After coming back from 13 points down with 5 minutes to go on Friday, Rutgers edged Hartford 77-75 at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
Led by Deshawn Freeman’s career-high 26 points and C.J. Gettys putback with 7.6 seconds remaining, Rutgers is now 6-0 for the first time since the 1975-76 season.
Eddie Jordan was one of the stars of that ’75-76 season which reached the Final Four. A year ago, Rutgers won 7 games with Jordan in his final season as coach, and he was promptly fired.
Here’s a few other things that took place in 1975:
**A gallon of gas cost 44 cents.
**”The Godfather Part II” won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Francis Ford Coppola won Best Director.
**”Saturday Night Live” debuted that fall with George Carlin as its host and a cast that included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner.
**Fred Lynn of the Red Sox became the first Rookie to win AL MVP honors.
**The Mighty Led Zeppelin played a 38-city North American tour that took place just after Jimmy Page broke his left ring finger when it got caught in a train door, leaving him without the use of the crucial digit.
Getting back to Rutgers, it’s too early to get too excited.
But keep in mind that fellow metropolitan-area schools Seton Hall (3-1) and St. John’s (2-3) are a combined 4-3 entering Saturday’s action.
“We just toughed it out,” said first-year head coach Steve Pikiell. “These two guys [Freeman and C.J. Gettys] were great. They were good leaders today and they figured out a way to win, which is what I wanted to do. We’ll learn from this one and we’ll move on.”
They will move on to their first real test of the season when they visit Miami on Nov. 30 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge (ESPNU).
The Hurricanes lost for the first time this season on Friday to Iowa State in the semifinals of the AdvoCare Invitational.
FREE THROWS
Rutgers had Class of 2018 guards Luther Muhammad and Anthony Nelson and 2019 guard Al-Amir Dawes on hand.
Photo: Rutgers Athletics
