1/2/2021 basketball Edit

Rutgers Basketball versus Iowa: Three Thoughts on the 77-75 loss

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

In a game that came down to the wire, Rutgers fell one possession short as they lost to No. 10 Iowa 77-75 to drop to a 7-2 record overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten.

Here are three thoughts after the game:

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Free Throws Cost Rutgers

It is as simple as this: if Rutgers wants to win games like this then they are going to have to be able to hit their free throws. Finishing the day shooting 4-12 from the charity stripe, Rutgers put the “free” in free throws to the test.

“It was one of our huge keys to win the free-throw line battle, obviously we didn’t,” Head Coach Steve Pikiell said in his postgame press conference. “They do a lot of things well too, they shoot threes, they make free-throws, they offensive rebound, so we did a lot of good things in a lot of different areas, but we certainly didn’t win the battle of the free-throw line and that was a big key to us going into the game.”

Although their ability to shoot and defend at a high level is typically enough to get them wins, if Rutgers wants to reach that upper echelon of teams in college basketball and possibly make a deep run in March then they are going to have to improve from the free-throw line.

On To The Next One

As much as this loss is going to be a tough and aggravating pill to swallow, at the end of the day Rutgers was almost playing with house money in this game against a terrific Iowa squad. While this would have been a nice resume-boosting victory, the Scarlet Knights will not likely fall far in the AP Poll come Monday and appear to still be a team that can compete for the Big Ten crown.

“They’re a really good basketball team, they have a lot of weapons, they score a lot from the free throw line and I tell our guys all the time, you can’t defend the foul line down the stretch, but that’s what they do, they score in bunches and we kind of held them at bay for those punches,” Pikiell said. “Down the stretch they got a few, but they’re really good and they have a lot of weapons and they have a lot of answers.”

In addition, this game also saw the return of Caleb McConnell as the junior guard played his first 11 minutes of game action this year. Despite appearing a bit rusty as the Jacksonville native shot 0-5 and missed his one three-point attempt, having him back in the lineup will provide Pikiell and the Scarlet Knights with such much-needed depth going into the heart of their Big Ten schedule.

Good But Not Good Enough Against Luka Garza

Despite being without freshman center Cliff Omoruyi due to a knee injury, Rutgers did a good job of defending Luka Garza as they held the Iowa big man to 10 points in the first half and made sure he did not take over the game. However, good is not good enough against somebody like Garza as he scored 15 points in the second half and took more of a stranglehold on the game as he started to wear the Scarlet Knights down.

“[Luka] Garza was a problem watching the film. He goes 9-for-11, does a really good job, but our guys played hard and did a really good job too,” Pikiell said. “We came up one possession short against a really good opponent, but that is life in a league like this that we play in and we’ll keep getting better.”

While Myles Johson spent the bulk of the time defending Garza, a nice surprise came from Dean Reiber as the 6’10” freshman did a decent job of guarding the former Citizen Naismith Player of the Year finalist as well. It appears as though Reiber has entered Pikiell’s circle of trust and, at least for the time being, earned the backup center position. Although that will likely change once Omoruyi is back in the fold, if Reiber can continue this upwards trajectory then he will add even more depth to a team that is already loaded with talent.

Rutgers will return to action next Tuesday when they travel to East Lansing to take on No. 17 Michigan State at 9 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2.