Big Ten Tournament preview: Who will Rutgers women's basketball take on?
After a wild four months of regular season play, the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament is slated to tip off tomorrow from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
All the slates are wiped clean and the bracket has been set, so let's take a look at who Rutgers will face tomorrow, and could play further down the line if the Scarlet Knights (8-23, 2-16 Big Ten) make a postseason run.
In order for Rutgers to be at their most effective in the postseason, they will have to get healthy. Awa Sidibe (season) and Kaylene Smikle have both been out for extended periods of time, but new injuries have popped up over the last couple of weeks. Petticord has not played since the February 22nd loss to Maryland, and it's unclear if this is a new lower leg injury or the same one she suffered last month. Her status for the tournament is up in the air, but if she is healthy it would be a huge boost in many ways. Antonia Bates missed last weekend's loss to Michigan State with an ankle injury of her own, but she was a full go for Sunday's game against Northwestern and should be good to go for the tournament. Freshman Lisa Thompson has not officially been listed on the Big Ten's availability report, but her minutes have shrunk over the past few weeks, and did not play on Sunday. Head coach Coquese Washington said she has been dealing with a medical issue of her own, and her status for this week is up in the air. Just seven players, including freshman Kennedy Brandt for the first time in conference play, saw action in each of the past two games, making it difficult to consistently set the rotation.
First Round: #14 Rutgers vs #11 Minnesota, roughly 9 p.m. ET (or 25 minutes after Game 1) on Peacock
To open up the tournament, Rutgers faces off against the Golden Gophers (15-14, 5-13 Big Ten), who represent the last team the Scarlet Knights beat as they ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak.
Minnesota is not coming into the tournament too hot either, as they ended the regular season on their own four-game skid. The Gophers had potential postseason aspirations early on in head coach Dawn Plitzuweit's first year, but those hopes took a major hit when star guard Mara Braun was lost for the season with a foot injury at the end of January. She led the team in scoring with 17.8 PPG, and they have struggled to replace her production without her, as Minnesota has stumbled to a 1-8 record since Braun's injury, including a 90-34 loss to Penn State to end the regular season.
In the first matchup between the two teams a few weeks ago, the Scarlet Knights were able to hit their shots from the perimeter and had major scoring efforts from the two transfers Mya Petticord and Destiny Adams. They were hampered by another offensive slow start but found their footing in the second quarter and steadily built their lead to take down the Gophers 81-73.
The Scarlet Knights offense in the win gave the best effort arguably all season. The second half turned into a track meet, where Rutgers outscored Minnesota 54-46. Petticord and Adams scored 17 and 8 points, respectively, in a fourth quarter that showcased the shotmaking ability fans had been waiting to see all season long.
Can they bring back the offensive efficiency against the Gophers this time around? That remains to be seen. If the Scarlet Knights want to make a run in the postseason, they'll have to get healthy and put the ball in the basket, two things that have hampered them for much of the season. If they can take down the Golden Gophers, they will next face...
Second Round: #14 Rutgers vs #6 Michigan, roughly 9 p.m. ET (or 25 minutes after Game 5) on the Big Ten Network
As the old saying in college basketball goes, beating a team three times in one season is never an easy task. Michigan would have the chance to do so, should the Scarlet Knights advance to the second round. They defeated Rutgers 56-50 at Jersey Mike's Arena on January 21st, and 86-58 at the Crisler Center on February 10th.
Those two games were completely different, as at home the Scarlet Knights hung around and made the game a defensive battle, even drawing within a possession in the final minutes, despite 25 points from Laila Phelia.
The Wolverines turned up the scoring in their gym, shooting 61% from the floor, including 12-for-21 from beyond the three-point line. Even without Phelia, they torched the Scarlet Knights' defense led by Cameron Williams' 25 points.
The common denominator in both of these games was the offensive struggles for Rutgers. If they want to become the first 14-seed to win two Big Ten Tournament games against a tough Michigan defense, they will have to contain the Wolverines' scoring attack and make the game a rock fight like they did in Piscataway.
If they were to make an unprecedented run and beat Michigan (similar to the Scarlet Knights on the men's side in 2018, in their coach's second year), they would advance to play...
Quarterfinal Round: #14 Rutgers vs #3 Indiana, roughly 9 p.m. ET (or 25 minutes after Game 9) on the Big Ten Network
If Rutgers were to make it this far, once again it would be an unprecedented run. Two 14 seeds have won a game in the tournament, but none have won two. The reward if the Scarlet Knights accomplished that feat? Their third game in three days against an Indiana team that rosters an All-American and has been often played like a top 10 team in the country throughout the season.
The Hoosiers are also the lone Big Ten opponent that Rutgers played during the early period of conference games in mid-December. In front of a packed Jersey Mike's Arena crowd enjoying the annual blackout game, the Scarlet Knights played a fantastic defensive game and kept in the game for all 40 minutes before falling 66-56 on December 9th. The first quarter was arguably their best 10 minutes of the season, forcing six Hoosier turnovers and leading 10-9, holding star Mackenzie Holmes to just one shot attempt. They kept up the grind in the second as well, going into the locker room trailing by just five. While the Scarlet Knights could not pull off the upset in the second half, it represented a strong stretch of play before conference play began to heat up.
Obviously, the season did not go the way many expected from that point on, but it showed the team's potential when everything was firing on all cylinders defensively. They can do the same in the postseason with all of the records set to even. Can they make a run against all odds? The team is seeded 14th and not favored to move on at all, but that's why the games are played.
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