Can Rutgers women’s basketball team crack Top 25?

After a nice 73-68 victory over Hofstra University last night, are fans slowly starting to hope that this season is a bounce-back year for the Rutgers women’s basketball team? Can head coach Coquese Washington return the Scarlet Knights to their once powerhouse form?

After a nice 73-68 victory over Hofstra University last night, are fans slowly starting to hope that this season is a bounce-back year for the Rutgers women’s basketball program? Can this team begin to stack wins in not just out-of-conference play but in a deep Big Ten?

Granted it is only one victory but getting off on the right foot is an excellent confidence booster. The next test for the Scarlet Knights will be this Friday night, November 11, 2022, against the Seton Hall Pirates. The last time the two local New Jersey universities faced off was back in December 2017, when the Scarlet Knights defeated the Pirates 70-45. The Pirates are going to give the Scarlet Knights more of a challenge than Hofstra, especially since Hofstra hasn’t had a winning season in the last six years.

After the retirement of legendary head coach C. Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers women’s basketball program was left wondering. Wondering if the once-successful program can return to the top. With the victory over Hofstra, the women Scarlet Knights ushered newly head coach Coquese Washington to the win column.

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Can Washington return the Scarlet Knights to their once powerhouse form? Watching the game last night, it was nice to see the Scarlet Knights put up points, something they lacked all last season.

Hopefully, Washington can carry on Stringer’s defensive mindset, something she implemented in her program for many years. In the years leading up to Stringer’s retirement, Rutgers had issues scoring, but would win games because of their strong defense. Stringer always made a case that a strong defense is a good offense, but nowadays that doesn’t work, since many teams have elite scoring. If Washington can get her girls to play tough defense and continue to run an efficient offensive scheme, Rutgers can make a tremendous improvement from last season, possibly cracking the NCAA Women’s Basketball top 25 rankings.

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