Rutgers men’s basketball head coach Steve Pikiell and senior guard Geo Baker both referenced it: The Scarlet Knights have a next man up mentality.
Pikiell has talked about getting through obstacles such as injuries in the past, and the No. 14 team in the nation is battling through some injuries right now, but that didn’t stop them from pulling out the win on Tuesday night against Purdue at the RAC in Piscataway after a heartbreaking loss last week at Ohio State.
“It was really important that we bounce back. We felt like we let one go. That gave us a chance to watch film and correct our mistakes and just get better and then for the young guys, we tell them every day how much we believe in them,” Baker said. “Those guys are competing every single day behind the scenes in practice. They had their numbers called today and everybody stepped up and that's what good teams do.”
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Without leading scorer in forward Ron Harper Jr. (23.4 points per game) junior Montez Mathis stepped up with a career-high 25 points including 15 on five 3-pointers on five attempts. Baker himself got back into the swing of things after his ankle injury in the season opener by dropping 19 with six rebounds and four assists. Jacob Young added 13 points and Paul Mulcahy joined them in double figures with 11.
“We just had the next man up mentality,” Baker said. “We're a really good team, that's what we believe. Every guy is ready to step up and make plays and you saw that today and we all believe in each other and coach believes in everyone on this team.”
Off the bench, seldom used freshmen Oskar Palmquist (three points, one rebound) and Dean Reiber (three points, two rebounds) came in and contributed some as did Mamadou Doucoure (two points, three rebounds). Starting center Myles Johnson had five points as well with eight boards.
“I was proud of all of them. I thought our bench was great. I told them they're going to play and they should expect to play. The next guy in needs to be ready to go. The obstacles you go throughout the course of a season in this league is unbelievable,” Pikiell said. “So you're gonna have sprained ankles, you're gonna have headaches, you're gonna have sicknesses, you're gonna have all kinds of things. We just happen to have a lot going on at once. Everyone's got to be ready. Last game Duke played 20 minutes and he didn't play the game before that. This game Dean played 18 minutes. I trust my bench. Those guys have been working hard. They're ready. Just haven't gotten the minutes because our veterans are pretty good. When our veterans are on the court it's hard sometimes to take them off the court but it's not because I don't love this class. I think that this freshman class is really good. Cliff (Omoruyi) and Mawot (Mag), too and he's had two practices since his injury so he's still getting back to his shape and conditioning. I trust these guys a lot and they stepped up and they gave us great minutes and that's what I expect from them.”
Mag missed the last couple games with his own injury and he saw action for one minute. Palmquist hasn’t played since Big Ten play began but he got seven minutes and Reiber, who saw little playing time last time out, got 16 minutes and led the team with a +/- score of 14.
“I like our depth. I trust the guys that I brought in and recruited,” Pikiell said. “I think we had a good game plan, too. Karl Hobbs does a good job preparing us for the game as always all of our assistants do. They do a really good job. I just like the fact that we're figuring out ways to win. I like the fact that when we need big stops we're getting them. And like the fact that every night somebody different can step up and do great things. It's really what we need. We need everybody in this league. You see how deep all the teams are and you see how well coached they are.
“We also need to get everybody back. We need to get Ron and Cliff back. It's better when you have the whole package but the guys fought through it tonight. A lot of adversity and we even had the fire alarm go off during the middle of our shootaround today for 25 straight minutes. Got through that obstacle too.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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