2/3/2021 basketball Edit

Expect to see Johnson, Omoruyi together on the hardwood again soon for RU

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

Cliff Omoruyi was a highly sought after recruit coming out of Roselle Catholic by way of Nigeria last year, and he was Rutgers men’s basketball’s biggest fish its reeled in, in quite some time.

But the center’s freshman campaign hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies as he dealt with a knee injury that kept him out of five games, four of which were losses for the Scarlet Knights. And after starting the first six games over Myles Johnson, Omoruyi has been coming off the bench and has seen his minutes decline to about 13 since he came back in the middle of January. Much of that is him getting back into game shape and the resurgence of Johnson, who has been one of the top big men in the Big Ten Conference.

“Really excited about Cliff,” head coach Steve Pikiell said on Tuesday morning. “Obviously, playing the first five games and then basically missing (three) weeks of the season is a really tough kind of deal. Then it’s tough getting back into the shape he was in. He had the knee injury. But I really like that he’s been practicing better. Really excited about him and his development.”

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Part of the development of Omoruyi is defense. Although that is the area where his skills are best right now, it’s a challenge defending the different fours and fives in the conference.

“He is doing a really good job of learning our different coverages. Every big guy that he has to face in this league is different that he has to face. There is an adjustment with that,” Pikiell said. “The other day we played (Pete) Nance and a kid named Ryan Young. Nance is a five-man that can really shoot threes and wants to take you off the dribble, and then Ryan Young comes in and he’s a true post-up guy. So you have to be able to switch your game coverages and player coverages in the middle of a game. I think he is really starting to understand that.”

Earlier in the season, Rutgers started playing Johnson and Omoruyi together to boost its paint presence and for rebounding purposes as both stand at 6-foot-11, but the thinking from the outside is that the two playing alongside one another limits what the Scarlet Knights can do offensively. However, Pikiell sees otherwise.

Eventually, Omoruyi and Johnson will share the court.

“I still want to play him and Myles together, but because of the five-week absence, that kind of hurt us being able to do that,” Pikiell said. “I think it would be a great option for us. The other day they were both in foul trouble, so it wasn’t realistic. You want to have different packages. It may not work as well in some games as it would in others and we haven’t been able to work on that as much as we like, but I like the way those guys are playing. Got to certainly keep those guys out of foul trouble.

“Again, (Cliff’s) having better practices. I think he’s starting to have more confidence with his knee. He’s scoring more in practice.”