Northwestern Wildcats (6-11, 3-10) at No. 25 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (11-7, 7-7)
Satuday, February 13 | 5 p.m.
The RAC | Piscataway, N.J.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 25 Rutgers men's basketball returns to The RAC on Saturday evening to host Northwestern at 5 p.m. The game, presented by the
R Fund - Rutgers Athletics Fundraising Arm Supporting Scarlet Knight Student-Athletes, will air on Big Ten Network.
TV: BTN (Dave Revsine, play-by-play; Andy Katz, analyst)
Radio: Rutgers Sports Properties Radio Network (WCTC 1450 AM/WOR 710 AM/ Sirius 132 / XM 196 ; Jerry Recco and Joe Boylan), WRSU 88.7 FM (Ronnie Wielenta)
Rutgers has won four of its past five games, as their winning streak was halted Wednesday night at No. 15 Iowa. Rutgers was led by
Geo Baker with 11 points, and Baker also tied his season-high with five assists. In the process, Baker moved into 7th place on RU's all-time assists leader board. Baker has also made an impact off the court, and was named as a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award this week.
Caleb McConnell led the team with seven rebounds, posting a season-high on the boards. He also had a season-high four assists. Rutgers also got contributions from their bench, with Cliff Omoruyi and
Mamadou Doucoure contributing with
Myles Johnson in foul trouble. Rutgers is 10-3 this season with Omoruyi in the lineup, with RU going 1-4 when he missed time with a knee injury.
Jaden Jones, who enrolled early for the second semester, made his collegiate debut versus the Hawkeyes, the 17th Scarlet Knight player to see game action this season.
The Scarlet Knights have succeeded due to different players stepping up with contributions on different nights, with five different leading scorers over the past 11 games. Rutgers has also shared the ball well, with 18 assists against Iowa being their second most ever in a Big Ten game.
The Scarlet Knights' success over the past two seasons has come with the competition in the Big Ten at an all-time peak. Rutgers stands at 28 in the NET rankings. The Scarlet Knights have four Quad 1 wins on the year, with victories over Illinois (4), Purdue (23), at Maryland (39) and at Indiana (48).
The game against Iowa (8) marked Rutgers' 11th league game (out of 14) coming against teams ranked in the top-55 of the NET rankings. Four Big Ten teams are in the top-8 of the NET, representing four of RU's seven losses.
Northwestern comes into the contest at 6-11 after a double-overtime contest on Wednesday night at Indiana, falling just short by a 79-76 final margin. Northwestern has dropped 10 straight games following a 6-1 start that saw the team join the national rankings at No. 19 in the nation. The Wildcats' last five games have all be within 8 points, with the Scarlet Knights' victory the largest margin in that span.
The Wildcats' scoring is balanced, with Chase Audige (12.9 ppg), Miller Kopp (12.8) and Pete Nance (12.1) all posting similar outputs. Kopp is second in the league in free throw percentage at 87.5%. Boo Buie averages 4.5 assists, sixth in the league. Audige is seventh in the conference with 1.41 steals per game. Northwestern is ranked 15th nationally in the assist turnover ratio category (1.46) while ranking 33rd assists per game (16.3). However, the Wildcats are 35th nationally in turnovers per game (11.2).
Steve Pikiell's daughter
Brooke is a senior guard on the No. 21 Northwestern women's basketball team, who was
defeated on Thursday night by the Rutgers women's program.
Series Record: Northwestern leads 10-5
Last Meeting: Rutgers 64, Northwestern 56 (Jan. 31, 2021)
Sunday marks the 16th meeting in the all-time series dating back to 1969, with Northwestern holding a 10-5 advantage. How- ever, Rutgers has won three straight in the series and four of the past five meetings. Two weeks ago, the Scarlet Knights went to Welsh-Ryan Arena and jumped out to a 31-11 lead to open the game and never trailed in a
64-56 victory.
Jacob Young paced the Scarlet Knights' scoring with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting,
Geo Baker added 12 points and
Ron Harper Jr. scored 13 points (all in the second half).
A victory for Rutgers over Northwestern would represent:
- An eighth conference win would mark the second most conference wins for RU since joining the Big Ten. Rutgers has only reached eight conference wins once over the past 18 seasons (last season).
- Give the Scarlet Knights five wins in their last six meetings with Northwestern.
- Be the Scarlet Knights fifth win over Northwestern, which would tie for the most wins over any Big Ten team (also five vs. Minnesota).
