PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The No. 9 seeded Rutgers Scarlet Knights (18-13, 10-10) are set to take on the No. 8 seed Michigan Wolverines (17-14-11-9) in the second round of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament on Thursday at noon at the United Center in Chicago. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and Kevin Kugler, Stephen Bardo and Andy Katz.

THE SERIES

Rutgers is (1-16) all-time against Michigan. Rutgers defeated the Michigan Wolverines for the first time in school history with a75-67 victory at Jersey Mike's Arena on Jan 4 of last season. As a team, Rutgers had 20 assists, the second-most ever by a Scarlet Knight team in a Big Ten game. Rutgers '11 three-pointers tied for the team's most-ever in a Big Ten game. Rutgers held the lead in the game from start-to-finish.

WITH A WIN

-No. 9 Rutgers would advance to take on the No. 1Purdue Boilermakers on Friday in the next round of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament. 
-The second win all-tiem for RU against the Wolverines. 

BIG TEN POSTSEASON AWARDS

The 2021-22 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year has won the award for a consecutive season, sharing the honor with Northwestern's Chase Audige.

Caleb McConnell leads the conference in steals-per-game (2.6) and has been the anchor to Rutgers featuring one of the best defensive units in all of college basketball.

He becomes the first player in almost 20 seasons to win the award back-to-back seasons. Kenny Lowe of Purdue last won the award for the second-straight year in 2004. He is the fifth player ever to win the award in two-straight seasons and the sixth player ever to win the award more than once in the conference.

"Caleb McConnell is not only the best defender in the conference, but the best in the whole country," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "I can do so much more defensively with McConnell's ability to guard positions 1 through 5. People always want to talk about scorers in this league. They should be talking about the amount of points Caleb takes off the board for the other team. He is paramount to our team's defensive success night in and night out."

McConnell was awarded the ESPN College Gameday National Defensive Player of the Year last week and is a top-ten semifinalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year announced at the end of the month.

Rutgers junior center Clifford Omoruyi was selected to First-Team All-Defense alongside McConnell. Omoruyi averaged 2.1 blocks-per-game and complied 65 blocks in the regular season. His blocks and blocks-per-game are good for 23^rd in the nation and third in the conference.

Omoruyi has also been awarded Second-Team All-Big Ten by the media and third-team All-Big Ten by the coaches. Omoruyi leads the Scarlet Knights with 13.5 points-per-game and 9.8 rebounds-per-game. He became the first Rutgers player to lead the team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots since Keith Hughes did so in the 1990-1991 season.

Senior guard Cam Spencer, senior guard Paul Mulcahy and McConnell were all voted Big Ten Honorable Mentions by the coaches and the media. Spencer averaged 12.7 points-per-game this season and was one of the most consistent scorers for the Scarlet Knights all season. Mulcahy averaged 8.2 points-per-game and 4.9 assists-per-game.

The Scarlet Knights unfortunately lost forward Mawot Mag to a season-ending injury on Feb. 4 against Michigan State at Madison Square Garden. Mag has been awarded the Sportsmanship Award for the season.

ABOUT RUTGERS

Rutgers has been propelled by an outstanding defense. The Scarlet Knights are 18-3 when holding its opponent to 65 or fewer points and 9-2 when doing so in Big Ten games. Rutgers is 0-9 when allowing more than 65 points in Big Ten games this year. The Scarlet Knights regular season schedule features this last conference game on a Senior Night at Jersey Mike's Arena against 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

The Scarlet Knights lost a tough one on Senior Night. With fifth-year graduate Caleb McConnell playing his last game at Jersey Mike's Arena the Rutgers men's basketball team lost 65-53 to the Northwestern Wildcats in front of a sold-out crowd on Sunday night to wrap up the regular season.

McConnell tied a career-high with six steals and passed Myles Mack (210) for second all-time on the Rutgers steals list with 214 career steals. He is six steals away from tying Eddie Jordan for first on the list (220). Rutgers shot 2-for-17 from three-point range and 11-for-21 from the free throw line. Rutgers was 36 percent from the field on the night.

Junior center Clifford Omoruyi had 14 points and six rebounds.Senior guard Cam Spencer had nine points, three assists and five rebounds. Senior point guard Paul Mulcahy had eight points, four assists and five rebounds.Freshman guard Derek Simpson had 12 points, two assists and two rebounds off the bench.

ABOUT MICHIGAN

Playing its third-straight overtime game for the first time since the 1979-80 season, the University of Michigan men's basketball team fell to No. 15-ranked Indiana, 75-73, on Sunday night (March 5) at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Hunter Dickinson completed his fourth-straight double-double with 24 points and 14 rebounds while also tying his career-high with five blocks. Kobe Bufkin logged his 10th straight game in double figures with 19 points, and Jett Howard added 16 points behind four three-pointers. Indiana (21-10, 12-8 B1G) went on a 6-0 run to start overtime, which was enough to seal the win after Michigan (17-14, 11-9 B1G) shot just one-for-six from the field in the extra period.

LAST TIME VS. MICHIGAN

RU shot 38.3 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from the free throw line and scored 45 points in the 58-45 loss to the Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night.

Senior guard Cam Spencer led the way with 11 points. Senior guard Paul Mulcahy scored nine points and added six assists. Mulcahy now sits in sole possession of fourth place on the all-time assists list at Rutgers.

Junior center Clifford Omoruyi had his 12th double-double of the season with ten points and ten rebounds. Fifth-year guard/forward Caleb McConnell returned to action after missing last week's game against Wisconsin (back) and scored seven points, had five rebounds and added a pair of steals. 

Michigan had three players in double digits in freshman Dug McDaniel (16 points), senior center Hunter Dickinson (13 points) and guard Kobe Bufkin (14 points).

MILESTONE WATCH

Paul Mulcahy enters the matchup with 442 career assists. He is now in sole possession of fourth place on RU's all-time leaderboard. 

Caleb McConnell has 214 career steals. He just passed Myles Mack (211) for second all-time at RU and is six away from Eddie Jordan (220) for first all time.  Cliff Omoruyi has 121 career blocks. He's for ninth all-time at RU. Cam Spencer has 67 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.