Guru’s March Madness - I: Rutgers Focused on BYU

By Cathy Bongiovi

When Rutgers takes on Brigham Young in its NCAA first round game on March 22, coach C. Vivian Stringer will have her youthful squad focused and ready to play.

 

In her 50^th season overall and her 26^th season with the Scarlet Knights, Stringer is a seasoned veteran that will not allow the youngest team in the country to overlook the 11^th-seeded Cougars.

 

“First of all, the team we’re going to play is extremely well-coached. Our hat’s off to them,” Stringer said. 

 

BYU is coached by Jeff Judkins, who is in his 20^th year at the helm. The Cougars are making their 14^th NCAA tourney appearance.

 

“They beat Gonzaga a couple of weeks ago in the regular season.

“ Certainly with Arella (Guirantes), Tekia (Mack), and Diamond (Johnson), who are our three leading scorers, we look forward to their contributions as well as other team members who can help us in a good way,” Stringer said.

 

Two-time AP All-American Guirantes is a redshirt senior guard who leads Rutgers in scoring with 20.8 points per game.  She also grabs 6.0 rebounds and dished 5.2 assists per game. 

The first-team All-Big Ten selection and Big Ten All-Defensive Team member is in contention to set the school record in free throw percentage for a single season. She stands at .892 (91-of-102). 

 

Guirantes is a gold star on the national radar.

 One of five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard Award, she is also a finalist for the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Trophy for the National Player of the Year as well as the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and the Senior CLASS Award. 

Senior forward Mack averages 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Named to the Big Ten All-Defensive and Honorable Mention All-Big Ten Teams, she ranks ninth nationally in steals per game (3.3).

 

True freshman point guard Johnson has had an outstanding season. Averaging 17.9 points per game, she was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and is a Top 10 finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award as the country’s top point guard.

 

The Rutgers’ defense will need to stop WCC co-Player of the Year Shaylee Gonzales who averages 17.9 points per game, second-best in the WCC. 

Fellow sophomore Lauren Gustin adds 11.5 point and a team-best 12.8 rebounds per game, which ranks fifth nationally. 

Three-time first-team All-WCC guard Paisley Johnson Harding contributes 14.0 points per game.

 

Cohesive play across the board for Rutgers will be a decisive factor for this young team that’s making the 26th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, but the first trip for most.

 

“The keys for us are going to be– we have to play a disciplined game, we’ve got to share the ball, we have to take care of the defensive assignments that we have, and we have to control the game,” Stringer said. 

 

“Everyone’s made a commitment, and we feel really good about our chances and how well we’re playing now.”  

 

Guirantes isn’t taking the trip for granted. She knows the importance of starting off strong, something she will reiterate with her younger teammates.

 

“We all learned our lesson that we don’t want to have to fight quite so hard in the second half.  Everyone knows how important it is to start off well, because it creates momentum,” she said.

 

“Luckily we’re a great second-half team also, and it saved us in a couple of games where we picked it up in the second half. But it’s March now,” Guirantes continued. “It’s time to face a lot of things we struggled with in the past and move on.” 

 

With Stringer’s leadership, the Scarlet Knights will be armed with the tools for success. She won’t allow them to forget this opportunity.

 

“You know we’re still the youngest team in the NCAA. Sometimes I wonder when and if our players have a sense of this moment. Because you can’t pass this moment again.”

Sixth-seeded Rutgers (14-4) takes on No. 11 seed Brigham Young (18-5) on Monday, March 22, at Noon ET (11 AM CT) in first round action of the Mercado Region at Texas State’s Strahan Arena. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.