Rutgers basketball: Why the hoop gods rewarded Aundre Hyatt.

PISCATAWAY – The basketball gods owed one to Aundre Hyatt.

Two weeks ago, despite being the leading scorer and most experienced player in Rutgers’ basketball program, he got moved from starter to sub to make room for newly eligible guard Jeremiah Williams.

The postgrad could have sulked, shut down or rebelled against head coach Steve Pikiell.

He did exactly the opposite.

“One of the biggest things I told Coach Pikiell when I decided to come back was I would do anything to compete and to win,” Hyatt said. “Being a leader, if I can’t accept my role, how can I tell other guys to embrace their roles?”

On Thursday, the hoop deities rewarded his sacrifice. As the clock slipped under a minute with the score tied against Northwestern, sophomore guard Derek Simpson drove across half court and found Hyatt on the wing for an open 3-pointer.

“Once I let it go,” Hyatt said, “I knew it was good.”

The season’s biggest shot gave Rutgers a 63-60 victory and its fourth straight win. The Scarlet Knights did it without standout forward Mawot Mag, who scratched with knee soreness during warmups. Seven minutes before tip, Hyatt learned he was back in the starting lineup.

‘Chance favors the aggressor’

“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘chance favors the aggressor,’” Hyatt said. “You never know when your name is going to be called.”

Ditto for his roommate, fellow postgrad Oskar Palmquist. Williams’ emergence had bumped Palmquist from the rotation, but with Mag down Pikiell needed some length. Palmquist responded by drilling three straight 3-pointers in the first half to revive the Scarlet Knights after they’d fallen behind by 13.

“I give a tip of the hat to Oskar, who hasn’t played much and gave us huge minutes,” Pikiell said.

“All I care about is Rutgers winning,” Palmquist said.

As he pointed out, that’s not possible if egos get in the way.

“With this team there is no drama whatsoever,” he said. “People are happy for each other, and it’s fun to play basketball that way.”

He was particularly happy for Hyatt.

“I love to see my best friend succeed,” Palmquist said. “How he’s handled everything, that’s big-time. It shows everyone to be successful in basketball, you need to accept a role. Dre is good enough to be a starter, but we’ve been playing well with him coming off the bench.”

The seeds of this fruit were planted years ago. Hyatt is the Rutgers player Pikiell has known the longest. He recruited him shortly after taking the job in 2016, lost out to LSU, but kept an eye on him. Pikiell is picky about mining the transfer portal; he prioritizes attitude and fit. He noted how Hyatt stuck it out for three years at LSU, tried to make it work even though he didn’t flourish.

He appreciated that Hyatt didn’t cut and run at the first sign of tough times.

That quality came in handy this month.

After Thursday’s win, Hyatt was doing an on-court interview when fellow postgrad Noah Fernandes came over for a fist bump. In Saturday’s win over Wisconsin it was Fernandes – another veteran who’d been repurposed as a sub – who delivered the knockout punch by drilling all five of his 3-pointers.

“The older guys understand,” Hyatt said. “You never know who’s day it’s going to be.”

The basketball gods have a way of sorting that out.