No. 25 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (11-6, 7-6)
at
No. 15 Iowa Hawkeyes (13-6, 7-5)
Wednesday, February 10 | 7:30 p.m.
Carver-Hawkeye Arena | Iowa City, Iowa
TV: BTN (Bradon Gaudin, play-by-play; Robbie Hummel, analyst)
Radio: Rutgers Sports Properties Radio Network (WCTC 1450 AM/WOR 710 AM/ XM 384; Jerry Recco and Joe Boylan), WRSU 88.7 FM (Raj Shah, Doug Willig)
No. 25 Rutgers men's basketball brings a four-game winning streak to a road contest on Wednesday night at No. 15 Iowa (7:30 p.m., BTN). The Scarlet Knights will wear its new red throwback uniforms (honoring the1982-83 Rutgers team) for the second time this season.
The Scarlet Knights made it a four-game winning streak with a hard-fought 76-72 win over Minnesota last Thursday. Rutgers shot 53.1 percent from the field, its best this season in a Big Ten game.
That streak is RU's first-ever four-game Big Ten winning streak. Rutgers picked up their 7th league win of the season. The Scarlet Knights have now posted at least seven conference victories in 3 consecutive campaigns for the first time since 1989-91 when they did it as an Atlantic 10 member.
Geo Baker finished the game with a team-high 16 points, including 11 after halftime, while Caleb McConnell had a season-high 14. Myles Johnson had his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, along with three blocks and two steals.
Johnson has excelled as one of the Big Ten's top big men on both ends of the floor. is one of two players in the league two have at least three games this season with five blocks. He is second in the conference in blocks (2.35), fourth in rebounds (8.9), fourth in offensive rebounds (3.24), fifth in double-doubles (5) and seventh in steals (1.41). Johnson has been extremely efficient at the offensive end, shooting 66.7% (66-of-99) on field goals. His career field goal percentage is 60.4%, which would be a Rutgers career record if the season ended today. As a team, RU is first in the Big Ten in steals (8.4) and second in blocked shots (5.1).
Rutgers has used strong starts to the game as a key in establishing themselves in the past four victories. A look at the past four games:
- 15-8 lead at Indiana (after 6:41)
- 15-0 lead vs. Michigan State (after 4:58)
- 31-11 lead at Northwestern (after 11:10)
- 9-0 lead vs. Minnesota (after 5:23)
RU has gotten off to combined 82-43 leads in the opening 10 minutes of the last four games.
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 Minnesota (55) marked Rutgers' 10th league game (out of 13) coming against teams ranked in the top-55 of the NET rankings.
A victory for Rutgers over Iowa would represent:
- Rutgers' fifth straight win over a Big Ten conference foe. That would mark the first time that Rutgers won five straight conference game since RU won five straight league games in 1990-91 as members of the Atlantic 10. The Scarlet Knights defeated GW, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Penn State and Temple in that streak, en route to an eventual Atlantic 10 title.
- A fourth Big Ten road win would be the most conference games RU has won on the road since joining the league.
The last time RU won four league games in a season was 1990-91 when the team went 6-3 on the road in Atlantic 10 play.
- It would mark just the third time in the past 15 seasons that RU won four road games overall.
- 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).
- Mark the team's second ranked win of the year and ninth ranked win under head coach
Steve Pikiell. It would be tied for the third highest ranked team defeated under Pikiell (last season vs. No. 9 Maryland, this year vs. No. 13 Illinois). The team's lone ranked road win under Coach Pikiell came at No. 22 Iowa on March 2, 2019.
No. 15 Iowa enters the game at 13-6, having been ranked as No. 4 in the nation prior to a current stretch that has seen them lose four of their past five games. The team is led by returning All-American Luka Garza (25.5 points, 8.4 rebounds). He leads the nation in points per game and has the most field goals made in the country.
The Hawkeyes lead the nation in assist-turnover ratio (2.14) and assists (20.3) while ranking second in the nation in scoring offense (89.1) and turnovers per game (9.5). However, the team is 278th nationally and worst in the Big Ten in scoring defense (75.2).
Series Record: Iowa leads 8-2
Last Meeting: No. 10 Iowa 77, No. 14 Rutgers 75 (Jan. 2, 2021)
Wednesday marks the 11th meeting in the all-time series dating back to 1989, with Iowa holding an 8-2 advantage. Rutgers has won twice in the last five matchups. Rutgers claimed a victory in a 2019 visit to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and won at The RAC in 2018. Both of those victories came by double-digits. Earlier this season, two top-15 teams battled at The RAC in a game that came down to the final possession, with Iowa winning that one 77-75.
Ron Harper Jr. has averaged 21 points in three career games versus the Hawkeyes, twice setting his then career-high in scoring against them (27 points in a 2019 win and then 29 points in last season's trip to Carver-Hawkeye Arena).
