Rutgers Men's, Women's Basketball Both Advance To NCAA Tournament

New Brunswick NJ

16 March, 2021

5:18 PM

Description

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — For the first time in well, a long time, both the Rutgers men's and women's basketball teams will compete in the NCAA Tournament this year. It's the first time the RU men's team has advanced to the tournament in 30 years. Whereas the Rutgers women's team, under legendary head coach C. Vivian Stringer, has gone to the tournament 25 times now. 2021 will be the ladies' 26th year. The No. 6-seed RU women's team will face No. 11 BYU in the first round on Monday, March 22 at noon on the campus of Texas State. Rutgers men's No. 10 seed will face No. 7-seed Clemson this Friday at 9:20 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, airing on TBS. The last time Rutgers men's basketball went to the NCAA Tournament was in March 15, 1991. "Our guys are excited to be in the tournament for the first time in 30 years and to have a chance to play for a national championship," said RU men's head coach Steve Pikiell, in a statement provided by the school. "We have a great group of guys that have worked very hard. It's a real challenging league. We navigated Covid. I'm thankful for a lot of people for all their hard work to get us to this point. I'm really excited for Rutgers nation. It's a great honor. It's a great opportunity and we're very excited about it." Be the first to know what's happening in your town and area. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss a minute of local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this reporter: [email protected]