A year ago, the talk of Rutgers men’s basketball was about two things -- its home 18-1 record and the 2-10 combined road/neutral court record.
Winning on the road is hard. That’s a fact. And Rutgers, even when good, has struggled away from the RAC over the years. Its best road/neutral record based on TKR research since at least the 2005-06 season is 7-9 that year. It also went 6-9 in 2012-13, but since then, the Scarlet Knights are 17-68 when not playing in Piscataway.
FREE PREMIUM ACCESS UNTIL LATE JANUARY — CLICK HERE FOR MORE!!
So when No. 19 Rutgers defeated Maryland on the road 74-60 on Monday to start 1-0 in the Big Ten, it also started out 1-0 in its first away game as the Scarlet Knights remained undefeated at 5-0 overall.
“We've never been 1-0 in the Big Ten before. That's something we wanted to do. We're always trying to make history and always trying to find something for a chip on our shoulder,” senior guard Geo Baker said.
“Every game is so important, especially in the Big Ten. We want to get that road win for a lot of reasons. Like I said, we've never been 1-0 before. We didn't win a lot of road games last year, so that's something that people kind of thought like we're gonna have that same identity year and that's something that we're trying to change.”
Center Myles Johnson, who had a double-double with 10 points and 16 rebounds, understands how big the victory was even if there were no hollering fans in attendance
“It's huge, especially since this is our first 1-0 start in Big Ten play in Rutgers history. Last year, we were almost undefeated at home, and our biggest gripe was on the road. I think winning on the road and getting our first Big Ten win too was a huge statement,” Johnson said. “It just shows we're a different team and we got better from last year.”
The win over Maryland is the first for Rutgers at the Xfinity Center.
“This has been a really tough place for us to play. It's a tough place for the whole league to play so to come on the road and get our first road win is a good feeling,” head coach Steve Pikiell said. “It's the first time we had to deal with a lot of traveling with COVID. Tough week week this week. All our guys have finals. They did a good job being locked in.
“...We're 1-0. To come out here and have a good night is real positive. But I love the way we play together. Our defense really did a good job to hold them and make them take some tough shots. When you play good defense the way we did and when we share the ball good things happen whether we're at home or on the road. We try to win as many games you can in this monster league.”
Rutgers struggled with foul trouble early on and went through a cold stretch as well offensively, but it buckled down in the second half on both ends of the court, outscoring the Terrapins 47-32 after the break.
We had some real stretches there where we did a really good job defensively,” Pikiell said. “We settled down in the second half, and we didn't foul as much, which really helped a great deal.
“Tough road win and I loved the way we grinded the whole 40 minutes.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
-------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
•Talk about it inside The Round Table Message Board
