Rutgers men's basketball's free fall continues in 18-point home loss against Purdue
The ship just keeps sinking for the Rutgers men’s basketball team as the Scarlet Knights (8-8, 1-4) fell to Purdue 68-50 Thursday night. The loss marked their third straight, all in Big Ten play. With perhaps the highest expectations in program history coming into the season, the train feels like it’s now off the tracks for Rutgers.
What went wrong?
First-half turnover struggles
The Knights started this game with no continuity on offense. Through 8 minutes of play, Rutgers had an astounding nine turnovers and just two made field goals. They eventually found a bit more success in the final 10 minutes of the half but still trailed 33-24 at halftime, winding up with 12 turnovers. With that many turnovers in 30 possessions, the Knights’ turnover rate was at a whopping 40 percent in the half.
Winning basketball games is tough if nearly half of your possessions end in the ball going the other way off a turnover.
Rutgers cleaned it up in the second half, turning the ball over just four times, with two of those coming in the final minute or so when the game was out of reach. The 16 turnovers tied their season-high, matching the tally in their loss against Texas A&M earlier this season.
“When you turn the ball over alarmingly the first six-seven possessions of the game, it puts you in a bind,” said head coach Steve Pikiell.
On the other hand, the Boilermakers (12-4, 4-1) turned it over just eight times.
Harper still sluggish
Freshman guard Dylan Harper missed last week’s game against Indiana sick with the flu, then returned on Monday against Wisconsin only to look sluggish and play just 15 minutes. Harper was again questionable coming into Thursday’s matchup against No. 20 Purdue but ended up playing 28 minutes. He still did not look like his usual self, though, finishing with just 6 points on nine shots. It looked as though Harper lacked his usual quick first step and unreal start-and-go ability.
“It’s been a journey … he’s still a work in progress,” Pikiell said. “I’m proud he gave a hard effort today, I hope he can get back to himself.”
After the game, the Boilermakers' head coach, Matt Painter, emphasized Harper's importance for the Knights, drawing comparison to how vital star guard Braden Smith is to his own team.
“If (Rutgers) was healthy for Wisconsin and healthy for Purdue, we could be talking about two very different games," Painter said. "We're very fortunate to have played them at this time ... how does this game unfold if Braden Smith has the flu?"
Can’t finish big runs
With approximately 11 minutes left in the game, graduate student guard Tyson Acuff nailed a three to cut the deficit to just 5 points, forcing Purdue to call a timeout.
“That’s a momentum shift, we've got to build off that,” Acuff said
Coming out of the timeout, though, the Boilermakers rattled off a quick 9-0 run and pushed their lead to 14.
It was 46-41 after the Acuff three, and the game finished at 68-50, meaning Rutgers gave up a 22-9 run to end the game. The home crowd was into it, and the players were feeling it, but in the blink of an eye, the Knights lost focus and Purdue built an insurmountable lead.
This is a recurring theme of this season, as Rutgers also had done a solid job chipping away in the second half of its previous two losses but could not finish the job in either outing.
“When you work your tail off and get a game to (5) points, that’s when you’ve got to capitalize,” Pikiell said. “We’ve got to make some timely plays, we’ve got to make some timely stops and we haven’t been able to do that.”
Freshman forward Ace Bailey finished with a game-high 17 points but did not shoot the ball well at 5-for-15. Acuff was the only other Knight to reach double digits as he finished with 10 points. Freshman center Lathan Sommerville made his first career start and finished with just 2 points and three rebounds in 21 minutes. Freshman forward Dylan Grant made some solid c contributions for the second straight game as he went 3-for-3 from the field and finished with 7 points.
Rutgers is right back at it at home on Monday against another formidable opponent UCLA.
“There is not one thing you can pinpoint. First game, we did not rebound enough against Indiana. This time, we turned the ball over too much,” Pikiell said. “We plug one hole sometimes then another one opens up … We don’t have a lot of time to figure it out.”
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