Three Thoughts on Rutgers Hoops latest game versus Illinois
It was a tough afternoon for No. 24 Rutgers Basketball as it fell to Illinois 69-60 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois.
Here are three thoughts after the game….
RUTGERS HIT A RUT
Rutgers (16-9, 8-6 Big Ten) had a decent hold of this game early in the second half as it sported a 47-41 advantage and led for most of the contest up until that point. However, what followed was arguably its worst stretch of basketball all season long.
“We played a good 31 minutes of basketball today, Illinois played great the last nine minutes and we didn't,” head coach Steve Pikiell said. “We didn't shoot it the way we liked and didn't execute in the last nine minutes especially.”
Not only were the Scarlet Knights held without a point for the next 10 minutes, but they went 0-14 from the field and allowed Illinois (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) to take a 60-47 lead with five minutes remaining. It is hard to beat any team that goes on a 19-0 run, much less the Fighting Illini on the road, so this was a performance Rutgers will likely forget about as soon as possible.
A B1G HOLE
Although Rutgers has mostly been able to mask it up until this point, this game showed how much trouble the Scarlet Knights are in if Cliff Omoruyi finds himself in early foul trouble. The duo of Antoine Woolfolk and Dean Reiber could not get anything going as they finished with a combined two points on 0-4 shooting. They each had a hard time on the defensive side too as Dain Dainja finished with 15 points and seven rebounds while Coleman Hawkins had 18 points and eight rebounds.
“He's been pretty good this whole season,” Pikiell said regarding Omoruyi. “He just got a couple of careless ones out of frustration, we just got to do a better job of keeping him on the floor.”
Despite finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds, this was not a great showing from Omoruyi either as he also had a tough time controlling Dainja and did not provide much of an offensive threat unless it was below the basket.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Losing Mawot Mag before two of Rutgers’ toughest remaining games was going to be an uphill battle no matter how one sliced it. However, the path ahead should get a bit lighter for the Scarlet Knights as they take on teams who mostly rank between the middle and bottom of the Big Ten.
“In this league every game is important and every team is really good,” Pikiell said. “We just got to get back to playing our kind of defense and sharing the ball a little bit better.”
Although the thoughts of Rutgers being crowned kings of the conference seem to be dwindling by the day, it still finds itself in decent shape with six regular season games left. As long as the Scarlet Knights can take care of business, they will likely find themselves as a top-seven seed and making their third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Rutgers will return to action on Tuesday when it takes on Nebraska at 8 p.m. (ET) at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
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