That's because they are dragged down by the abysmal play they had at the beginning of the season. Show me 25 teams that are better than them, right now (or over the last two months). They'll have a chance to prove it in the tournament, of course.
Over the last two months, they are 10-7 with losses to PSU, Minnesota and Maryland.
Over the last month, they're 5-3 with one double digit victory (Illinois).
I feel like people are overrating Rutgers over two wins (home vs Illinois, which was arguably Illinois' worst game of the year, and home vs MSU 6 weeks ago, which is arguably Rutgers best game of the year).
Looking at just recent play (emphasizing play over the last month), Sagarin's "Recent" rating has Rutgers at 31, which is about as charitable as you can get for them. The teams ahead of them:
1. Baylor
2. Tennessee
3. Kentucky
4. Villanova
5. Arkansas
6. Gonzaga
7. Arizona
8. Iowa
9. Auburn
10. Illinois
11. St. Mary's
12. Murray State
13. Wisconsin
14. North Carolina
15. Kansas
16. Texas Tech
17. Providence
18. Purdue
19. Connecticut
20. Memphis
21. UCLA
22. Duke
23. Boise State
24. Seton Hall
25. Oklahoma State (another suspect team over the year that had a good last month)
26. Colorado State
27. San Diego State
28. Michigan (won AT Rutgers in the last month)
29. Loyola IL
30. Houston (who, let's face it, haven't been great the past month, but still good)