Rutgers scheduled and played itself out of the NCAA Tournament field.
Cue the widespread outcries of a snub, but Rutgers has no one to blame but itself after a soft non-conference schedule left no margin for error and it proved costly during a late-season slide.
Watching the Selection Sunday show behind closed doors, the Scarlet Knights were not chosen in one of the country’s biggest surprises of the day, given that they were a popular choice by bracketologists.
The last four at-large berths went to Arizona State, Nevada, Mississippi State and Pittsburgh.
All are No. 11 seeds set to participate in the First Four games, which Rutgers participated in last season.
Rutgers (19-14, 10-10 in the Big Ten) did not receive a bid for the third straight season, which would have been the first time in program history.
At its best, Rutgers is dangerous, as shown by a combined 10 Quad 1 and Quad 2 victories, including arguably the best win in the country when it upset then-No. 1 Purdue (Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions) on the road Jan. 2.
But there was too much negativity to overcome.
In the five-year history of the quad system for the committee, Rutgers was trying to become the first team selected with four debilitating Quad 3 losses — at Minnesota, at home against Nebraska and Seton Hall and to Temple on a neutral floor.
Rival Seton Hall’s upset loss to DePaul in the first round of the Big East Tournament might have been the death knell by turning a Quad 2 loss into a Quad 3 loss and creating extra nerves.
The other black mark that weakened a bubble résumé was Rutgers’ annual soft non-conference schedule, which ranked No. 342 out of 363 Division I-A teams in terms of difficulty.
In the range to land a No. 5 or No. 6 seed as recently as early February, Rutgers lost seven of its final 10 games, including a 1-1 showing in the Big Ten Tournament.
The slide coincided with the loss of starting forward Mawot Mag but Rutgers still managed to keep its NET rating (No. 40) much higher than last season (No. 77).
So much for the metrics.