For Georgetown, this Gavitt Tip-Off Games pits them and the ever dangerous Rutgers Scarlet Knights, which unfortunately may be each team's last Gavitt Games participation; running for eight years now, rumors persist this annual BIG EAST vs Big Ten, multi-team, early season event is toast, done, fini.

Scheduled for Jersey Mike's Arena on Rutgers' Piscataway, NJ campus today, the building formerly known as The RAC will be jumping! For game, ticket, broadcast, chat information, plus statistics, click here.

One great thing Rivals.com provides is a powerful network, one in which experts in different college/high school sports spaces can inform, not only fans, but fellow media members. It's a powerful thing.

With that in mind, this iteration of Network Share features TheKnightReport.net, with no doubt THE best Rutgers coverage available. Rich Schnyderite, the outlet's Publisher agreed to answer questions posed. An go-to info source for RU sports, his responses and the original queries are presented below. In their entirety.

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1) Talk about the three guards that love to drive. what's their roles right now?

I assume you are referencing Derek Simpson, Noah Fernandes and Gavin Griffiths. Before I even get into those three guards, it's been a much different backcourt for Rutgers Basketball this season as they've previously always had taller, longer guards, but this offseason they've shifted to a smaller, quicker group of guards.

Now as to how they are playing? It's been up and down so far as guys are still trying to gel with one another. Let's start with the returning guard of the group, Derek Simpson as he showed a few flashes late last year as he was inserted into the starting lineup, scoring 12+ points in four of the last five games of the season. So far this season he's moved between starter and sixth man and struggled a bit early on, but this last game versus Bryant was his best yet on both ends of the court.

Against the Bulldogs, Simpson didn't shoot too well going 2-for-8, but he hit his free throws (8-of-8), made some key plays (4asts, 2rebs) and was solid on defense finishing with two steals. However his erratic offensive possessions have led to him now coming off the bench. Still waiting to see the Simpson of last season arrive this year.

Fernandes, similar to Simpson, has been pretty rough to start the season, shooting 4-of-16 on the year, but he's made up for it in other areas at times. Personally I think they let him be the main ball handler a little bit too much as I'd like to see him play a bit more off ball since coming into the year he was considered one of the better scorers on this team.\

Griffiths is easily the team's best shooter, but it's hard to count on a true freshman to carry the load so early on in his career. He's been both hot and cold to start the season, as we've seen him be afraid a bit to take his shot at times versus Princeton to a lights out player versus Boston and then most recently an ugly 2-of-11 performance versus Bryant. I think the more he gains confidence in his shot, the better he will be as the former top 20 recruit has the potential to be the Scarlet Knights best player on offense this season.

There is a fourth who I almost forgot to mention, another true freshman in JaMichael Davis. He's a smaller, quicker guard and arguably the team's best backcourt defender due to his speed and footwork. Early on his game reminds me a lot of young Jacob Young (former Rutgers PG), who can keep up with anyone on the court and is a bit of a pesky gnat like defender as well. Add in the fact that he can score at times, leading scorer versus St. John's in the preseason exhibition with 16pts. Now he can't really shoot it all too well, unless left wide open, but he isn't afraid of driving and drawing contact at the rim similar to Simpson. He will also come off the bench, but will play key minutes.

2) Defensively what does the team run?

As mentioned before with the speed this year's team possesses, Pikiell and crew have shown that they like to full court press at times, but for the most part it's going to be a man defense in the half court.

3) With many new players, guys left. what if anything ,happened,?

Cam Spencer entered the portal in May after talks with his brother Pat Spencer and an agent who told him how valuable he might be in the portal. There was also quite a bit of tampering going on from other college coaches that convinced him to enter, in the end he was down to Miami who offered a big pay day or UConn who offered a smaller pay day, but he chose the Huskies because they offered him a better shot at winning a National Title.

Paul Mulcahy was in a different situation, as Rutgers brought in grad transfer guard Noah Fernandes and it looked like his role was pretty uncertain especially since he saw his role regress late in the season last year when Derek Simpson stepped up and started to take minutes away from. Now had Mulcahy had stayed, there would have been minutes for him, but after talking with some people in his corner he made the late decision to leave the program in June and enter the portal. After entering he was promised a nice pay day from a certain program, committed to that program, but word is that pay day wasn't as much as originally promised and according to Twitter rumors (believe or don't believe), he tried to come back, but by then it was too late as Rutgers was moving on.

The rest of the guys left for greener pastures as they weren't expected to be key contributors this season for the Scarlet Knights, except for Oskar Palmquist who entered the portal, went to Elon for a few weeks before returning to Rutgers as it wasn't quite what he was expecting.

4) Are the Scarlet Knights playing faster this year?

As mentioned before, the tempo is up and that shouldn't be too shocking considering they were one of the slowest tempo teams in all of college basketball last year at 264th out of 363 per KenPom. Now the number hasn't been much different this year so far, but it's a small sample size to begin and I think as they continue to gel and find out who works well with what player, that number should rise a bit by the end of the season.

5) Who is the go to guy? X-factor?

Aundre Hyatt, the former four-star and sixth year vet has been the go to guy for the Scarlet Knights so far this season. Will that be the same by the end or even the middle of the season? I'm leaning towards that being a no as Gavin Griffiths, who was praised as the best shooter in the 2023 class will find his shot and confidence sooner or later and when that happens all bets are off as Griffiths has NBA level potential.