Rutgers men's basketball: The Princeton game is back! A guide to season-opening showdown

In face-to-face conversations and emails, Rutgers basketball coach Steve Pikiell receives a lot of unsolicited advice from fans about who should be on the Scarlet Knights’ non-conference schedule. There is one request, however, that typically arrives in a distinctive manner.

“I usually get, ‘Go play Notre Dame, Duke, Carolina,’ except every now and then I get a typewritten note from a typewriter – and I know (before reading it) they’re asking for the Princeton game,” Pikiell said. “I wasn’t here for that era so I don’t know what the rivalry was like, but those people remind me.”

Historically yoked together as the combatants in the first intercollegiate football game in 1869, Rutgers and Princeton faced off 120 times on the hardwood between 1917 and 2013, when the series was dropped by former Scarlet Knights coach Eddie Jordan. Now it’s back on – and a most intriguing season opener Monday at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton (7 p.m. tip-off, streaming on Peacock).

“For alumni certainly over the age of 50, Princeton was the rival,” said Richard Kent, a 1972 Rutgers grad who writes about the Ivy League for IvyHoopsOnline.com. “It’s been Rutgers’ primary all-sports rival from day one in 1869 going forward.”

Princeton coach Mitch Henderson knows. As a standout guard for the Tigers in the 1990s he went 3-0 against the Scarlet Knights. He also was 2-1 as a head coach in the series before its hiatus.

“I loved that game as student,” Henderson said. “It’s so nice that it’s the opener.”

Throughout the preseason, he’s prodded his players about it.

“It’s a great motivator when we’ve stunk (in practice) and I’ve said, ‘You’re gonna get rolled,’” Henderson said.

Here’s an in-depth look at the history, this matchup, and whether this can be a springboard to something bigger for the Garden State.

The history

Princeton leads the series 75-45, including an 18-game winning streak from 1954-64, but Rutgers is up 11-4 since the millennium. Long before the blood wars against Seton Hall took center stage, the Route 1 rivalry captivated Jersey hoop-heads.

“That’s the game that a Rutgers alumnus got up for,” Kent said. “If you talk to a real Princeton fan, they will tell you that second to the University of Pennsylvania is Rutgers.”

Here are five classics from the annals.

Dec. 13, 1965: With Princeton coming off a Final Four run, Rutgers prevailed 68-66 in Old Nassau’s Dillon Gym to end its 18-game skid in the series. Scarlet Knights junior guard (and future All-American) Bob Lloyd scored 30 points and “dribbled away the final minutes,” as The New York Times put it.

Dec. 17, 1968: Princeton rallied from 15 down to tie things up before Rutgers forward Bob Greacen made one of two free throws in the closing seconds as the Scarlet Knights triumphed 61-60 – their first win over the Tigers at the Barn in 15 years.

March 13, 1976: After winning by 13 at Princeton during the regular season, the unbeaten Scarlet Knights survived a 54-53 nail-biter in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round in Providence. Princeton’s Pete Molloy missed the front end of a one-and-one with four seconds left. Rutgers went on to make the Final Four.

Nov. 22, 1997: One of the best Princeton teams ever – the Tigers would go 27-2 with wins over Texas, N.C. State, Wake Forest and UNLV – spoiled Kevin Bannon’s Rutgers debut with a 64-52 triumph at the RAC before a crowd of 8,524 – the last time Rutgers would sell out a November home game until 2018.

Nov. 12, 2010: In Mike Rice’s Rutgers debut, eventual Ivy League champion Princeton won 78-73 in overtime at Jadwin. Scarlet Knights forward Dane Miller was whistled for a charge under the Tigers’ hoop with one second left in regulation.

Pikiell wasn’t around for those games, but he knows Princeton’s history. He served as an assistant coach for two years at Yale in the 1990s. Before that, as a high school point guard in Connecticut, he was recruited by iconic Tigers coach Pete Carril and even visited Old Nassau. As one of nine siblings, though, he couldn’t afford the tab and ended up playing on scholarship at UConn.

“My dad was the happiest guy that I got a scholarship,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t know if I could have gotten in there (Princeton) at the end of the day.”

