Everything's Worse in Texas

A week ago, everything was looking up for the Scarlet Knights.

They'd hung with Louisville (sort of), looked okay against a great Cincy team on the road, and then dismantled UCF before embarking on this Texas road trip.  It looked like maybe Eddie Jordan had gotten this team to turn a corner and they were ready to be competitive.

And then came Texas.

Houston ran Rutgers out of the gym.  And then SMU showed up and turned up the defense.  Rutgers started 1-16 from the field and was never able to recover.

What had been great about the pre-Texas conference stretch was the fact that Rutgers stuck with it, even when things weren't going right.  They ran their sets, got open shots, and when they made them things work.  But the Mustangs made Rutgers uncomfortable.

They turned the paint into a house of horrors, and Rutgers was forced (or decided) to take bad jump shots that wouldn't go down.

Those long rebounds turned into run outs for SMU, who made double the the three point shots they average.

Basically, Rutgers had no shot.

Yes, they competed.  The second half was better, and Rutgers kept playing hard, but it wasn't enough.  J.J. Moore finished with 15 and Myles Mack scored 13.

But now, with UConn coming to the RAC, it feels like it's back to square 1.

Everything's Bigger in Texas... including deficits.