3/4/2021 basketball Edit

The pulse on Rutgers basketball heading into Minnesota (with video)

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

It's now or maybe never.

The Rutgers men's basketball team has one regular season game to go on Saturday at noon on the road against Minnesota.

Rutgers is 2-4 since the calendar flipped to February and is just holding on to an NCAA Tournament berth as a 9-seed according to bracketmatrix.com.

The last two games has seen Rutgers get down early, but in only one of those contests did it come back and fight for a win. The Scarlet Knights really had a no-show versus the Cornhuskers.

"At Nebraska, I really didn't think got off to a slow start. I thought we got off to a slow middle," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "Our start was fine in that game. I know Indiana, we didn't get off to a great start, but, we've had some great starts and we haven't had some good finishes. Indiana was a bad start, but good finish. Nebraska, the first five, six minutes, we were right there in the game. We're on to Minnesota. You can't change the results of the Indiana game or the Nebraska game.

"Nebraska's playing good basketball and if the season was a month longer they may be one of those teams in a good place. They're in a good groove. We didn't play as we needed to obviously but we're on to Minnesota. It's the only game right now. There's no team in this league that isn't good."

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Against Indiana, the Hoosiers jumped out early leads of 10-2, 15-4, and 23-8 before the Scarlet Knights started mounting their comeback.

Monday, Nebraska, which is last in the Big Ten, surged ahead from the get-go and led by as many as 30 points in the second half. Both Pikiell and senior captain Geo Baker credited the team having no energy.

So how has team responded since then?

"Awesome. The guys are great. They had a good practice yesterday. The guys have great approaches," Pikeill said. "These are waters we've been in many times you know. The guys have been great and like this I think every coach to that I've spoken to, this is, this is what we signed up for and I know our guys are excited. We're playing meaningful games in February and March. We've come a long way with the program. These kids have been there before too. The kids are always great. They're resilient and they move on. They do a good job with that, probably better than me."

With players getting banged up after a grueling season that also coincided with a pandemic, finding a good mix for how hard to run practices is important.

"You have to be really smart. We're traveling too," Pikiell said. "Part of its physical part and part of it is the mental part. We've been in a bubble for a long time."

Rutgers hasn't shot the ball well and has gone through many cold stretches during games this season, especially from 3-point range over the last month.

Pikiell said he's liked the shots and open looks, and sometimes they go down and sometimes they don't. But, no matter what, the team has to hang its had on rebounding and defense.

"You have to find ways to get second shots and get to the free-throw line. This is like a big boy league with some really defense teams," Pikiell said. "There's some games this year we won where we didn't shoot the ball well at all. You can't let your offense dictate everything. The worst way win basketball games is to always try to outscore teams. Some guys mentally are feeling and other guys are in slumps. You have to get through the obstacles."

Minnesota is dealing with some injuries and is on a six-game losing streak, but it does still have superb guard Marcus Carr. The Golden Gophers are also celebrating Senior Night which should provide some extra juice. Minnesota is 13-3 at home this season as well.

"Minnesota is a team that beat Michigan home, they beat Iowa at home, they beat home state at home, they beat Purdue," Pikiell said. "We're talking and focused on that."