It’s a bleak Thursday afternoon in late September when Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper descend the steps of the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center. The campus, which is on lockdown in Piscataway, New Jersey, is quiet, but only for a moment. A pair of first-year students cross the street and arrive under the sky bridge that connects the internship facility to the (also new) Business School building.
The twin six-story structures are wrapped in an abstract silver cladding with crystal-clear glass that forms the entire entrance face of the main wing. Ten white beams sit at an angle that brace the L-shaped walkway above. Black upholstered chairs and tables are spread out under the shade of the canopy above. It is a sick scene. Definitely a worthy shot.
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As we mop up the rain that fell on the chairs just 15 minutes ago, the doors to the building swing open. Class is out. Students with sweatpants, backpacks, flip flops and iPhones pour out of the automatic double doors.
For starters, the kids aren’t paying attention to the 6-10, 6-6 freshman who will lead the Scarlet Knights into the 2024-25 season as one of the nation’s most talked about teams. And then Dylan starts messing with his son.
“Free pictures with Ace Bailey. Ace Bailey is here. Dylan, wearing a black Rick Owens jacket and black PRPS jeans, calls out to the crowd of students trying to get to their next class. Ace isn’t having it.
“Dylan Harper. Five dollars for a photo with Dylan Harper.’
The two go back and forth for 30 seconds before the group of students begins to gather. This was not the intention. They were just trying to blend in. A healthy balance of embarrassment, if you will. But before we know it, a line has formed and the two have established a routine.
Dylan holds an adidas basketball emblazoned with the Rutgers R and stands to the right. Ace, wearing a black tracksuit with red accents from the Lifestyle Sports Agency, founded by Sharif Cooper’s father, Omar, and currently a Tennessee native, stands on the left with space between them. They wave at someone and Dylan asks if they want to hold the ball. They smile while their friend takes a photo. A few T-shirts and encouragement for the season follow, then for class, dining hall or dorm. After about five minutes, the line breaks up and Ace and Dylan go right back to their SLAM cover shoot.
This has never been the norm for Rutgers basketball. Impromptu meet and greet. Season tickets sold out months into the season. More than thirty journalists at the media day. All of this represents just a little buzz that this pair of freshmen has injected into the program.
As the No. 2 and No. 4 players in the class of 2024 (per ESPN), Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are the highest-rated recruits to ever redshirt. And it’s not a shade to the likes of Phil Sellers, James Bailey and other Rutgers legends, but the energy around campus this year is different. These kids don’t just walk with rock star gusto, they play like one too. NBA scouts, head coach Steve Pickel and students fresh out of class all know it. And to think it all started with a Big Ten win nearly two years ago.
It’s January 15, 2023, and Ace Bailey is at Rutgers on his official visit. He’s now with sophomore JaMichael Davis sitting on the bench waiting to tip off Ohio State vs. Rutgers.
“And then Coach Pike comes down and talks to me and Jay-Mike (Jay Mike Davis), like, Come on, put your things down. Are you ready? It just showed us right there that he’s excited for us to come down,” Ace says. “And I’m still a junior, I wasn’t even a senior. So him saying that meant a lot to let us know he was ready. He is ready to pour himself into us and give us everything. So we are ready to give everything for him.”
Amidst the buzz and excitement in the locker room as the team pulled together for the overtime victory, Ace knew this was where he was meant to be. He leaned into coach Pickel and verbally committed to the program on the spot.
“I had no idea what I was going to do that day, but the way I felt in the dressing room was something I wanted to be a part of. So I obliged, and from there we went out to eat,” Ace says. “B. Knight (head coach Brandin Knight) called Dylan and said, Talk to Dylan. And I was like I just did it, now it’s your turn. He was like i got you“.
In fact, Ace had no idea who was on the other end of the line when Brandin Knight handed him the phone. It took a second for the two to realize who they were talking to. But when they did, they fell back into a brotherhood that had been formed since they first met at Sharif Cooper’s camp a few years ago.
