PISCATAWAY -- Not long after he made an 11th-hour decision to withdraw his name from the 2017 NBA Draft and return to Rutgers for his junior campaign, Corey Sanders met with Ben Asher, the team's special assistant to head coach Steve Pikiell, and had an unusual request:

Sanders wanted a key to the Rutgers Athletic Center.

"Coach Pikiell is huge with encouraging guys to get in the gym and whether it's morning, noon or night he doesn't care as long as guys are in the gym,'' Asher recalled. "That's a good problem to have when a kid wants to get into the gym. But it was unique. We lock our doors after 11 o'clock at night, and he likes to come in at 1 in the morning, which is fine. We want to give them 24-hour access to work on their games, because that's why they're here -- to improve.''

Sanders was among a host of Scarlet Knights who wanted late-night access to the arena so they could get some extra practice time before bed.

"I go to the (RAC) for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half, just working on the shooting machine, (and) I've been doing it since I got back to school,'' Sanders said. "I have a key to the gym now so it's easy access. I talked to Ben and the other (coaches) and let them know I'm trying to get in the gym late-night while no one else is in there so me and the guys can do what we do. So he gave me the key and it's been great.''

On most nights, Sanders is joined by a handful of teammates, including senior co-captains Deshawn Freeman and Mike Williams.

"It's me, it's Mike, it's Corey, Eugene (Omoruyi), Geo (Baker), Souf (Mensah) and a few other guys,'' Freeman said. "We all go in at different times. Sometimes we're in there together. I feel like that's big for us. We're all in the gym a lot more now. Last year some of us were, some of us weren't.

"Now everybody is buying in, getting extra shots. Even when we have off days I feel like everyone is in the gym late at night getting shots up.''

Ask any of Rutgers' night owls about their late-night shooting drills and they'll refer to it by a name:

"We call that the 'Knight Shift,' '' Williams said. "Sometimes we'll get here around 11 or 12 o'clock, be here for a couple of hours and then go back to our room and then have class at 9 o'clock in the morning. We work on things that we work on in practice. We'll put trash cans there, simulate the defense by going back door (or) come off screens. We make it game-like so that we know our niches, where to pass the ball and how we like to catch and shoot (or) where you're going to be on the wing.

"It's hard work, but it's something we need to do to have success later.''

Added sophomore forward Eugene Omoruyi: "It started with Corey, who's my roommate. I used to come for extra practice in the morning. But then the Knight Shift started and (Sanders) being the leader of our team, I just thought how could I not follow his lead? We did it a couple of nights in a row, and then we added Geo, and we added Mike, and then suddenly at 12 a.m. you see everybody in the gym practicing.

"It's good. It's helping everyone's craft get better.''

For Pikiell, that's music to his ears.

"I love it,'' Pikiell said. "When I hear the balls bouncing and I know it's our guys. When I first took the job, it could be the guy down the street with his son. It's our guys, and to me that's huge growth because that never happened in my first four months on the job.

"Hopefully that continues to build and they reap the reward of that. Hopefully their shooting percentage goes up because they're doing the work.''

The Scarlet Knights exceeded expectations in Pikiell's first season, compiling a 15-18 record overall, winning a program-record three games, and earning their first Big Ten Tournament triumph by ousting Ohio State in the opening round last March.

While expectations for Pikiell's second campaign remain modest, it's not unusual for upperclassmen like Williams or Freeman to cite the NCAA Tournament as an end-of-season goal.

As farfetched as that may sound to outside observers of a Rutgers basketball program that hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1991, Freeman believes the extra practice time will pay dividends.

"I feel like we have something to prove,'' the senior forward said. "Everybody is putting in the extra work, guys coming in for the Knight Shift and working on their games.

"The NCAA (tournament) -- that's where I'm trying to go. I know it's not just me. It's Mike, it's Corey, it's the last year for a lot of other guys here, too. That's our goal, to make it to the tournament. That's our main focus. And we get after it every day in practice.''

Baker, a highly touted freshman guard, echoed that sentiment.

"You're going in at midnight so you're putting in the extra work,'' Baker said. "That's something I realized when I got here. In high school you may put in two hours of practice and think you're working hard. But here, if you want to make it to the (NCAA) Tournament -- and that's our goal -- we gotta put in extra work.

"So we have our practice during the day and then we have the Knight Shift at night, when we get in extra shots and, really, just get better.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.