Rutgers-Northwestern had everything on Sunday night.
Potential NCAA Tournament berths and Big Ten Tournament seeds were at stake, smoke was seen coming out of the scoreboard at Jersey Mike's Arena, the Scarlet Knights' seniors were honored, and high-level defense (and bad offense) all took place in Piscataway.
When the dust, err smoke cleared, Northwestern came out on top, 65-53, giving it the No. 2 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
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For Rutgers, the loss dropped it to the No. 9 seed where it face No. 8 Michigan, a team it already lost to recently when the Wolverines weren't even at full health. They are now.
More importantly, it gives the Scarlet Knights their sixth loss (2-6) since Mawot Mag got hurt on Feb. 4. Rutgers was once all alone in second place in the conference, but has been on a downward spiral since.
With that all out of the way, here are five takeaways.
PHYSICAL PLAY
Both teams are similar in the fact that they play solid defense and can struggle at times on offense. Northwestern was the more physical team as it got tough rebounds especially in opening 20 minutes when it started to take control after a hot start by Rutgers. The Wildcats outrebounded Rutgers, 40-34, tallied more second chance points, 13-8, and had more offensive boards in the first half, 8-6.
Caleb McConnell, a senior, was the only one giving great effort diving on the floor. Rutgers had a sense of urgency in the final five minutes, but it was way too late.
LONG DROUGHTS
What has become a common occurrence, Rutgers went through long stretches not being able to put the ball in the basket. Rutgers started out fine, jumping out to a 10-3 lead five minutes in, but had just 11 points the rest of the first half.
Rutgers had two stretches of four minutes with a field goal after that as Northwestern outscored the home team 22-5 to take a 22-15 lead. Derek Simpson ignited a mini 6-0 surge to make it 25-21 heading into halftime, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Rutgers shot 33% in the first half overall, 25% on 3-pointers, and was 1-for-5 on foul shots. The Scarlet Knights just don't have a scorer that can hit timely shots.
The Scarlet Knights missed their last 15 shots form deep after making their first two.
IT'S TIME
Paul Mulcahy has done a lot for this program not only this year, but in his four years. He played a major role in Rutgers turnaround last season late in the year. But right now, he's struggling badly. Simpson is the clear better option to run the show at point guard. He can get to the hoop with his explosiveness, and he's shown the ability to score and find the open man passing the ball, too.
CLIFF OUT IN THE OPEN
The game plan didn't work. Cliff Omoruyi in this one hedged as it is called out on the ball carrier on the perimeter far too often and then was left in no man's land. He wasn't able to get back to the paint to cover Matt Nicholson, who had a big night. Nicholson put down a slew of dunks, and notched a couple blocks as well. He was a force. Omoruyi got his share of dunks, but on defense, he was really a non-factor. Northwestern sucked him out, and double teamed him in the post.
FREE THROWS
Missed free throws weren't the complete reason why or how Rutgers lost this game, but going 11-for-21 certainly didn't help. Rutgers has had some recently clunkers at the foul line. It was also 5-of-16 against Michigan on Feb. 23. At times Rutgers missed both free throws on a single trip which is not a recipe for success.
WILL RUTGERS BE DANCING?
It's a good question, and it's more of a question since the Scarlet Knights fell in a shocker at Minnesota on Thursday. With the way things are going, Rutgers isn't going to beat Michigan at noon in the 8-9 game of the Big Ten Tournament meaning Rutgers would be 2-7 since Mag got hurt. Rutgers still has a good NET ranking and has five Quad 1 wins including one over Purdue at Mackey Arena, but this is a much different team no than it was.
It's not looking good.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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