PISCATAWAY, N. J. – Coming off of a thrilling overtime home win over Nebraska on Wednesday night, Rutgers men's basketball heads back to the rugged road of the Big Ten to face No. 14 Illinois on Sunday at 1 p.m. Winners of two of their last three Big Ten games, RU will enter a tough stretch as they will next face a pair of nationally ranked opponents in the No. 14 Illini followed by their next game the following Sunday when Rutgers will host No. 2 Purdue.
Big Ten Network with have the broadcast, with Brandon Gaudin and Robbie Hummel on the call. Jerry Recco and Austin Johnson will have the call for Rutgers Radio, and Alec Crouthamel, Tyler Levy will broadcast for WRSU.
Rutgers got a complete team effort in an overtime win over the Huskers on Wednesday night, with all five RU starters scoring in double figures for the first time in 49 games (
Austin Williams: 11,
Derek Simpson: 14, Cliff Omoruyi: 14,
Mawot Mag: 16,
Aundre Hyatt: 17).
The Scarlet Knights trailed by 12 points with 8:42 to play, and just a 4.7%-win probability per KenPom. The home team locked down on defense, holding the Huskers without a field goal for an 11-minute stretch and utilized a late 12-2 run to seal the victory.
Rutgers collected 56 rebounds against the Huskers, a record for RU in a Big Ten game, collecting four more caroms than the previous record. The team had 25 offensive rebounds, the most since 2/1/2020 against Michigan, and the most offensive rebounds in a game at Jersey Mike's Arena in the past seven years.
Rutgers scored 80+ points for the third time this season and scored its sixth most points ever in a Big Ten game.
Cliff Omoruyi had his sixth double-double of the season, with 14 points and 15 rebounds, his most ever boards against a Big Ten team.
Derek Simpson added 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, setting or matching career-highs for rebounds and assists and was just the second RU player since 2010 to notch that stat line (Corey Sanders, 2016 vs. Illinois, 3 OT).
Rutgers leads the Big Ten in blocks, field goal percentage defense and offensive rebounds. The team is also second in the league in scoring defense and turnovers forced.
Cliff Omoruyi enters the game with 1,091 career points. Next up for him to pass on RU's all-time scoring leaders are Anthony Farmer (36th, 1,092), Mike Williams (35th, 1,093), Steve Worthy (34th, 1,095), Rashod Kent (33rd, 1,104) and John Somogyi (32nd, 1,109).
He has 58 blocks this season. With two more blocks, he moves into 19th on RU's single-season list, and can move into 18th with three blocks.
No. 14 Illinois enters the game at 13-4 overall and 4-2 in conference games following an 88-73 win over Michigan on Thursday night. Over the past four-plus seasons, Illinois is 59-27 in league play, the best in the league in that span.
The Illini are fifth nationally in rebounding (42.94 rpg), eighth in defensive rebounding (29.94), 25
th in scoring margin and 30
th in scoring offense (82.1 ppg). Per KenPom, Illinois is sixth defensively in effective field goal percentage, and on the offensive end 10
th in adjusted efficiency.
Illinois is without the currently suspended Terrence Shannon Jr., who was averaging 21.7 points through the first 11 games, including 23 points to lead the squad in their win at Rutgers in December. The team is 4-2 without him this season.
Marcus Domask, a First Team All-MVC selection at Southern Illinois last year, is at 14.9 points per game, and has scored in double-figures in 10 of the last 11 games. He is followed closely by Quincy Guerrier (11.4) and Coleman Hawkins (11.3). Guerrier, on his third Power 5 school following two years at both Syracuse and Oregon, leads the team in rebounding at 7.7 rpg, and has averaged 13.1 ppg in Shannon's absence. Hawkins had 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and six steals to lead Illinois in the win over the Wolverines, while Guerrier had 16 points and 14 boards.
This will be the 16th lifetime meeting between the two programs. RU has four wins in the all-time series and has claimed three wins in the past six matchups. The Scarlet Knights are looking for their first ever road win at Illinois.
This will be the sixth time in the last eight meetings that Illinois enters the matchup in the national rankings. Rutgers has previously claimed ranked wins over Illinois with them ranked No. 12 (2/16/22), No. 13 (12/20/20) and No. 22 (2/15/20). Rutgers lost the first meeting earlier this season, 76-58, at Jersey Mike's Arena. Cliff Omoruyi had a career-high eight points in the game, but Illinois was led by 23 points from Terrance Shannon.
- Head coach Steve Pikiell would earn his 128th win as the head coach of Rutgers, tying Bob Wenzel for the third most wins of any Rutgers' men's basketball head coach.
- First ever win for RU in the State Farm Center
- Four wins in the past seven matchups against Illinois
- Four ranked wins over Illinois since 2020
- The 16th ranked win for Rutgers under head coach Steve Pikiell
- The fourth ranked road win under Pikiell and just the fifth ranked road win for the program since 2001
- The eighth ranked win for the program since the start of the 2021-22 season, all of them against program ranked 16th or higher nationally.
- The team has no mid-week game the following week before hosting No. 2 Purdue on Sunday, January 28.
