12/21/2020 basketball Edit

The Monday Morning Step-Back

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

Despite only playing two games, it was a banner week for Rutgers basketball as they remained undefeated (6-0) and opened up Big Ten play with a duo of big time wins against Maryland and thirteenth-ranked Illinois.

“I thought it was a great college basketball game, it's too bad the RAC was not full of our fans, that would have been an unbelievable environment,” Head Coach Steve Pikiell said after the victory over Illinois. “Illinois is really, really good, Coach [Brad] Underwood has done a great job building that program, tremendous respect for him as a coach and the players and their program.”

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While their ranking might not indicate it, Illinois is one of the better teams in the nation and has talent good enough to play at the next level. Not only did the Fighting Illini give top-ranked Baylor everything they could handle in their season-opener, but they beat the brakes off Duke 83-68 in a Dec. 8 matchup.

“Any time you can get a win against a team like that, it’s a good day,” Pikiell continued. “I thought our guys played hard, I thought they played the whole game. It was definitely a 40-minute game and to put up 91 points on board for us is a good sign for us moving forward.”

Whether it is Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn or Ayo Dosunmu, the Fighting Illini have the necessary pieces to compete with anybody in the country. However, Rutgers did an excellent job of not letting those pieces take over the game en route to the 91-88 victory.

“[Kofi] Cockburn is really good, and it’s a tough guy to guard and he [Johnson] and Cliff [Omoruyi] did a really good job all night,” Pikiell said. “I thought we did a good job on Ayo (Dosunmu) and his numbers are unbelievable but did think we made his life difficult.”

Ron Harper Jr. and Jacob Young led the way for the Scarlet Knights as they combined for 52 points and hit key shots down the stretch to secure their sixth straight win.

“It was exciting but first thing’s first, business is business,” Harper Jr. said. “We expect to be here. We hold ourselves to a high standard and we practice at a high standard.”

In addition, with big man Cliff Omoruyi going down with an injury to his right leg early in the second half, Myles Johnson gave the Scarlet Knights 30 huge minutes where he recorded 13 rebounds and did an excellent job of containing Cockburn.

“Kofi is a huge, huge person. You got to move your feet in the paint, you can’t just stand right behind him or 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 and play physical. I did that and it seemed to work.”

And, not to be remiss is the performance from Paul Mulcahy. While his efforts might not show up in the box score, the sophomore point guard seemed to be everywhere on the court at all times and was in the Fighting Illini’s head the entire day. Not only that, but he made a tremendous defensive play when he stuffed Cockburn under the basket late in the first half as well.

“Paul does a lot of winning things and then down the stretch making all his free throws too,” Pikiell said. “Paul has done a really, really good job of helping us in a lot of areas and sometimes those areas don't show up in the box score, but he’s tough and he does winning things and you saw that today.”

While it might get overlooked due to the big win over Illinois, it is worth remembering Rutgers’ 74-60 Big Ten opening win against Maryland as well. While winning away from the RAC was a problem for the Scarlet Knights last year, they have seemed to remedy a cure as they took it to the Terrapins to earn their first victory in College Park since 1941.