Rutgers men's basketball looks for 2nd road win against Nebraska
After losing a home matchup against Maryland, the Rutgers men’s basketball team will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on Nebraska on Saturday evening. After winning 6 of 7 games after a brief pause due to the program's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) protocols, the Scarlet Knights (11-8, 5-4) have lost two contests in a row.
In Tuesday’s loss to the Cornhuskers (6-13, 0-8), Rutgers entered halftime down 12 points and failed to make the game close the rest of the way. The 16-point outings of senior guards Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. were nullified by two 20-plus point performances from Fatts Russell and Eric Ayala.
While senior guard Caleb McConnell and sophomore center Clifford Omoruyi also scored in double-figures, only two other Knights recorded baskets in the loss.
“Today, just getting off to that start, we've done that a few times now. We can't do that. We have to get off to better starts, and our defense didn't bail us out,” said head coach Steve Pikiell after the game. “I thought we played hard in the second half. We actually outscored them by a couple of points. But you're down 20 points, you got to fight back against two really good guards that had it going tonight."
Rutgers now has 11 games remaining in the season and has its NCAA Tournament hopes hanging on by a thread. The projected conference record the Knights would have to achieve to make the NCAA Tournament is 12-8, which means the program would have to win 7 of its last 11 games.
This can prove difficult with the next month of games Rutgers has on its schedule. In February, the Knights are slated to play six games against five teams who are currently ranked inside the Associated Press Top 25.
The Terrapins (11-9, 3-6) represent the last presently unranked opponent to visit Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus until the season finale against Penn State.
“I'm always thankful to our fans. Our fans haven't seen a lot of losses here in the past few years. They'll come back strong,” Pikiell said. “They're tough just like we are, they'll come back strong. This team deserves them to keep showing up and giving us that great lift.”
Rutgers and Maryland previously met on Jan. 8 in a game where the Knights cruised to a 93-65 victory. Rutgers achieved its season-high in points in the win thanks to season-highs in field goal and three-point percentage, with both marks north of 55 percent.
Led by 29 points from Harper, the team had five players reach double-figures in what was the Knights’ seventh all-time win over Nebraska.
On the other end are the Cornhuskers, who have yet to win a Big Ten game this season. The team is led in scoring by Bryce McGowens who scores 16.1 points per game (PPG) and Alonzo Verge Jr. at 14.1 PPG. Derrick Walker leads in rebounding with 6.0 per game and has a team-high 20 blocks this season. Verge is the leader in assists and steals, with his steals-per-game average ranking fourth in the conference.
The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM. A win would give Rutgers its second road win of the season.
“We have a lot of basketball left. Last year, we had to win the last game of the season in Minnesota. So, it's a long season, you just keep plugging through,” Pikiell said. “This is a league that a lot of teams are going to have a lot of losses. And then we have the tournament after that. So, there's a lot of different ways that we can make our season to where we want to be.”
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