Rutgers men's basketball might have dropped a 60-54 game on Friday night to No. 9 Wisconsin (the Badgers' first win at the RAC), but the Scarlet Knights got back to looking (almost) like the Scarlet Knights.

The three pillars of Rutgers basketball under head coach Steve Pikiell over the years have been rebounding, defense, and effort. Those were lacking significant during the previous three games and four of five.

Rutgers (7-5, 3-5 Big Ten) has now lost four in a row and five of six, but it got back to playing like Rutgers thanks to six days off and a players-only meeting.

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"In the last couple of games when you watch the film, you couldn't tell me that that was Rutgers basketball. We had an identity crisis and I think this game kind of show what we're getting back to what we normally would do," center Myles Johnson said. "We rebounded and played hard. The outcome is whatever, but we played like Rutgers and I think if we just keep doing that we could beat anybody in this league.

"We had a players meeting with just us and we just talked about like what do we want out of this season and we got to get back to what we normally do. And these off days, we practiced and we obviously worked on Wisconsin stuff and our emphasis was play like how we used to play. Look at the Illinois tape. We need to play like that. These past couple showings haven't been a good showings. Our main goal was to play like we're supposed to play pretty much. We did that and and just didn't work out, but if we keep doing that then it'd be different."

Against Wisconsin, Rutgers outrebounded the Badgers 50-35. Rutgers had been dominated on the glass the last five games, but the 50 rebounds were a season high and the second most the team has had since joining the Big Ten Conference. Rutgers also grabbed 20 offensive rebounds, a season best.

Johnson led the way with 12 rebounds. Montez Mathis, while he struggled to score, got into the paint and pulled down eight rebounds. Ron Harper Jr. had seven boards, Paul Mulcahy had six, Geo Baker had five, Caleb McConnell had four, Cliff Omoruyi had three in 15 minutes in his return, and Jacob Young had three.

On defense, Rutgers held Wisconsin to its second-lowest point total of the season and only 35 percent shooting including 24 percent on 3-pointers. During about an eight minute stretch in the second half, Rutgers held Wisconsin without a bucket and in the last 16 minutes of the game, the Scarlet Knights allowed only 5-of-23 attempts to go in.

The meeting helped.

"Yeah, definitely. I feel like that meeting was very helpful. We played like we should," Johnson said. "If you compare this game to the last other games before that, it looks like a complete different team. We played together, we played tough, and we rebounded. I think that team meeting definitely did help and it's something that we're going to do more often because, it had some positives."

While Rutgers was much better in terms of overall effort and toughness, rebounding, and defense, but the offensive output still isn't there. That was the reason why Rutgers couldn't get back in the win column.

Rutgers shot only 37 percent including 11 percent from deep (2-of-19). It also didn't make its free throws and didn't get there enough, going just 2-for-7. The Scarlet Knights, despite grabbing 20 offensive rebounds as mentioned, recorded just 13 second-chance points.

"I thought we played good. The outcome wasn't what we wanted, but during the game, we were playing together and we looked like Rutgers," Young said. "Got to make shots."

"We didn't win it but it's a small victory I think you can call it. We're getting back to playing like how we should be playing. I mean it just came down to shots," Johnson added. "We just missed shots and if we would have made them shots it would be a different game. At least we played like us so when we look back in this one, we didn't lose because we weren't us, we didn't lose because we didn't rebound or we didn't lose because we aren't doing the things we're known to do."

For the first time all season, Rutgers had all of its scholarship players dressed and active. McConnell returned from his back injury after originally redshirting four games again and after missing five games with a knee injury, Omoruyi came back and saw his first action.

"It was great to have him Cliff back," said Johnson, a fellow center. "He got in today and showed some glimpses. He got some rebounds and that's the biggest thing that we need. We need to rebound. Having him in practice too is good having another big person to play against playing against all these big people in the Big Ten, and he's really going to help. We need more help with rebounding and he's seven feet tall. We were plus on the rebounds today so it's good to have him around."

Only time will tell if this is a turning point. Rutgers has finished playing five out of the six top teams in the league, and its next two contests are on the road against Penn State on Thursday before it plays Indiana next Sunday.

"I think having our full lineup for this game for the first time I think contributed to us playing like us," Johnson said. "Having a full lineup, we have more guys to sub in and I think that really will help to play like us. We get more people in and we could play more aggressive on defensive."

At one point, Rutgers was rolling and looked unstoppable. Now it's fighting to hold a spot in the top half of the conference after being projected as high as a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament less than two weeks ago.

Going back to the meeting, that allowed the team to speak their mind and refocus.

"We always say we want a Big Ten championship and we obviously want to make it to the tournament. We really got to mean it," Johnson said. "So it was kind of just speak our minds and get everybody on the same page and get everything together for this coming game. I think it worked."

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.