PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers men's basketball team (18-11, 10-8) is set to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers (7-20, 1-16) at 7 PM on Thursday night at Williams Arena. The game will be broadcasted on the FS1 with Jason Ross Jr. and Devin Harris on the call.
THE SERIES
Rutgers is (7-9) all-time against the Golden Gophers. RU won it's last matchup with Minnesota 90-55 at Jersey Mike's Arena holding Minnesota to their season low in points on Feb. 1.
RU has won five of the last six games against Minnesota, with their only loss in that period coming at Williams Arena last season on Jan. 22.
WITH A WIN
A victory at Minnesota would represent:
-The most Big Ten road win's in school history in a season (five)
- The team's 11th win in Big Ten play.
-Six wins in the last seven games against Minnesota.
-The first RU win in Minnesota since 3/6/21
ABOUT RUTGERS
Rutgers men's basketball is back on the road for the sixth time in it's last eight games. Rutgers has been propelled by an outstanding defense. The Scarlet Knights are 18-2 when holding its opponent to 65 or fewer points and 9-1 when doing so in Big Ten games. Rutgers is 0-7 when allowing more than 65 points in Big Ten games this year. The Scarlet Knights schedule has two conference games remaining and features a Senior Day at Jersey Mike's Arena against No. 21 Northwestern on Sunday.
Rutgers has battled injuries since losing starting junior forward
Mawot Mag with a torn ACL in the first half of the game at Madison Square Garden against Michigan State on Saturday, Feb. 4.
RUTGERS LAST TIME OUT
Rutgers men's basketball pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in school history on Sunday night in Happy Valley.
Propelled by a career-high 16 points from freshman guard
Derek Simpson, RU had a 19-point comeback to beat Penn State 59-56. The victory marked the biggest comeback win at RU since 1996 when Rutgers defeated Pittsburgh following a 20-point deficit on Feb. 21.
With RU trailing by two points and 1 minute and 30 seconds on the clock, the Mt. Laurel, N.J, native drove to the hoop and converted on an and-one layup to put RU up one. A put-back follow on RU's next possession by junior center
Clifford Omoruyi gave Rutgers the 59-56 lead.
On the final possession for Penn State, the Nittany Lions missed two three-point attempts followed by a pair of offensive rebounds. A strip block by senior guard
Cam Spencer sealed the victory in the final seconds.
ABOUT MINNESOTA
The Minnesota men's basketball team is currently on a 12-game losing streak in all conference games.
In a loss to Nebraska on 3/25, five Minnesota players scored in double-figures, led by 12 points each from Jamison Battle and Ta'Lon Cooper, and Dawson Garcia had a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 14 rebounds, but Nebraska held off the Gophers to record a 78-67 win Saturday afternoon at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Jaden Henley finished with 11 points, and Pharrel Payne had 10 points and nine rebounds to just miss a double-double. It was Minnesota's third road game in five days.
Nebraska opened the game by making 12 of its first 17 field goal attempts, including a stretch where it went 9-of-10, as it built a 27-16 lead. Minnesota was just 12-of-33 (.364) in the opening 20 minutes, but closed the half on a 5-2 run to head to the locker room trailing 37-27. Payne led the Gophers by going 4-of-4 from the field for eight points to go with six rebounds, while Garcia topped the team with eight boards in the first half and added six points, and Battle knocked down two treys.
LAST TIME VS. MINNESOTA
RU had their most assists ever in a Big Ten matchup in the 90-55 victory (30). The margin of victory was also the highest-ever for RU in a Big Ten conference game.
Rutgers featured a balanced scoring attack with six players in double figures.
In the opening half, Rutgers jumped out to an 18-7 lead, shooting 7-of-10 to start as Minnesota opened 2-of-13 from the floor. The Gophers cut the lead to 22-20, but a big three-pointer from
Oskar Palmquist off the bench sparked a 12-2 run to close the half for the home team, who led by 10 at the break. Palmquist finished with a career-high 13 points of (4-for-7) from the field and made three of his four three point shots. Palmquist had his family in town from Sweden to watch his play for their second visit ever to a Rutgers game.
MILESTONE WATCH
Paul Mulcahy enters the matchup with 429 career assists. He is now in sole possession of fourth place on RU's all-time leaderboard.
Caleb McConnell has 206 career steals. He is six shy of Myles Mack (211) for second all-time at RU.
Cliff Omoruyi has 113 career blocks. He needs two more to match Steve Perry (115) for ninth all-time at RU.
Cam Spencer has 64 steals on the season. He has passed Phil Sellers' 1975-76 campaign (61) and Steve Worthy's 1992-93 season of 62 steals for sixth most in a single-season in RU history.
