Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey are projected lottery picks. ‘These two kids are going to be All-Stars,’ says Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Dylan Harper internally vowed to make up for his mistake, after losing the ball on the final possession of regulation of a tie game against Minnesota on March 9.

So the Rutgers star freshman immediately drove for a layup to begin overtime. Then he leaped to tip the ball to himself for a steal, and dashed for a finish at the opposite end. And when he drew a foul and hit both free throws with about a minute remaining to all but secure Rutgers’ win, Harper lifted his arms in the air to pump up a sold-out crowd at Jersey Mike’s Arena, or what fans there affectionately call the “Trapezoid of Terror.”

“Just really wanting to win,” Harper said after the game.

Before leaving his college court for the last time — with the most points scored by a freshman in school history — Harper made sure to head to the student section. Ditto for fellow Rutgers freshman Ace Bailey, who sits just behind Harper in the school record book. They slapped hands with the front row, including two classmates in jerseys with Harper’s and Bailey’s numbers and names on the back. Nearby, a younger kid wore a white hoodie featuring their Slam Magazine cover.

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Harper and Bailey are considered top-five NBA draft prospects, with Harper as the consensus No. 2 pick behind the ballyhooed Cooper Flagg. That means either player could be in the 76ers’ range if they keep their pick — and move up — in Monday’s draft lottery. Outsiders have critiqued Harper, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound combo guard, and Bailey, a 6-10 shot-making wing, for failing to lead Rutgers to the NCAA Tournament. But their positional versatility, their scoring ability, and their tantalizing potential are all apparent, keeping them close to the top of mock draft boards.

“These two kids are going to be All-Stars,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell told The Inquirer by phone earlier this week. “They’re that talented. They got the work ethic. They’re coachable. They came to Rutgers, now. Understand [that], in this climate, in this day and age, there’s a lot of places they could have [gone] for a lot of money and a lot of shinier boxes that they could have checked off.

“But they believed in good people and working and that they would get better here, and that’s what they did.”

Pikiell said Rutgers’ disappointing 15-17 season “had nothing to do with those two guys.” Harper, who was the Scarlet Knights’ primary ball handler, was hampered by an ankle injury for about a month during Big Ten play.

College basketball is leaning older, thanks to lucrative NIL deals and the transfer portal (only 106 prospects declared early for the NBA draft this spring, the lowest number since 2015). And Harper and Bailey, who were two of four freshmen in the Scarlet Knights’ starting lineup, had to learn how to counter “being guarded differently in every game,” Pikiell said.

“They got double-teamed and triple-teamed,” the coach added. “They saw everything in one year. … Sometimes, they doubled Ace in the post. Sometimes, they blitzed Dylan on ball screen coverages.

“We’d go into every game and we’d say, ‘Dylan, I don’t know how they’re going to guard you. But we’re going to have to make the adjustment at halftime.’”

Harper said after that home win over Minnesota that his Rutgers experience taught him that “life’s not perfect.” He and Bailey also did not take a perceived easier path before their college basketball stint, in an era when some high school and AAU teams load up on marquee prospects. Harper went to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.; Bailey to McEachern High School in Georgia. Both were considered late bloomers in the recruiting cycle, but Rutgers had established early relationships.

Dylan’s older brother, Ron Jr., was a former standout at the school. And back then, Bailey was “6-5 and skinny,” Pikiell said, before blossoming into his impressive frame with a 7-foot-2 wingspan.

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Harper, the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, averaged 19.4 points on 48.4% shooting and 4 assists in 29 games at Rutgers. That included a 36-point outburst in a win over Notre Dame and a 37-point performance against an Alabama team that eventually advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.

After Harper scored 22 points in that matchup against Minnesota, former Golden Gophers coach Ben Johnson praised the guard’s “deceptive” knack to hesitate and change speeds with the ball, which “allows him to get that next dribble, and now he’s at the rim.” And once the lefty Harper gets to the bucket, Pikiell added, he is an “elite” finisher with either hand.

“His ability to avoid shot blockers and finish in the lane is as high a level as you could do,” the coach said. “He can take contact and finish through contact. Left hand, right hand. In tight spots, he never gets the ball taken from him. He’s just really crafty with the ball.

“From Day 1, he’ll be an elite get-to-the-rim finisher. He does that at the highest level.”

When asked where his game most improved at Rutgers, Harper said he became more vocal on the court. Teammate Jordan Derkack agreed, saying, “He’s going to laugh at me when he finds this in some paper or something, but I think, as a man, he’s kind of grown up.” And that maturity, Derkack believes, has carried over to how Harper now sees the floor.

“When he’s got a matchup that he likes,” Derkack, a junior guard, said of Harper, “he’ll think about, ‘Everybody’s going to over-help, so now I can make the right play.’ At the beginning of the summer, it might have been, ‘Oh, I’ve got a kid I can kill on me. I’m just going to go by him.’”

Bailey, meanwhile, is a more polarizing prospect after averaging 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 30 games.

Pikiell regularly marveled at moves Bailey pulled off in practice, such as the time he turned to a staffer and said, “Did he just go baseline and dunk over him?” Critics, though, question Bailey’s shot selection, after he made 46% of his field-goal attempts. Pikiell counters that by saying some of those tougher looks are “unguardable,” because Bailey’s length and quick release allow him to shoot over defenders from the post out to the three-point arc.

“People always say, ‘Well, he took difficult shots,’” Pikiell said. “I’m like, ‘That’s what makes him a pro.’ … When he wants to get his shot off, he looks like those guys who play in the NBA that can get their shot off at any time.”

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Though Bailey went 3-of-11 from the floor in that March 9 Minnesota game, he also compiled nine rebounds and three blocks. Pikiell added that Bailey, who does not turn 19 until August, learned every position from power forward to point guard, trusting him to handle the ball and bring it up the court in certain scenarios. And Derkack appreciates that teammates could be critical of Bailey because of his short memory.

“I wish that my brain could work like his,” Derkack said. “Because he can bounce ideas like I’ve never seen before. He reminds me of my little brother. He’s 17 years old, and they’re the same. [Bailey is] thinking this one second, he’s talking about this, and then he’s [over] there. And I’m like, ‘I can’t even think of the stuff he’s talking about.’

“He’s got no conscience — in a positive way. If he misses a shot, he’s ready to go to the next one and he’s going to shoot it the same way he shot the first one.”

Pikiell was also pleased with how Harper and Bailey handled the immense attention as high-profile draft prospects, calling them “funny kids” who “quite honestly, blended in” with the rest of the Scarlet Knights.

One could sense those qualities while watching them on that Sunday afternoon in March. They gathered at the tunnel to cheer on their senior teammates and managers at their final home game, a ceremony they will not receive as one-and-done college players. The cheers as Bailey was introduced in the starting lineup were so loud that they pierced through a glass window separating the court from the overflow media area. Then came that postgame celebration with those students in the front row.

“They always had video cameras following them everywhere and all these people wanted their autographs,” Pikiell said. “ … It’s amazing with all the distractions — especially that these two guys could have — they were focused on being good basketball players and good teammates.”

When asked following that game about the NBA jump, Harper said that was not yet at the top of his mind. But he and Bailey will partake in next week’s scouting combine in Chicago, which coincides with the draft lottery.

If those results move the Sixers up the draft order, Harper and/or Bailey could be available to select.

“Their best basketball is ahead of them,” Pikiell said. “Their bodies are still growing and maturing, and their work ethic is elite. They’re exciting players. I think they go into the league and they can score right away, and they can make plays for other people and they can play multiple positions. I think that’s what scouts love about them.”