PISCATAWAY — It took ꦡ225 lonꩵg strides to get from a sense of boiling anticipation to hopelessness.
The Rutgers students who started a C-shaped line outside the ticket window at Jersey Mike’s Arena four hours 𒁃before tipoff Thursday night came ready to wave pom-poms, volley around pool floaties in the 😼form of donuts and rubber ducks, and make mind-numbing noise in support of the best men’s college basketball program in the area. Any of the approximately 2,000 students in line who dared show up with two hours or less to spare should’ve taken a cue from the STOP sign that they passed to get at the end of the line for an allotment of 1,400 seats.
“Everybody in this arena belie෴ves the🃏re is no ceiling on this program,” athletics director Pat Hobbs told Post Sports+.
Before Hobbs arrived in 2015 and hired head coach S💮teve Pikiell a few month𓆏s later, a dimly lit basketball arena probably was an indication that a ceiling light burned out and some unlucky maintenance worker had to navigate 100 pieces of red tape to fix it. Thursday’s backdrop was a planned “Blackout” promotion, and the 27th straight sellout drew Super Bowl 57 touchdown scorer Isiah Pacheco back to his alma mater and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to courtside.
