Looking at matchup against No. 19 Iowa, previewing tough road ahead

Winning basketball games in the Big Ten Conference is tough sledding. Team after team is good if not great.

No. 24 Rutgers, which is ranked for the first time since the final AP Poll of the 1978-1979 campaign, has 13 regular season contests left start starting with a road tilt at No. 19 Iowa on Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. (ET).

The Scarlet Knights (14-4, 5-2) are 13-0 at the RAC and tied for second place in the conference standings while being three games over .500 in league play for the first time since 1998-99. Rutgers is also 18th in the NCAA NET Rankings, 24th in the Pomeroy Ratings, 27th in the Sagarin Ratings, and 34th in the ESPN Basketball Power Index.

“I told the guys the good news is you're ranked 24th for the first time (in a long time) and I’m happy for the sacrifices you’ve made to put yourselves in that position, but the bad news is Iowa is ranked higher at 19 and they got the Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week in the league. That’s the way it is in this league," Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said during a call with the media on Tuesday. "All games are pretty much against ranked teams or receiving votes. Hopefully the guys will handle it. Iowa’s been ranked for a while and in the past. We have to play good basketball. Being on the road is enough of a journey. Playing against a ranked team makes it that much harder.”

So far this season, Big Ten teams playing against other Big Ten opponents are an astounding 7-47 on the road. As mentioned, next up is a challenge for the Scarlet Knights at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“It’s a hard task. This is a team that scores. They put up numbers," Pikiell said. "They average 80 points a game and there’s not much of a difference whether they win or lose. They score points against everybody. That’ll be a challenge. We take pride in our defense. We have to be locked in. Our team defense has been really good. We have some good individual defenders. They have a lot of weapons.

“The way road teams have been playing in this league this year, it’s been much more difficult against these programs. Hopefully that experience will help, but it’ll be a whole nother level of a game with two ranked teams. They’ve been great offensively and we’ve been good defense. Huge battle.”

Rutgers is ranked and everything is and well, but now the times get tough. The Scarlet Knights face the sixth most difficult remaining schedule per the BPI.

“We were picked 12th. That’s what they thought of all of us. We have a lot to prove. We have the sixth-toughest schedule in the country remaining. We have a huge test coming up at Iowa and that continues the rest of the season. Hopefully our guys stay hungry and humble.”

Have a look at the rest of the schedule below and the ratings and rankings of Rutgers' opponents.

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.