Friends and family of Rutgers redshirt junior forward Greg Lewis will be among the crowd at Xfinity Center when the Scarlet Knights play Maryland on Wednesday.
A Baltimore native, Lewis will be facing his hometown school and the program he said finished second to Rutgers in his recruitment.
"It's going to be great, man, just playing in front of some familiar faces and playing in that gym," said Lewis, who graduated from St. Frances Academy in 2011. "I've played there a few times. It's going to be good. I'm excited to come back home."
The cousin of Baltimore basketball legend Reggie Lewis, Lewis was a four-year starter at St. Frances, scoring 1,097 points and collecting 803 rebounds.
Lewis averaged 17 points and eight rebounds per game as a senior during the 2010-11 season.
A three-star prospect, Lewis was rated as the 16th-best center and the 139th-best overall player in the Class of 2011 by Rivals.
"I saw Rutgers as an opportunity to play right away," Lewis said. "I knew they had a lot of open spots at the forward/center position, so I tried to take advantage of that, and it's not too far from home."
After three years of obstacles, Lewis has established himself as a key part of a resurgent Rutgers team still in the process of trying to move on after a tape surfaced early in 2013 of coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing players.
Rice was fired and replaced by current coach Eddie Jordan, who was hired in April 2013.
After finishing 12-21 last season and ending the year with a 92-31 loss to Louisville, the Scarlet Knights are 10-7 this year and beat No. 4 Wisconsin, 67-62, Sunday.
Lewis has started all 17 games.
"He's very valuable to us," said Jordan, who has been an NBA head coach with the Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. "He's our defensive anchor. He's our defensive captain. He's a guy, and I've never said this about any other player I've had in 30 years, he does everything right every time."
Lewis has stepped into a bigger role following the graduation of former Rutgers forward Wally Judge.
Lewis was a reserve as a freshman before suffering a knee injury that ended his season and led to him redshirting in 2012-13.
He posted modest numbers last year — averaging 1.5 points and two rebounds while playing 9.8 minutes per game. While the numbers this season won't stick out either — 5.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game — Lewis is averaging 1.4 blocks and 0.9 steals while playing 25.4 minutes per game.
"All of our signature wins — whether it was Clemson, beating Vanderbilt or against Wisconsin or Penn State — they have been because of Greg's contributions," Jordan said. "He protects the rim. He facilitates the offense. The offense runs through him, and he's an opportunistic scorer. The plays run through him, and he executes well at both ends of the floor. His contributions don't show up as much in the box score, but his contributions are just as valuable as [leading scorers Myles Mack and Kadeem Jack]."