The matchup

Princeton returns five of its top eight players from the squad that won the Ivy League and advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 last March. Sophomore Caden Pierce is a bulldog of a wing forward who would kill you for a loose ball. Sophomore point guard Xaivian Lee is much improved, and senior sharpshooter Matt Allocco was All-Ivy last year.

Everyone Princeton puts on the floor can drain a 3-pointer. Pikiell emphasized close-outs in Rutgers' game prep. It will help if senior forward Mawot Mag is out there. The defensive stopper tore an ACL last February but has been practicing. Pikiell had him rotating in and out with the first team over the past week.

“They shoot the lights out,” Rutgers guard Derek Simpson said. “You’ve got to be able to contest every shot. Good shooters are going to make great shots, so we’ve got to live with some of the shots they make. The shots they miss, we’ve got to capitalize off of.”

Rutgers will push the ball when the opportunity presents, but the Scarlet Knights also own a huge matchup edge at center in 6-foot-11 All-Big Ten wrecking ball Cliff Omoruyi. Princeton doesn’t have a true postman; face-up four Zach Martini will fill the role with plenty of double-team help.

Martini, a Gill St. Bernard’s grad, knows Omoruyi well, having lost two heartbreakers to the latter’s Roselle Catholic squad in the NJSIAA Tournament championship.

“Me and Cliff would go head-to-head,” Martini said. “I’m really excited for that matchup – would love to come away with a victory this time. Great player, great guy. This would mean a lot to me, to get this one.”

Rutgers’ players said they didn’t watch Princeton’s Big Dance run last March, although they have been studying film of the Tigers’ wins over Arizona and Missouri.

“Usually teams schedule lower teams the first couple of games,” postgrad guard Aundre Hyatt said. “But I feel like having a really good game first is going to get us ready for the rest of the games down the line.”

Lee could hardly contain his enthusiasm.

“I am amped,” he said. “To be honest, I wish it was at Rutgers because I want to feel that atmosphere. All I know is they’re a high-major, big-name program and I’m ready to go after them. I wanted a couple more of those types of games, but I’m just excited to get this one.”

The future?

This one was hard enough to come by. Princeton scares the daylights out of prospective high-major foes and can’t even get into a Feast Week Tournament.

When Henderson makes scheduling calls, he said, “We usually get ‘Don’t ever call me again.’ Click.”

This matchup was brokered by Princeton grad Rick Giles, an event organizer who helms the influential Gazelle Group.

“It’s a great opportunity to compete against another New Jersey team – and do it right in the middle,” Simpson said. “It’s a great event for New Jersey.”

As a Mount Laurel native whose father played at Rider, Simpson gets it.

“I feel like it’s important to say that you’re the best team in New Jersey,” he said. “It’s great bragging rights. When you say that kind of thing outside of New Jersey, it’s even bigger respect.”

Four years ago, on Martini’s recruiting visit to Princeton, has asked the coaches: Why don’t you play Rutgers?

“Now it’s full circle with them on the schedule and I’m super excited about it,” Martini said. “Outside of Monmouth, we haven’t played New Jersey teams. Something like Philly does, New Jersey should do something like that. There’s a lot of great college ball in New Jersey, but it’s not showcased that well.”

He might be onto something. An annual eight-team, three-round non-conference tournament that some fans have pined for is never going to happen. Among other issues, it opens the possibility that Rutgers and Seton Hall would not meet, so that’s a non-starter. But an institutionalized, Big Five-style round robin where all eight programs are guaranteed to play each other (it would have to be spread out over a couple of seasons) would be fun.

Any future plans, for this rivalry or larger, would be helped by a good game – and a good crowd – Monday night. As of Saturday, around 5,000 tickets had been sold for the 8,600-seat arena. One of the most intriguing tilts in the country on opening night deserves a strong turnout.

“Of course we want to win and they want to win, but I think it’s so good for the local community, and it’s so good for New Jersey basketball,” Henderson said. “We think very much that we’re like Rutgers and Seton Hall. We think of ourselves in that vein, and our alums do.”

As the typewritten letters that reach Steve Pikiell via mail carrier attest, Rutgers-Princeton still means something.

“It’s so good to have this back,” Henderson said. “I hope we can keep doing it.”

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at  jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers vs. Princeton basketball: Guide to the season-opener