1/19/2021 basketball Edit

Rutgers Hoops needs its stars to shine to break out of slump

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

Rutgers men’s basketball has gone from being just outside the top 10 in the AP Poll to being a fork in the road that is the season.

The Scarlet Knights are 7-5 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten and have lost four in a row and five of six. The big reason why the losses have mounted have been struggles on defense, with rebounding, and offense. In short, everything.

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The defense and rebounding improved in Rutgers’ 60-54 loss to Wisconsin as Rutgers got back freshman center Cliff Omoruyi. He only produced a stateline of three points and three rebounds in 15 minutes, but he ran the floor well and altered some shots. His presence helped Rutgers after he missed the last five games. Fellow center Myle Johnson seemed to also have more of a pep in his step and played a lot better than he recently has as well. With Omoruyi back, he was able to get some rest.

"Cliff's the most athletic player in the program so to not have him for the last month and not be able to play him with Myles and do different things that I wanted to do, that hurt us,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said. “But it was a great lift to have him back. He has high energy. He’s a good teammate. He'll block and alter shots and those big guys are tough matchups because they can shoot threes and they can post you, but just having someone with his size and his athleticism back on the floor and he really hasn't practiced either. I look forward to getting him back into the regular reps and having another big guy that can rebound and block shots, certainly helped us on the glass. It's the first time we've out rebounded a team since he's been back, so getting him back, huge to us on that end of the floor."

Rutgers G Geo Baker (Richard Schnyderite - TheKnightReport.Net)

The team held a player’s only meeting and that appeared to have lit a spark. But Rutgers still didn’t shoot well on the offensive end.

Ron Harper Jr., who was absolutely on fire at the beginning of the year, has cooled off. Geo Baker hasn’t looked himself as well. Both have dealt with ankle injuries this season.

Baker has been up and down. After 19 points and 13 points in back-to-back-games against Purdue and Iowa, he’s had just five, four, and eight the last three contests. Harper Jr. was held to just four points against the Badger.

Johnson, who is roommates with Baker, is confident he’ll find a way out of his funk.

“I know him really well. Geo is Geo. You guys have seen Geo make buzzer-beaters, break people down, and do spectacular things. I know what he's capable of and everyone has a bad night,” Johnson said. “Never gonna get on him like that. Geo is Geo. He's always gonna put in his all. He gives 100% every day. Sometimes you just don't make shots.”

Jacob Young, who is second on the team with 15.8 points per game, was asked about Harper Jr. and what he’s seem from him and his struggles particularly from long range lately, and he mentioned it’s more mental than anything and the team in general needs to pick it up.

“We know Ron. Ron's a great player. It's just one of them things,” Young said. “It happens. It’s really a team thing. I don't think there's nothing wrong with Ron or Ron's shot or anything personally. It's just a mental thing when you lose four straight. That messes with your mind a little bit and we're gonna get back going and Ron's gonna get back going. He's a great player. I don't want anybody to doubt him.”

Montez Mathis, who is third in scoring at 12.5 points per game, has just three points, seven points, and two points in his last three games. He’s had a hard time getting anything to go down from deep or on his drive attempts.

Rutgers was shooting well over 40% earlier in the season on 3-pointers, but it shot just 10.5 percent against Wisconsin, 25 percent in its rematch with Ohio State, and 25 percent against Michigan State in its last three games. The Scarlet Knights are also making just 59.9 percent of its layups/dunks. In comparison, Michigan is second at 74.4 percent.

Rutgers showed it can be one of the top teams in the best league in the country, and it has high goes for what it wants to accomplish this season, so it will have to figure it out going forward and it starts on Thursday against Penn State on the road.

"We go one game at a time,” Pikiell said. “I think we got better today with our defense. We got to continue to defend like that and rebound. We play in the best league in the country so you can go on losing streaks and hopefully we can go on a good winning streak too."