Rutgers star Ace Bailey hyped as teammate Dylan Harper joins him for impressive freshman record 

While the much-hyped 2024-25 college basketball freshman class has been up and down, Rutgers' star duo of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper have shined. Those two, along with Duke's Cooper Flagg, have largely been amazing, but having two such astonishing freshmen on one team is basically historic.

In fact, it WAS historic in the case of a record that Bailey and Harper share. Bailey welcomed his teammate Harper to an exclusive freshman club with a social media shout-out.

Dynamic Rutgers duo Bailey and Harper share social media moment

Ace Bailey gives teammate Dylan Harper a shoutout on social media for his scoring skills. (Photo Credit: Instagram/@acebailey)

Bailey shared a post on his Instagram story that revealed Harper joined him as the only freshman playing in a major conference to have three games with at least 30 points this season.

Dylan Harper's freshman season

Harper, 247sports's No. 3 freshman in the nation, is averaging 19.2 points per game for the Scarlet Knights. Harper is connecting on 47.9% of his shots, including 33% from 3-point range. He's also a 75% foul shooter. While Harper leads Bailey in scoring, he's second on the team in rebounding and leads the squad in assists.

Harper's 34-point performance against Washington, as Bailey's Instagram story noted, was his third 30+ point game. The others came in November when Harper scored 36 and 37 points in back-to-back games against Notre Dame and Alabama, respectively. Harper attempted 44 free throws in his three high-scoring games.

Ace Bailey's freshman season

Bailey, at 6-foot-10, ranked behind only Duke's Cooper Flagg in 247sports's ranking of incoming freshmen. Bailey is averaging 18.6 ppg. He's connecting on 46.6% of his shots, including 36% of his 3-point tries. Bailey leads the Scarlet Knights with 7.4 rpg.

All three of Bailey's 30-point games came in January. On Jan. 2, he scored 39 points against Indiana. On the 20th of the month, he scored 30 against Penn State and nine days later, he tallied 37 points against Northwestern. So yes, all three 30+ points games came in conference play.

Rutgers' season so far

Despite having two top freshmen who have essentially lived up to their advance billing, Rutgers is just 13-14 on the year. While the two freshmen average almost 38 points per game, there's little depth behind them.

Rutgers's No. 3 scorer on the season is fellow freshman Lathan Sommerville, who averages 7.4 ppg. Bailey and Harper have nearly outscored the entire rest of the team for the season.

Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell is in his ninth season and has only won 20 games at Rutgers once, in the 2020 season which was ended prematurely due to the COVID pandemic. Furthermore, Pikiell has only won a single NCAA tournament game at Rutgers and could post his fifth losing season at the school this year.

What do you think of Bailey and Harper's high-scoring feats? Share your take in the comments section below.