Any hopes for a Garden party for Rutgers freshmen phenoms Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper had to be put on hold.
A nagging ankle sprain for Harper and the tough defense of No. 8 Michigan State on Bailey limited their impact on Saturday as the Scarlet Knights fell, 81-74.
Bailey finished with 18 points on 4-for-17 shooting, while Harper put up six in limited minutes.
Saturday’s game drew plenty of intrigue to the Garden with Harper and Bailey both expected to be among the top picks in this June’s NBA draft, and one local team is likely to be in the running to select one of the local products.
Ironically, play-by-play man for that team — the Nets — Ian Eagle was on the call for CBS for this.
It also presented the chance for the two to face the No. 8 team in the country on a big stage like MSG, which Bailey described as “a blessing.”
“A lot of people don’t get to play at the Garden,” Bailey said. “Playing in front of 17,000 Rutgers fans, it was dope. It was fun. They gave us life towards the end. We started trapping and everything, feeding off the energy they were giving us.”
Bailey had his moments in which he looked like the player that was projected to be selected in the top five, despite some strong defensive coverage that kept him from putting up a fourth consecutive effort of at least 20 points.
Bailey hit a 3-pointer early in the first half that sent the Garden into a frenzy as the Scarlet Knights extended their lead at the time to 8-3.
He later ended a stretch of more than nine minutes where Rutgers missed 11 consecutive shots by hitting a turnaround jumper near the corner.
Even with his limited minutes and ankle sprain, Harper showed flashes of the talent that he has in the first half.
He came away with a steal late in the first and then knocked down a jumper to pull Rutgers within one with 3:44 left in the opening period. He followed it up with a strong move along the baseline for a layup with under 30 seconds in the half.
“They’re confident,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, who also lamented the fact that Harper had been dealing with an ankle issue.
“Ace is skinny, but he doesn’t play skinny. He’s got a great first step. He can get a shot off from anywhere. Dylan has got what seems like an extremely high basketball IQ. I mean a high basketball IQ and still a good shooter and he gets his differently than Ace does.”
Bailey, who had averaged 19.9 points per game coming into Saturday, felt he’s improved a lot in different areas of his game, in particular off the court.
“Taking film more serious, because we didn’t get a lot of it in high school,” Bailey said. “Just the little stuff, the small stuff that you think that’s not important. But that’s very important to the game and I improved on.”
Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said after the loss that Harper — limited to just two minutes in the second half and 13 overall — “was not great” after Friday’s practice and still needed “a little bit more time” to heal.
Saturday’s loss saw the Scarlet Knights jump out to a quick 10-3 lead, but a 16-3 Michigan State run in the middle of the first half quieted down what had been a raucous MSG crowd early on.
While Rutgers managed to even the score at 28 with just under two in the first half, the Scarlet Knights couldn’t find a way to stop the Michigan State offense allowing four points right after they tied the game.
They went into the half down three.
Michigan State extended that lead in the second half, going up by as much as 13 four times in the final 20 minutes.
Rutgers did manage to keep the game somewhat close down to the wire.
Jordan Derkack, who finished with 26 points, hit a late 3-pointer with under 30 seconds to pull the Scarlet Knights within six.