photo-1.JPG

Rutgers assistant head coach Jimmy Martelli's scheduling binder contains all the information about getting games. The Scarlet Knights' non-conference schedule this season has helped boost their 2-1 start in Big East play.

(Photo by Brendan Prunty/The Star-Ledger)

It’s ordinary, this binder. In the back office of the coaches suite for the Rutgers men’s basketball team, it’s nestled in the gray filing cabinet above assistant coach Jimmy Martelli’s desk. It is eighth from the left, in between two bigger, fatter ones. The slim black binder has only one identifying mark: A white label with “SCHEDULING” in black Sharpie on the spine.

From this binder a plan was hatched — schedule the perfect mix of games, win the right ones from there and take care of business in the Big East and suddenly Rutgers might find itself in a rare position: Having March mean something.

“We went right down the middle of the road,” Martelli said in his office this week. “We said, ‘We’re not going to have the marquee game.’”

When the final schedule for this season was released in the summer, it drew scoffs. Sacred Heart? Howard? At UNC-Greensboro? But quietly, Rutgers knew it had set itself up for success.

Now, with a 2-1 conference mark for only the third time in Big East play entering tonight’s game against No. 21 Cincinnati, the Scarlet Knights’ once-soft schedule is considered their biggest asset.

“Especially, as those teams get into their league, they’re going to be top-150 (RPI) teams,” Rutgers head coach Mike Rice said. “They’re going to accumulate, and as far as the RPI goes, it’s only going to go up if you can just win. If you can win enough games ... you’re still talking about the postseason.”

Putting the right formula together is critical for teams with any postseason aspiration — whether it be the NCAAs or the NIT tournament.

Rutgers hasn’t been to the NCAAs since 1991 and the NIT since 2006. So, with a talented — yet still somewhat inexperienced roster — Rice needed the right schedule to put his team in a position to contend if it won enough games.

So his schedule-maker, Martelli, and the program’s de facto bracketologist, Brad Wachtel, scoured the country in search of the perfect games to fit Rutgers’ needs.

“You want to schedule teams that you know will be good in their conference,” said Wachtel, the team’s assistant to the head coach. “Like Boston University, who was picked to win their league. Princeton, who has a chance to win their league. Iona is another team. Teams that are very good, quality teams in their league. If you’re a BCS school and you think you have a chance at a postseason bid, teams that you need to beat. That’s part of the reason why our RPI is pretty good.”

When the NCAA this week released its first official RPI — a metric used to rank teams based on wins, losses and strength of schedule and considered to be a valued measurement during the NCAA Tournament selection process — Rutgers’ placement was surprising to many. Not to the Knights. Debuting at 56 (and currently at 41, according to RealTimeRPI.com), Rutgers’ placement is in relation to the teams it scheduled and beat. And what those teams did after.

“Look at our schedule — you wouldn’t think that UNC-Greensboro has the lowest RPI,” Martelli said. “When we scheduled that game, it was a pretty good game. They won their division last year, were picked to win it this year and they have the lowest RPI of any of the teams we’ve played. ... You’ve got to get lucky.”

It took some crafty schedule maneuvering to fill some holes with quality opponents late in the process for this year. Rutgers had a waiting-to-be-signed contract on coach Fran Dunphy’s desk in the spring to start a home-and-home series with Temple, when Dunphy called up Martelli to tell him they couldn’t do it. Why? Temple was set to be announced as a new member of the Big East Conference, beginning in 2013. (The Owls were replaced by Alabama-Birmingham on the schedule.)

Another scheduled road game against Texas Tech died, because the Red Raiders never returned the paperwork in time. The UNC-Greensboro game took its place on the schedule.

"You're trying to find a team that needs a game, first of all," Wachtel said. "And especially when it's that late in the process, finding a team that is at least mid-major, was definitely what we wanted."

Before Martelli moves forward in any scheduling process, he consults Wachtel — who for fun did his own bracket projections while with the Hoop Group — to see if the game is a benefit to Rutgers. Once the pair identify if they want to move forward in the negotiations for a game, they look at what a team may be losing or bringing back that season. After that, it’s finding a proper spot on the schedule to play.

Martelli and Wachtel are already nearly done with next year’s schedule, increasing the strength of it to match the maturity of the team in 2013-14.

While the RPI numbers and résumé look good now, it won't mean much if Rutgers can't continue to win in the Big East for the rest of the regular season. Year Three under Rice was about building toward a postseason berth — in either tournament — for the first time in seven years. That's why he gave carte blanche to his schedule mavens to come up with the right formula to set them up to be in position to do that come league play.

So far, the formula's been correct.

“If you feel like you have a chance to be a postseason team, I think you really need to (schedule for it),” Wachtel said. “I think everybody would be frustrated if we won 20 games and the factor of non-conference play hurt us from making it. In the back of your mind, you always plan to overachieve.”

Brendan Prunty: bprunty@starledger.com; Twitter: @BrendanPrunty

* * * * *

SMART SCHEDULING

Part of the reason for Rutgers' current rank of 41st in the RPI is its non-conference schedule, combined with some critical early wins in the Big East Conference. Here's a peek inside the numbers as to why the Scarlet Knights' resume looks so good:

OPPONENT || RECORD || RPI || SOS

Saint Peter's || 6-8 || 219 || 196

Sacred Heart || 6-8 || 227 || 129

at Princeton || 6-7 || 120 || 82

Boston U. || 7-9 || 175 || 132

at UNC-Greensboro || 1-10 || 339 || 250

at Ole Miss || 12-2 || 48 || 187

Iona* || 9-6 || 135 || 225

George Washington || 7-7 || 170 || 153

Ala.-Birmingham || 7-8 || 140 || 92

Howard || 3-11 || 287 || 220

Rider || 7-9 || 222 || 249

at Syracuse || 15-1 || 12 || 37

Pittsburgh || 13-3 || 50 || 113

at St. John's || 9-6 || 72 || 33

*- Neutral court, MSG

Numbers courtesy of RealTimeRPI.com