Hoosier Daddy: Rutgers men's basketball defeats Indiana for 1st Big Ten win
The Rutgers men’s basketball team defeated Indiana 66-57 on a rainy Tuesday night to earn its first Big Ten win of the season. It was the Scarlet Knights (9-6, 1-3) fifth straight home win over the Hoosiers (11-5, 3-2). Rutgers has now won 9 of its last 11 games against Indiana in what is becoming a one-sided rivalry.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Defense holds strong
After giving up a combined 162 points in their last two games, the Knights’ defense bounced back against the Hoosiers.
Rutgers forced Indiana into 18 turnovers, which the Knights converted into 19 fastbreak points. The Hoosiers shot just 39.7 percent from the field, 26.9 percent from three-point range and 26.7 percent from the free-throw line.
Head coach Steve Pikiell switched up Rutgers’ defensive scheme multiple times to keep Indiana off-balanced, but the Knights had the most success playing zone defense.
“I liked that defensive effort, our defense has been pretty solid all year,” Pikiell said. “We have to finish more layups, that has been an issue for us.”
Senior center Clifford Omoruyi was a defensive force inside with five blocked shots. Rutgers had seven blocked shots in total.
Senior forward Mawot Mag and graduate student guard Austin Williams excelled on both ends of the floor. Mag had a team-high three steals to go along with his team-high 13 points. Williams used his strength to attack the paint and finish at the rim while keeping the Hoosiers’ guards in front of him on defense. Williams ended with 10 points, six rebounds and two steals as he continuously brought energy to the team.
“He played great,” Pikiell said of Williams. “He’s been practicing well, he’s earned the position.”
Indiana was once again unprepared to deal with the intensity inside Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus.
“We haven't played well here,” said head coach Mike Woodson after the game.
The Knights will want to replicate their defensive intensity when they play on the road.
Rebounding improves
Pikiell and his coaching staff have made a concerted effort to emphasize rebounding after Rutgers’ early season struggles to rebound the basketball, and the team’s efforts came to fruition against the Hoosiers.
Five players got more than five rebounds and Omoruyi led the team with 11 rebounds. The Knights got 11 more rebounds than Indiana and pulled down an impressive 19 offensive rebounds. Rutgers converted those 19 offensive rebounds into 12 second chance points.
The Knights could have got even more fastbreak and second chance points if they did not go 9-21 from layups.
While Omoruyi was fantastic on the glass, a lot of the credit for Rutgers' rebounding turnaround should go to its guards. Freshman guard Jamichael Davis, sophomore guard Derek Simpson and Williams got many hustle rebounds and combined for 15 total rebounds.
“We’ve learned from our issues,” Pikiell said of his team’s rebounding improvement. “We’ve gotten better, we’ve made it more of, in practice, an emphasis…our guards are rebounding…very important that it’s team rebounding.”
The Knights will need their guards to continue to step up and help box out and grab rebounds in the future.
Shooting struggles continue
Despite the convincing victory, Rutgers’ shooting struggles continued. The Knights shot just 32.3 percent from the field, 22.7 percent from beyond the arc and 67.9 percent from the charity stripe.
Rutgers only made five three-pointers, though, one of those was a deep, banked-in three-point shot from Simpson to beat the halftime buzzer and give the Knights the lead.
Rutgers struggled to get good looks again and when players did find themselves open, they frequently missed their shots. Williams and Davis were the only players that shot the ball well, as they were able to get downhill and finish around the basket.
The Knights struggled to get Omoruyi the ball in advantageous positions as the Hoosiers were able to clog the paint and let Rutgers miss open shots around the perimeter.
The Knights will need to start making their shots and delivering more consistent offense if they want to string together some wins in Big Ten play.
Rutgers will look to start its first Big Ten winning streak of the season when it travels to the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan, to face Michigan State on Sunday. The game will tip-off at noon and be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
“Just a great team win…” Pikiell said after the game. “This team has fought through some stuff, active as heck today, our defense was outstanding, they soaked in the game plan quickly and just real pleased and thankful.”
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