2/23/2021 basketball Edit

The Tuesday Morning Step-Back: Rutgers Hoops struggles continue

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

It was not a good week for Rutgers as they suffered losses at the hands of Maryland and Michigan. With three games left before the Big Ten tournament, if the Scarlet Knights want to go into Indianapolis feeling good about their NCAA Tournament chances they are going to have to show more offensive firepower fast.

“As a coaching staff we try to just play one game, we don’t really get caught up but I know everyone else does,” Pikiell said after his team’s 68-59 loss to Maryland. “I think there are 100 bracketologists so I’m not naïve to that stuff. It’s talked about every five seconds but we try to go one game at a time if we play well and then we move on to the next game.”

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Perhaps the most head-scratching aspect of Sunday’s loss to Maryland is the fact it came on the heels of a quality effort against top-ranked Michigan. While not many expected the Scarlet Knights to come away from Ann Arbor with the win, Rutgers was able to record their season-low in turnovers (3) and make life difficult for the Wolverines.

“We played a really good basketball team tonight,” Pikiell said after the 71-64 defeat. “I thought we played hard, we outscored them in the second half. We have to make shots in a game like this, I thought we had the opportunities.”

Pikiell’s squad was also able to put up a decent defensive showing against Michigan despite the Wolverines operating at a different level than anybody in the Big Ten right now.

“Our defense gave us a chance but our offense just didn’t do enough,” Pikiell continued. “We fought from start to finish against arguably the best team in the country. I’m proud of our guys for continuing to fight.”

However, Rutgers was not able to match that defensive intensity against the Terrapins as each of their five starters recorded double-figures in points, including a double-double from Maryland guard Aaron Wiggins.

“I didn’t like the way we played today,” Pikiell said. “I’m going to congratulate Maryland, they played better than we did. I didn’t like our offense and our defense and it’s on coach Pikiell. I didn’t have them where they needed to be today and it’s 100 percent on me and we have two days to get this thing right and we will.”

In the end, one key ingredient both of these games shared was a lack of offensive prowess from the Scarlet Knights. While Rutgers is not the type of team looking to live or die by the three, they will need to add it to their repertoire at some point as going a combined 8-34 from behind the arc is not going to cut it against quality teams.

“We want to drive it and we want to get to the free-throw line and when we do those things we are a better basketball team,” Pikiell said in regards to his team’s poor shot selection against Maryland. “We got some good looks too, we need to make a few of them and I have confidence that our guys can.”