Ron Harper Jr. might have had 28 points and Jacob Young and Montez Mathis netted 24 and 15 more, respectively, but it was center Myles Johnson who made the difference in No. 19 Rutgers’ 91-88 win over No. 13 Illinois at the RAC in Piscataway on Sunday.
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Johnson had nine points on 4-of-8 shooting with three blocks, three steals, and a game-high 13 rebounds. It was the third game in a row that Johnson tallied double digit boards, and the Long Beach, Ca. native’s glass cleanup went a long way in helping Rutgers out-rebound Illinois, 35-34. Illinois came into the game 12th in the country with 44.71 rebounds per game.
“There was a four-minute stretch in the second half where we just got annihilated on the glass,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “They got every rebound. Myles Johnson I thought was the difference in the game. Everybody's gonna look to Harper because he scored some points and made some shots but Myles Johnson was the difference in the game.”
Rutgers registered 15 offensive rebounds as well to go along with 13 second chance points and eight total blocks to the Illini’s zero.
"It was huge, they were plus 17 on the glass so they are one of the leading rebound teams in the country, so we harped on it,” Pikiell told TKR on the rebounds. “The guys on my staff did a good job of preparing the guys. We went head-to-head with them on the backboard. We pride ourselves on being a good rebounding team too. I was excited, we got 15 offensive rebounds, a good number against them, but I think our guys understood the scouting report and they tried to do the things that we asked them to do and they came away with a nice win against a really, really good team."
Underwood wasn’t pleased with what he saw from his team in the rebounding department.
"Mostly it's our crackdowns. It's with our guards, It's a lack of physicality. I told them after the game, I was tired of Myles Johnson flying in and getting his hands on balls. We have a box we put in the lane right in front of the rim,” Underwood said. “All of our switches that happen in a ball screen take place really late at the rim. That's to protect the rim. Kofi (Cockburn) has done a pretty good job of that for the most part. Those guards gotta do their job. They gotta fight. They got to keep that big guy off the glass. Da'Monte (Williams) has two rebounds, Giorgi (Bezhanishvili) has four. That's not nearly enough from that position either."
The Big Ten is a big boys league and Johnson went toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s top centers in Cockburn, a 7-foot, 285-pounder.
Cockburn did damage early, scoring six points in the first nine minutes, and he still managed to get 17 points on the day, but his production was limited in the second half as he had just four rebounds after the break.
"Cockburn is really good, and he's a tough guy to guard and (Johnson) and Cliff (Omoruyi) did a really good job all night,” Pikiell said. “(Cockburn’s) really the most physical player in the country, huge, and he's talented. Myles will sleep well tonight.”
"Kofi, he is a huge, huge person. You got to move your feet in the paint, can't just stand right behind him, he'll just bury you,” Johnson said. “Every time there's a shot, you have to box him out every single time because he's going to bulldoze his way to the rim. You just got to box him out, play physical. I did that and it seemed to work."
Omoruyi went down with a knee injury early in the second half and returned to the bench wearing a grace. It is unclear how much time he’ll miss, but Johnson will be called upon even more to shoulder the load in the paint.
“You have to be ready. Anything can happen,” said Johnson, who hasn’t started yet this season but started 25 games a year ago. “I would never wish that on anyone, but you just got to be ready for whatever. All the other centers, Duke (Mamadou Doucoure, Luke Nathan) everybody will rise up. It's pretty much next man up. If your brother goes down your brother's going to be there for you.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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