PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball is back at Jersey Mike's Arena on Wednesday night. The Scarlet Knights will welcome in Nebraska for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Big Ten Network.
TV: BTN (Jason Horowitz, Jess Settles)
RADIO: RWJ Barnabas Health Rutgers Sports Network WCBS 880 (WCBS-AM), Scarlet Knights App, Audacy App, XM 372 (Jerry Recco, Austin Johnson)
WRSU Student Radio (88.7 FM): Jonathan Vasquez, Josh Meyers
The Scarlet Knights enter the game with a 9-7 overall record and a 1-4 league mark. Last time out, RU took a 73-55 loss to Michigan State at the Breslin Center. Forward
Aundre Hyatt led the way scoring for the Scarlet Knights with 14 points and three three-pointers made. Senior forward
Mawot Mag added 12 points and five rebounds.
Offensively, RU is balanced at the top of its scoresheet.
Aundre Hyatt leads the team at 12.0 points per game and shooting 35.6% from three-point distance. He is one of four players averaging between 9 and 12 points per game, joined by
Mawot Mag (10.9 ppg), Cliff Omoruyi (9.9 ppg), and
Derek Simpson (9.4 ppg).
Rutgers is 8-1 this season at home. The Scarlet Knights are 22-7 at home over the past two seasons, 32-11 at home over the past three seasons and 50-12 at home over the past four seasons.
Nebraska enters the game with a 13-4 record and 3-3 league mark. The Huskers recently defeated No. 1 Purdue, 88-72, the first win over a No. 1 team for the program since 1982. The team leads the Big Ten in three-pointers per game (9.2 per game).
Keisei Tominaga was an All-Big Ten selection last year and is one of the top returning scorers in the Big Ten, averaging 20.3 ppg over the last nine games of the year.
Tominaga (14.5 ppg) is one of four double-digit scorers on the team, joined by Rienk Mast (13.3 ppg), Brice Williams (12.8 ppg) and Juwan Gary (11.9 ppg). Mast, a transfer from Bradley who was First Team All-MVC there, leads the team at 8.5 rebounds per game. Williams, a transfer from Charlotte, was Second Team All-Conference USA last season.
The Huskers are led by Fred Hoiberg, who is off to his best start in his fifth season at the helm of Nebraska. Hoiberg previously went to four NCAA Tournaments as the head coach of Iowa State and spent four years leading the Chicago Bulls.
Rutgers and Nebraska will match up for the 19
th time lifetime, with Nebraska holding a 10-8 advantage. RU has won four of the past six meetings and five of the last eight since 2019.
The two squads met just once last season after RU swept the series the year before. On February 14, 2023, Nebraska earned an 82-72 win. Despite 24 points from
Aundre Hyatt, Nebraska shot over 50 percent from the field and made 12 three-pointers to secure the victory.
Cliff Omoruyi has 182 career blocks. He needs one block to tie and two blocks to pass Eric Clark for sixth all-time at Rutgers. He also has 1,077 career points, just 15 from tying Anthony Farmer for 36
th all-time at RU, 16 from tying Mike Williams for 35
th, 18 from tying Steve Worthy for 34th, and 27 from tying Rashod Kent for 33
rd.
- Rutgers' would improve to 9-1 at home this season, 23-7 at home over the past two seasons, 33-11 over the past three seasons and 51-12 at Jersey Mike's Arena in the past four seasons.
Rutgers will hit the road over the weekend to play at No. 14 Illinois team on Sunday afternoon. The team has no mid-week game the following week before hosting No. 2 Purdue on Sunday, January 28.
