INDIANAPOLIS -- Geo Baker pulled his No. 0 jersey over his eyes as he walked off the court at Lucas Oil Stadium. No one has worn the Rutgers uniform with more pride than Baker, nor has any player done more to change the perception of what it means to wear it, either.
But now?
That uniform, already drenched with sweat from an unforgettable NCAA Tournament game, was soaking up his tears. The shellshocked Rutgers fans scattered around this football stadium tried to support Baker and his teammates with a standing ovation as they headed into the locker room, but nothing was going to ease the devastation.
“I don’t know if I’m ever really going to forget today or get over it,” Baker said.
As always, he speaks the blunt truth. This, quite simply, was one of the most crushing losses in the 152-year history of Rutgers athletics -- and, yes, that is a very high bar to clear.
The Scarlet Knights had a nine-point lead over Houston, the second seed in the Midwest Region, with just under five minutes left. They were one play -- one basket, one rebound, one steal, one anything -- from finishing off the favored Cougars and moving on.
The victory would have put Rutgers into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1979, but that feat alone wouldn’t have captured its significance. The win would have turned the Scarlet Knights into one of the darlings of this unpredictable tournament, giving them a week’s worth of positive attention and solidifying the legacy of the players who made it happen.
Instead, it all came unraveled in stunning fashion. Turnovers. Missed dunks. Rebounds that just slipped out of their hands. A maddening decision to take the air out of the ball instead of going for the jugular. It was a complete, total collapse.
Rutgers fans may forget the final score -- Houston 63, Rutgers 60 -- but they’ll remember that sick-to-their-stomach feeling when it ended. They’ll remember the sight of Baker, the great player who delivered so many special moments during his four years in Piscataway, collapsing to the hardwood and sobbing as he walked away.
“Basketball is a game of wins and losses -- it’s only one or the other,” Baker said. “I’ve always wanted my legacy to be a winner. I don’t really know where that stands right now, to be honest with you.”
Let’s stop him right there: Nothing about this loss changes anything about Geo Baker’s legacy. If this is the last time he wears that Rutgers uniform, Baker always will be remembered as the nation’s 414th ranked recruit who bought into head coach Steve Pikiell’s vision and helped reverse a three-decades-long hoops malaise.
He was the one who wanted the ball in his hands in the final minutes, and more often than not, the one who hit the biggest shots. So, then, it was only fitting that he was dribbling it across half court with less than 15 second left and the Scarlet Knights -- while on the wrong end of an epic Houston run -- still only down a point.
A basket wins the game. Baker cut to his left, an isolation play this team has run a thousand times. The ball didn’t cut with him, slipping off his fingers and into the waiting hands of a Houston defender. Rutgers had to foul, and the two free throws padded the lead to three.
“I just lost it,” Baker said. “It’s a move I made like a million times, and that’s probably the first time I ever lost it in that position.”
Even then, Rutgers had a shot to at least force overtime. It was a good look, too, from forward Ron Harper Jr., who looked like an All-American in the early months of this long, strange season. It clanked off the left side of the rim.
The season was over.
“This team made history,” Pikiell said. “They now become the standard of what we want to be at Rutgers. We need this group to be remembered for a long time.”
Pikiell’s voice was barely a whisper. On top of the crushing loss, he had to break the news to his players that Joe Boylan, the team’s beloved radio voice, had died earlier in the day after suffering a stroke last week.
“Tough day, tough game,” he said.
The Scarlet Knights might have survived into a Sweet 16 with Loyola Chicago, Oregon State and Syracuse -- the 8, 12 and 11 seeds -- standing in the way of a trip to the Final Four. Instead, they leave the bubble and head back to New Jersey, a “what if” forever stamped on this season.
Maybe, someday, they’ll be able to look back on all that this team accomplished. But as Baker sat there in the No. 0 jersey, maybe for the last time, the solace of what he accomplished wasn’t going to erase the pain of what he did not.
“Not really, to be honest,” Baker said. “As a competitor, you just never really are satisfied. You always want more. I felt like I let it slip away.”
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.