“Off the court has never been about basketball for us. It was about building friendships and bonding,” says Dylan. “I think from day one we connected and clicked right away. And that would be a small thing. (I would call him, FaceTime, as he Yes, how was the lesson? how was school We got practice later. Things like that. So it was never about the basketball part, it was about being a brotherhood and coming together as one.”
It took about 11 months, but Dylan pulled through. Surrounded by his immediate and extended family, the nation’s No. 1 point guard announced his commitment live from Fanatics headquarters in New York. After going back and forth with his brother Ron Harper Jr., Dylan decided to return the favor to Ace.
“I was in school when he called me, too,” Ace says.
“Yeah, he was laying on the couch,” Dylan says while Ace laughs. “I think it was before practice. It was just a bro thing. After doing something good, you want to call your family and people and tell them what happened. So I did it right there.”
Dylan’s connection to Rutgers runs deep. Between middle school and high school, he ran at the RAC (now called Jersey Mike’s Arena) getting shots while his older brother led the program’s revival with NCAA tournament appearances.
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“His four years here, just seeing the coaching staff actually work with him, I was just like, Why can’t it be me? So that was probably the biggest thing. The family line, I want to be myself and (know) I can come here and be myself,” Dylan says.
While Dylan was building the framework of his game, he was just as immersed in the cultural fabric of the program. He has watched Rutgers basketball rise from less than a five-game winning streak in the Big Ten to flirting with the AP rankings. He watched his brother rise from a four-star recruit (according to Rivals) to the league under coach Pickel. Now it was his turn to build on the foundation his brother had built.
Over the past few months, Ace and Dylan have built chemistry and relationships with their teammates and coaching staff. The workouts preceded and followed their daily practice sessions from June to August. They put it into action. There is no doubt about it.
“We learned a lot from the summer. It was just a time to bond with our teammates,” says Ace. “We have great bigs, great guards, great shooting. We connected, see how they play, they see how we play, and we just connected and connected everything.”
It’s only been a few months and they’ve already formed an unusual brain connection. Dylan knows when it’s time for Ace to show up. He can sense pockets within the game where Ace can build his confidence with buckets, and vice versa. Rear door cutouts and alleyways are signaled with a wink. Meanwhile, Ace knows when Dylan will find him to cut the baseline. He takes advantage of the moments when he can break open the bag and rain down threes while expanding his playmaking skills.
They adapt to the pace of the college game and “don’t waste your energy on making a lot of moves. Being specific about what you want to do, stick to it. Don’t try to play around,” Dylan explains. “These are grown men. Like 23, 24. You won’t have time to really do all the things you did in high school.”
“Get to your seats,” Ace calls out.
“Take your seats,” Dylan confirms.
Even when they’re not joining in on displays of basketball genius, Ace and Dylan are in sync. Target runs are common, with a new consolation for Ace recently. So are late-night stops at Shake Shack or going up to the cafeteria after practice. Since arriving on campus in mid-June for summer training, Ace and Dylan have built on their brotherhood. When one calls, the other answers. It’s been that way long before commitments.
“Yeah, we go to Target, like, every week. If you all want to catch us, catch us at Target. We will be on target. I keep telling you,” says Dylan. “But probably in the summer it was more like practice early, then the rest of the day we’re together. No class, quiet in the room, play a game. Honestly, doing kids stuff, just being ourselves and bonding.”
On the third floor of practice, Ace and Dylan pose in their Scarlet Knights uniforms. Despite standing in front of overlapping backgrounds, the connection between them is clearer than the business school glasses they’ll be next to 30 minutes later. The jokes are thrown back and forth like a rock in a circle. They call out to passing teammates in unison, checking to see what their boys have done. And as Josh Turner’s “Your Man” blares from the overhead speakers, an impromptu karaoke session ensues.
Piscataway has become a second home. There is a sense of comfort, family and loyalty that runs through campus. Their commitment to what Rutgers is known for is the confidence to be themselves, to keep their feet grounded in the present while holding each other accountable for what they set out to accomplish almost two years ago. Unite. To master.
Welcome to the new normal! Rutgers, are you ready?
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.
