Three Thoughts on Rutgers Basketball's 84-74 loss to No. 24 Iowa
It was a tough afternoon for Rutgers Basketball as it fell to No. 24 Iowa 84-74 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament and has seen its NCAA Tournament chances fly into the air.
Here are three thoughts after the game….
To bid or not to bid...
While beating Iowa (24-9, 12-8 Big Ten), one of the hottest teams in the country, was always going to be difficult, Indiana (20-12, 9-11 Big Ten) might have thrown a wrench into Rutgers’ March Madness plans. With a 17-point comeback win against Michigan and a victory over top-seeded Illinois under their belt, the Hoosiers have now likely found themselves in the Big Dance.
“If we’re not in I don't know what to tell you,” Ron Harper Jr. said. “I feel like this team has proven itself and proven we’ve gotten better day in and day out. Every time we come off a tough loss we always bounce back so this team definitely deserves to play in March.”
Now, is there a scenario where both the Hoosiers and Scarlet Knights (18-13, 12-8 Big Ten) find themselves dancing in March? Yes. However, with one of the most erratic resumes and coming off a not-so-impressive performance against the Hawkeyes, Rutgers will go into Selection Sunday sweating.
Unable to take the counterpunch
While Rutgers came out of the gate hot and took a 10-point lead about four minutes into the game, Iowa was able to answer right back and sport a 41-32 lead at halftime.
“Keegan Murray was a problem for us from the opening tip and they had it going,” head coach Steve Pikiell said. “I thought we played like us for about 13 minutes in the second half and kind of clawed back in it but could never really get back over the hump. One of the huge keys was to defend without fouling and we fouled them a lot, we got to play better.”
The second half was not much kinder to the Scarlet Knights as they fell behind by 18 points. While Rutgers showed a lot of fight and even made it an eight-point game with 6:27 remaining, the Hawkeyes proved to be too much for Rutgers to handle as Murray finished with 26 points and eight rebounds while Tony Perkins and Jordan Bohannon scored 16.
The officiating
Although a lot will be made about the officiating in this game, it is not the reason the Scarlet Knights lost. However, six technical fouls, with four being called on Rutgers, and an almost-double free-throw disparity is not a great look as the Hawkeyes went 25-27 while the Scarlet Knights shot 10-14.
“It’s on me,” Pikiell said when asked about the officiating. “We’ve got to do a better job, that’s on me.”
While strength and conditioning coach Dave van Dyke should not be yelling obscenities towards the officials, giving guys like Paul Mulcahy, Caleb McConnell, and Iowa’s Connor McCaffery technical fouls in such big spots is not ideal either. If the last few days have shown anything, it is that winning in the Big Ten Tournament is hard enough as is.
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