Rutgers Scarlet Knights Women's Basketball (Big Ten) @ Jersey Mike’s Arena (Piscataway, NJ)

Courtside at a surprisingly close game

*This trip occurred on November 24, 2025.

Growing up, I wanted to believe that basketball was a fun sport to watch...and I feel like I’m not sure if it is. Back in the day, my main issue was that it would take 15-20 minutes to play a singular minute of basketball at the end of games; nowadays, it’s just everyone in the NBA chucking threes nonstop and every game ending with both teams well into triple digits (an issue which, unfortunately, has shown signs of trickling down into college as well).

Similar to football, however, I figured that I'd like to branch out and give it a(nother) shot. I've been to a few NBA games before, but the last one I can remember going to was literally 20 years ago. However, this isn't even the first college basketball game I've seen, as I remember seeing Seton Hall at the Prudential Center in either 2008 or 2009 (though like the Princeton women's hockey game, this is the very first time I'm watching women's basketball). Of course, this isn't about either of them - this is Rutgers (a school which for all intents and purposes is my alma mater).

I talked a little bit about Rutgers as a school back when I visited their football stadium for a lacrosse game, so I won’t discuss it here. I also won’t talk about the men’s team, because unlike the whole Princeton hockey situation, this is only one game featuring the women's team. Another reason I won’t discuss the men: the women’s team is technically the more successful of the two - though that’s not really saying much (especially since Rutgers). While neither team has won a national championship, the women’s team has probably the school's most famous basketball alum (Cappie Pondexter), but more importantly, a championship game appearance and two Final Fours as opposed to the men’s singular appearance all the way back in 1976 - which was two years after the women’s team was founded (in 1974). A year after that men's Final Four appearance, both teams moved from a building on College Avenue in New Brunswick (a street I associate with the old Grease Trucks¹) to their current home in Piscataway (on Livingston Campus). Originally the Rutgers Athletic Center (and still commonly known as the RAC), the building hosts several Rutgers sports but remains primarily a basketball venue - not just for Rutgers, but for the now Brooklyn Nets who played at the RAC for a few years before moving to the Meadowlands.

When I was looking at tickets, I found that conference games - as is the case with other sports - were more expensive than non-conference games with one exception: Iowa. I thought it was the post-Caitlin Clark effect of her having graduated, but it’s not - somehow, Iowa is the ONLY team for which Rutgers opens extra seats (which I'll talk more about when I discuss the arena as it's actually fairly important). More importantly, however, is the fact that all tickets for this game were a shade under $15 - something to keep in mind.

I'm sure most of you weren't expecting this post...and in many ways, I wasn't either! In fact, this trip marks something somewhat unusual for this blog: unlike other trips which were postponed for various reasons, this one was moved up. My "original" plan was to go on December 20th, as there was a Saturday midday game then; however, since a lot of my weekends have been INCREDIBLY busy these past few months with sporting events (and that's only going to continue heading into 2026), I felt that I should PROBABLY give myself a weekend "off" in case anyone wanted to do anything (most especially as it's the weekend before Christmas). Therefore, I ended up at this game.

The first thing you'll notice walking towards the building: it's what's called a "trapezoidal prism". There are two "flat" sides of the building, while the other two sides slope out from the corners. When you're inside the building, the ends of the court are on the "sloped" sides, and the sidelines are on the "flat" sides (which helps as the seats rise QUITE HIGH). The main entrance is on one of the ends, and this part of the concourse has pretty much all the action: concessions and merch were only available in this part of the arena for the game. There do appear to be stands for things in the concourses under the side sections, but none of them were open for this game.

There are three "tiers" of seats along the sides of the RAC, and only the "lowest" tier (i.e. the 100 sections) are available for MOST women's games (Iowa being the exception as mentioned earlier). What's (somewhat) crazy is that each tier of seats has its own "style": The 100 level is padded folding seats (though they're on moving risers), the 200 level is fixed plastic "bucket" seats with backs, and the 300 level is...plastic benches with no backs (similar to Boston College). However, I ended up sitting in none of these, because I got a seat at one of the ends.

The "far" end from the main entrance was largely empty - it's student seating so it's typically not "sold", but the only people here were the pep band (which was a nice addition for the atmosphere). The "near" end of the court has what is referred to by Rutgers as "loge seats". They're not EXACTLY a premium seating area, but they are different from your "standard" arena seat, and since every seat for this game was ~$15, I decided to get one of these...at court level.

If you're in this section, your seat is basically one of those fancy chairs you see at high-end bars, and it comes with a nice little "table" in front of you for. The seat was actually pretty comfortable, and being almost courtside is honestly a really cool experience...even if that view is sometimes obscured by a basket. There's a second section of "premium risers" higher up (i.e. just off the main concourse area) which might have a "better" view, but I didn't try to watch from here - unlike other games on this blog, I stayed in my seat for the game action (because, again, COURT LEVEL SEATS FOR FIFTEEN DOLLARS).

This game featured the Siena Saints from Siena College - a small Catholic school near Albany, NY that I'm fairly certain most people don't know that much about. In fact, you probably know so little about Siena that you didn't realize that it's NOT "Siena College" - the school is actually "Siena University" now²! To my surprise, they seemed to have a decently large traveling contingent with them despite being some three or four hours away from Rutgers.

This game ended up being one of the most intense games to be featured on this blog. Despite the talent disparity on paper (plus the fact that Siena came into this game WINLESS), Siena played tough, had the lead at various points in the second half. However, Rutgers pulled away at the end - with a last-second free throw giving the Scarlet Knights a grand total of 67 points (for the culture). Also, the PA announcer for this game sounded like the same guy the [Jersey Shore BlueClaws][2025-08-08_jsblueclaws] had when I saw them way back in April (whose name I can't seem to find on the internet).

MERCH

Before I continue, I DO want to mention another reason I'm not super into basketball: the jerseys.

Unfortunately, basketball jerseys are almost exclusively tank tops - and I don't like wearing sleeveless things without something underneath. More often than not, however, said undershirt usually doesn't match the color of the jersey, and the whole thing doesn't look good IMO. On this note, however, I should mention that only two players - one from each team - went for the true "sleeveless" look³; everyone else wore shirts under their jerseys, and the shirts and jerseys matched colors.

At THIS game, there was a small merch stand at this game which appeared to have been set up right in front of a concession stand. The whole thing looked surprisingly portable (I guess they move it to another spot for men's games), and one of the side concourses had what looked like a permanent merch stand in it (though it wasn't open). Because I'm apparently obsessed with logo balls now, I ended up getting a basketball (with a Rutgers logo) from here, as nothing else was interesting (and on top of what I mentioned about my lack of interest in basketball jerseys, the jerseys on sale here had iron-on lettering).

One last thing to note: For whatever reason, Rutgers' official bookstore closes rather early for being in a downtown area. Google told me it closed at 6 PM so I TRIED to come here to scope some things out before the game, but when I arrived after 5 PM, they were already closed (because apparently no one told Google they were closing at 5 this week)! There is an "unofficial" spirit shop across the street, but it didn't really have anything I was interested in - but it did have some basketball jerseys (though again, iron-on letters).