Time for Bailey and Harper to fulfill Rutgers' hopes

Rutgers waited two years for diaper dandies Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper to play their first game together, and now the journey begins for the both of them.

We have been hearing about Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey for the last few years. Everyone waited for them to sign their signatures in the dotted line, indicating they would be playing for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Those two serve as Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell’s signature moves to a basketball program waiting to take the next step from respectable to an NCAA contender.

The Scarlet Knights missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons, as the coach focused on getting Harper and Bailey to play for his program.

Now that Harper and Bailey will start their first season at Rutgers, we will find out how great those two potential top-five picks are and how great Rutgers is with those two. Make no mistake, expectations are high for Rutgers and its two stars, which explains why the school started the season ranked No. 25 in the preseason AP poll.

Harper’s journey started Wednesday night in Rutgers’ 75-52 victory over Wagner at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Bailey’s journey will have to wait after he suffered an undisclosed injury in practice on Monday.

Harper scored 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting in his Rutgers debut.

It’s hard to make anything out of Harper and Bailey at this point. Rutgers is not playing anyone tough in the nonconference schedule. Yes, the Scarlet Knights are going to play Notre Dame and Alabama in the Players First Tournament on Thanksgiving Week, but even then, this will be nothing more than an exhibition.

We will find out about the both of them when Rutgers starts its conference season on Dec. 7 when it plays Ohio State at Columbus. After that, the team will play Penn State and Seton Hall. That’s where evaluations will start being made.

Right now, this is about getting work in. It’s good that Harper had his work in. It would have been nice if Bailey did not get hurt, so he would get his work in on Wednesday night. The sooner those two work together, the better those two and Rutgers will be.

Everyone seems to think Harper and Bailey will elevate Rutgers to great heights, such as going to the Sweet 16. I will be impressed if those two can take the school back to the tournament and win a playoff game.

I don’t know what to make of them. I never saw them play. Scouts and general managers have been high on them, so this matters a great deal. Pikiell has been watching his duo for years now as part of his recruiting trail, so he has to have a good feel for them.

Still, this guarantees nothing. We have seen programs with prized players flop. Remember O.J. Mayo and USC flopped in 2007 after everyone thought he would take that school to the Final Four. How about Kris Humphries and the Gophers underachieving back in the 2003-2004 season?

I do think Rutgers should be okay with this diaper dandy duo. Pikiell is a good coach to make sure everything doesn’t go wrong. But Rutgers needs to be more than okay. It’s time for the Scarlet Knights to do more than just make the tournament. Getting to the tournament can’t just be the bar anymore.

This is likely a one-time deal with Harper and Bailey, as in they will be one-and-done. They are expected to go to the NBA Draft after this season. Rutgers has no time to waste.

After wasting two seasons to get those two, there has to be results. This means I don’t want to hear about needing time to jell. I don’t need to hear about chemistry. This team has to be buzzing by January when there is an identity.

Under Pikiell, Rutgers was a grind-it-out team, and the results were good for the most part. The school even had two NCAA tournament appearances.

Rutgers never had a go-to scorer that would be a difference maker in tight games, which is why the team would fall short of a victory. Now, there’s no more excuse with those two being pure scorers.

To Harper’s and Bailey’s credit, they have embraced being the guys at Rutgers. They want the expectations. They are actually dreaming about leading the school to a national championship. They haven’t really spent much time thinking about their NBA draft stock.

Rutgers has the right coach to navigate high expectations.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out one way or another. It’s either going to go bad or great. There won’t be a gray area.