The Alabama Crimson Tide may have a preseason All-American in Mark Sears and a roster built to contend for a National Championship next April, but on Wednesday night, the best player on the floor was wearing a Rutgers Scarlet Knights uniform. Freshman guard Dylan Harper scored 30+ points for the second consecutive game in Las Vegas, torching the 9th-ranked Crimson Tide for 37 points in a 95-90 loss.

During the game, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said of Harper, “We don’t have anyone that can guard him.” After the game, the 10th-year head coach expanded on what makes the sensational freshman such a tough cover.

“I mean he pretty much gets to the rim whenever he wants,” Oats said during his postgame press conference, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com. “We didn't have anybody that could stay in front of him on ball screens. We didn't do a very good job. I mean he's got some force, some physicality, some strength coming down the hill.”

Harper wasn't the only talented Rutgers freshman that Oats had high praise for after the game. Fellow 5-star recruit Ace Bailey scored 22 points on 9-for-18 shooting against the Tide.

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“He's the best midrange shot-maker I've seen,” Oats said about Bailey. “He just kind of rises up over guys. The floaters with the touch, he's tough. We didn't do a great job. We needed more size on him. He's a guy that if you don't have size on him, he's just shooting over 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 guards and he's going to cause some problems.”

Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, who were respectively the #1 and #2 recruits in Rutgers basketball history, are both widely expected to be high lottery picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. But before they take their talents to the Association, they hope to lead Rutgers further than the basketball program has ever gone. And despite the loss to Alabama, Harper believes the experience of pushing a Final Four team to their limit was something of a moral victory for the Scarlet Knights.

“I think we just showed that we can compete with anyone in the country,” Harper said after the game. “I mean, obviously we fell short, but I feel like as a team, sometimes you have to fall short in order to have the season you want to have.”