Ace Bailey was supposed to be Rutger’s knight in shining armor. The No. 2 pick in ESPN 100 for the 2024 class, the 18-year-old became the highest-ranked recruit in the Scarlet Knights history after shining at McEachern High School. Bailey is one of the rare talents expected to be the No.1 pick in 2025’s NBA draft, depending on how this season goes.

Sadly, it’s already beginning on a painful note. Rutgers’ exhibition game against St. John’s last month showed flashes of the freshman’s talent, even if his team lost. But now there are black clouds of injury for the freshman. When will Scarlet Knights fans get to see this star in action again?

Ace Bailey is day-to-day with a fresh injury before Rutgers debut

The school revealed today that Ace Bailey will miss the season opener against Wagner tonight due to an injury sustained during practice on Monday. The top 5 pick, one of the main players that will help improve the 25th-ranked Rutgers this season, will be evaluated day to day, with the date of return unsure. The school has also not revealed the nature of his injury, nor how serious it is.

The 2024 draft class has gotten off to a red-hot start with their respective schools – Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel shoe with Duke, Derik Queen put up 20-20 with Maryland, and Tre Johnson and Will Riley lived up to their scoring machine expectations. Unfortunately, Ace Bailey’s debut will be a little delayed. But then, stars always arrive fashionably late to the party, right?

Even though college basketball fans will have to wait a little longer to see Bailey in red, gray, and black, they can breathe a sigh of relief that it’s not a long-term injury. The 6-foot-9 player will be the star attraction whenever he does grace the court, but some can’t help but feel this to be a bad omen, an injury right before the season starts.

But fear not, there is another touted freshman in Dylan Harper ready to shine tonight. And he thinks he and Bailey are going to ‘shock’ people this season.

Dylan Harper is ready to play ball with Ace Bailey and win

In team sports, some players believe chemistry off the court will do wonders for on-court games. Dylan Harper, the other star freshman of this year’s draft class, believes the same. And he has it not just with fellow rookie Ace Bailey but the entire Scarlet Devils team. Nevertheless, Harper is of the mind that this duo will be a pleasant surprise for Rutgers fans this season.

When Bailey asked his teammate, “How much [damage] do you think we can do?” Harper simply stated, “Sky’s the limit for us.” Then he elaborated, “I think we’re gonna have a great season, shock a lot of people. We’re gonna just have trust in Coach Pike and trust in our teammates and we’re gonna trust in ourselves and pull out big games.”

Bailey agreed, declaring it would be “super hard for teams to stop us” once they get enough experience of what they need to do this season. Well, Dylan Harper is ready to go all-out at the same school where his brother, Ron Harper Jr., played ball. But to see his chemistry with Ace Bailey, we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer.