Rutgers men's basketball faces DePaul in Gavitt Tipoff Games
The Rutgers men’s basketball team will take on DePaul on Thursday evening in its first road game of the season. The game is part of the 2021 Gavitt Tipoff Games, which are a series of games between the Big East and Big Ten conferences to start the season.
In their last of three home games to begin the season, the Scarlet Knights (3-0, 0-0) left Tuesday evening with a 75-61 win over NJIT. Contributing to the win was Rutgers’ ability to rebound the basketball, ultimately out-rebounding the Highlanders (1-2, 0-0) by a 48-30 margin. Of these, 17 of the Knights' rebounds were offensive.
“We had a great segment where we just kept getting offensive rebounds and offensive rebounds and offensive rebounds. We willed ourselves to a couple baskets there,” said head coach Steve Pikiell after the game. “Good days ahead when they ... play like that. I really think our best days are ahead too as a basketball team.”
The Gavitt Games, which have taken place throughout the week, have already featured exciting faceoffs. On Monday evening, No. 4 Illinois suffered a 1-point loss to Marquette while Providence defeated a short-handed Wisconsin by 5 points.
Adding to the excitement on Tuesday night, Seton Hall picked up a road upset win defeating No. 3 Michigan 67-65. The Pirates (3-0, 0-0) were led in scoring by Jared Rhoden in the upset victory.
Through Rutgers’ first three games, senior guards Ron Harper Jr. and Geo Baker and sophomore center Clifford Omoruyi all are averaging double-digit points-per-game (PPG) with Harper leading the way at 15.7 PPG. As a team, the Knights are scoring an average of 65.3 PPG on approximately 38 percent shooting.
Defensively, Rutgers is holding opponents to 55.3 PPG and 36 percent shooting, both numbers that rank inside the top five among Big Ten teams. The program is also fifth in the conference in rebounds-per-game (RPG), hauling in 46 RPG.
The Blue Demons (2-0, 0-0) enter their third game of the season after a 33-point victory over Central Michigan last time out. Javon Freeman-Liberty, the game’s leading scorer, is also DePaul’s leader in PPG at 23.5. Freeman-Liberty is assisted by David Jones, who averages 19.5 PPG and grabs a team-leading 13 rebounds a game.
Brandon Johnson and Philmon Gebrewhit round out the four players that average double-digit points for the Blue Demons. The program has scored more than 95 points in 2 of 3 of its wins to start the season.
The Knights' game against DePaul will tip off at 8:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Fox Sports 1. Radio coverage of the game is available on WRSU 88.7 FM.
“We played three really unique teams. One team played us all zone. Lehigh is a drive-it-to-the-rim team. And NJIT took 29 threes. We played three unique styles. I kind of like that now as we move forward,” Pikiell said when asked about the state of the team’s rotation. “We're trying to go 3-0. That was our number one goal today. The season is long, all kinds of things happen in the course of (the) year,"
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