Connecticut Huskies, the Cincinnati Bearcats) of the nine remaining undefeated teams in the country.
As of Sunday afternoon, UConn's Kemba Walker is a top of national scoring list with 28.1 ppg. Walker is tied with Xavier Silas of the Northern Illinois Huskies.