By Mel Greenberg
Let's see, what were the odds a week ago that Stanford, Tennessee, and Maryland would each have a loss before Rutgers?
Thanks to Virginia's stunner at Tennessee Monday nigtht, that's exactly the situation with all three major national cross-sectional opponents on the Scarlet Knights' schedule.
The result of the defeats of Stanford and Maryland over the weekend paired with Rutgers' lopsided opening win over St. Joseph's propelled the Scarlet Knights from No. 5 to No. 3 in the latest Associated Press rankings Monday.
A win over St. Joseph's was not unexpected, but the relative ease over a veteran team that gave the Scarlet Knights a few fits in Philadelphia last season means that maybe youth won't be a handicap in the early going.
Another such test over a team that caused Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer to pop a few headache pills last season awaits Tuesday night when Princeton visits for an in-state matchup between two schools located a half-hour apart (when traffic is light) in New Jrersey.
True, in both instances a year ago, Stringer was busy making the B team the A team and vice versa against the first two opponents on this year's schedule.
But although Stringer doesn't look too far ahead, fans do, and something tantalizing lies just over the horizon.
After Tuesday night Rutgers heads to the San Francisco Bay area this weekend to visit California and Stanford.
The latter of the two offers a trip down memory lane to last season's opener when Rutgers lost in the last seconds on a tough foul call in Piscataway.
While Stringer focuses on just what's in front of her, she has excellent long-range vision when looking into the rear view mirror at things past.
And so it was earlier this month in Princeton that Stringer noted the Stanford loss as a contfributor to the Rutgers' pairing problems in last season's NCAA tournament.
She said how her team must take care of business right from the outset, even when many of us are allowing some bumps so the newcomers can adjust to her system.
Now should the Scarlet Knights do an imitation of the Democratic sweep of California, here's the dividend.
The wins could be impressive enough to lift Rutgers to No. 2. But even if the bounce doesn't occur, help is on the way from a Big East sister. Oklahoma, which moved to the runnerup spot, has a visit soon to Connecticut.
And, should Rutgers return back East in a good frame of mind, the door is open to a winning run straight to a visit from Tennessee when the New Year arrives.
And memories certainly do exist from the meeting between the two in Knoxville in February.
In fact, 1.3 seconds worth of memories.
So in what now looks like a major logjam in terms of early identification of Final Four contenders, statement time is the hands of Rutgers' kiddie corp, ready or not.
-- Mel
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