Rutgers men's basketball continues NCAA Tournament push against No. 12 Illinois
After a road victory on Saturday, the Rutgers men’s basketball team will return home tomorrow evening to take on Illinois. The Scarlet Knights (15-9, 9-5) are looking for their fourth consecutive win against an Associated Press Top 25 team and their fifth win in six games.
As mentioned, Rutgers is coming off a 73-65 road win over then-No. 14 Wisconsin on Saturday. The scoring was led by 21 points from senior guard Ron Harper Jr. while three other Knights scored in double-figures, including junior guard Paul Mulcahy, who finished with 18 points, five rebounds and a game-high five assists.
Senior guard Geo Baker, who was named Big Ten Co-Player of The Week yesterday, finished with 16 points, three assists and two steals.
The win marked the second-ever ranked Big Ten road win for the program and the first-ever win at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
“In this league, every game is tight and close,” said head coach Steve Pikiell after the win. “We learn a lot from those games we lose, too. No one wants to hear that, but that’s the journey. Very few games in this league are decided by more than a couple of possessions.”
With the recent surge, Rutgers has earned a realistic chance at making the NCAA Tournament for a second year in a row. In the NET Rankings, college basketball’s leading tool for evaluating teams, the Knights sit at 81, still outside of the necessary window.
With six games remaining, experts say that Rutgers would have to win at least three of those games to give the program a chance at the Big Dance. While there is still work to be done, the Knights have made progress from their NET ranking of 217 in early December.
The push for March continues against the No. 12 Fighting Illini (18-6, 11-3), who sit on top of the Big Ten standings and are coming off a 73-66 win over Northwestern on Sunday. Illinois is led by Kofi Cockburn, the conference’s frontrunner for Player of the Year.
Cockburn is the Big Ten’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer as he comes off a 19-point, 15-rebound performance against the Wildcats (12-11, 5-9). He is helped by four other double-digit scorers and an offense that is third in the conference in points per game. The Fighting Illini are also the Big Ten’s top rebounding team.
In the two teams’ first matchup this season on Dec. 3 in Champaign, Illinois, Rutgers was toppled in what is the program’s largest margin of defeat this season. The Knights have won their last two matchups against Illinois at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus.
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM. Fans are encouraged to wear black as part of the game's black-out theme.
“I told you guys I like this group,” Pikiell said. “We practice the right way. They defend, and they did that in the first half. We did a really good job of not fouling in the second half. We got Illinois next. This whole league is great, whether you are ranked or not ranked, it doesn’t matter.”
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