Noah K. Murray | USA Today

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By Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media

This has happened before. It was easy to forget that simple fact on Saturday afternoon as the fans swarmed the floor at the Rutgers Athletic Center, but it hasn't been a millennium since the last time the Scarlet Knights stunned a ranked team like this.

Even if it has felt that way.

The last moment like this, in fact, wasn't even three years ago. Rutgers stunned No. 4 Wisconsin on its home floor in January 2015, the biggest upset in its program history. That victory led to a similarly emotional night in Piscataway, with then head coach Eddie Jordan choking up at the postgame press conference.

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This 71-65 win over No. 15 Seton Hall wasn't as impressive based on rankings alone, and it wasn't as surprising given the Scarlet Knights' improvement in two years under Steve Pikiell. That Rutgers team in 2015 would lose its next 15 conference games to finish the season. Simply put, it was a complete, utter fluke that it would beat a team that would go onto play in the national championship game.*

*And yes, we remember that Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky missed that game with a concussion. Even then, the Badgers should have rolled that Rutgers team. It's hard to imagine how the Scarlet Knights won. But it happened. Hey, college basketball is a wonderfully crazy sport sometimes.

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

This win over Seton Hall is different because it feels like the start of something. The trajectory for the Scarlet Knights now is far different than it was under Jordan, and while the program will no doubt have some ebbs and flows over the next few seasons, it is abundantly clear that the overall trend is up, up, up.

"It was an exciting environment," Pikiell said when asked what he learned about his team. "I learned if we keep plugging (that) we have better basketball ahead of us, too, that's exciting to me. And when the place is rocking like this is, it's a tough place to play."

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

That's the easy takeaway from this one. The Scarlet Knights are better than they were a year ago, and far better than the mess Pikiell inherited when he arrived from Stony Brook. He promised that he wouldn't let Rutgers down when arrived in March 2016, and there hasn't been this much hope around Rutgers hoops in years.

Here are five observations from a fun day at the RAC:

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1. WILL THE RAC CROWD SHOW AGAIN?

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

Corey Sanders couldn't say enough about the crowd support. The announced crowd of 8,318 was the biggest at Rutgers since 2002, or back when Pikiell was still an assistant coach at George Washington.

"It was everything that you imagine Division 1 basketball being," Sanders said. "I don't think we’ve played in front of a crowd like that at home. That was the highlight of my career — getting a big win over a ranked team, something you always envision doing. The crazy thing is, I feel we can do that all the time."

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15 burning questions about HS hoops

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It was that last part that felt a tad optimistic. A crowd of 3,389 witnessed the previous Rutgers victory, over Fordham four days earlier, with the student section as full as your average junior varsity high school game. Maybe that's understandable, given the opponent and the number of December home games on this Rutgers schedule against subpar competition.

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Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media

Still, this win is clear evidence of what a home-court advantage can mean for the Scarlet Knights. They next play at the RAC on Dec. 22 at 7 pm against Stony Brook, the kind of opponent and awful timing that almost certainly will lead to an empty building. Will Rutgers fans build on this moment and make the RAC rock again this season? Or will apathy set it? It clearly matters.

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2. DELGADO'S "QUIET" DAY

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Julio Cortez | AP

When a reporter pointed out that Seton Hall senior Angel Delgado had 21 rebounds, Rutgers guard Corey Sanders turned his head in stunned admiration. "TWENTY-ONE?" he said, and head coach Steve Pikiell had to point out that this, in fact, is not uncommon for the big man.

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But if a player can have a "quiet" day while accounting for nearly half of his teams rebounds, this was it. Delgado struggled to get going offensively, hitting just three of nine shots, and committed four turnovers. He seemed frustrated down low against Rutgers' length up front, and his guards stopped feeding him entirely in the second half.

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Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media

Seton Hall had just five assists and a whopping 14 turnovers in the second half, easily the biggest reason that Rutgers was able to erase a pair of nine-point deficits. The Pirates needed to remember Delgado, even during his "quiet" game, and make sure the ball was in his hands.

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3. FRESHMAN STARS

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Julio Cortez | AP

Fans who hope this rivalry has more days like this in the coming year, maybe even better days, can look at two of the biggest highlight-reel baskets in the game. Both were produced by freshman.

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Corey Sanders cracks 1000 career points in win

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The first was from Myles Cale, who turned a steal near the end of the first half into a spectacular reverse jam that stunned the RAC crowd. The Seton Hall reserves were outplayed in this one -- Rutgers had a 17-5 edge in bench scoring -- but it's easy to see why the coaching staff feels good about the athletic Cale, who had three steals and three offensive rebounds in his 16 minutes.

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

The next was a clutch 3-pointer by Rutgers guard Geo Baker. The Scarlet Knights were down 52-44 and had a terrible possession offensively when the freshman bailed his team out with a trifecta that beat the shot clock. Baker had 17 points and actually led the team in minutes, with 36, and he already looks like the type of player who rises to the occasion in big games. That's promising.

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4. WILLARD IS RIGHT

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

Kevin Willard used his postgame press conference to remind everyone -- his disappointed players included, we're guessing -- that the Pirates are going to be just fine. "I'm not going to go back to the drawing board or do anything crazy," he said. "I'm not worried. We're still a good basketball team."

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He's right. It isn't easy to win on the road when you turnover the ball 14 times in the second half alone, but the Pirates almost did. This was a sloppy performance, and arguably one that Seton Hall was "due" to have given the rough schedule, and it doesn't negate non-conference wins over No. 17 Louisville and No. 22 Texas Tech.

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Noah K. Murray

This team isn't going to be sweating it out on Selection Sunday. The Pirates are going to contend for the Big East title and have a shot, if they get the right draw and have a hot streak, of a run deep into March. They're good. This loss, as painful as it was, doesn't change that.

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5. IF RUTGERS EVER SHOOTS WELL ...

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Noah K. Murray | USA Today

The victory made it easy to forget that, for a long stretch in the second half, Rutgers couldn't buy a basket. The Scarlet Knights made just 34.3 percent of their shots and still managed to win the game, and had they not missed a collection of short looks around the basket, they might have enjoyed a laugher.

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Looking back: A premature burial for rivalry

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But that's the reality with this team. There are going to be nights in the Big Ten, like the one earlier this season against Michigan State, when a four-point deficit feels like 24. Rutgers still needs one or two reliable shooters -- imagine this team if Seton Hall guard Myles Powell changed uniforms, for example -- and that lowers the ceiling on what's possible when the calendar turns to 2018.

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🎥🔴⚔️ | SNEAK PEEK



The 2017 #GSHClassic Intro Video.



No one said this rivalry was for the faint of heart. This is for bragging rights. This is for basketball lore in the state of New Jersey.#DeckTheHall pic.twitter.com/kj2eMiuQ6t — Rutgers Basketball 🏀 (@RutgersMBB) December 16, 2017

Maybe those players are coming in the next recruiting class, which includes four-star guard Montez Mathis from Maryland. Maybe Baker develops into that consistent shooter. The Scarlet Knights are sound defensively, rebound well and play hard every time they take the court. If they could just figure out how to shoot the ball ... look out.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.