PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball returns to Jersey Mike's Arena on Tuesday night for a Big Ten home game against Iowa. The game will be just the second contest for RU inside the friendly confines of Jersey Mike's Arena over the previous 24 days. The game is streaming on Peacock, with a 7 p.m. tipoff time.
Rutgers enters the contest still looking for their first Big Ten Conference win of the season, with a 0-3 league mark and 8-6 record overall. RU is 3-9 in its last 12 games against league foes.
The Scarlet Knights return home for this game after a two-game road swing, with losses at Ohio State and Iowa last week. RU is 1-5 this season away from home.
Rutgers has gotten balanced scoring overall on the season, with four players between 2.2 points per game at the top of the stat sheet.
Last time out,
Mawot Mag had career-highs in both points (24) and rebounds (10) in his first career double-double at Iowa. Settling into game action after returning on December 9 following a torn ACL last February, Mag has scored in double-figures in three of his past five games. Guard
Austin Williams emerged lately and shot 6-of-8 to score 14 points against the Hawkeyes. He has shot 66.67 percent from the field since returning to game action from injury on December 23.
Clifford Omoruyi is the leading shot-blocker in the conference this year with 47 rejections. He has multiple blocks in 11 of 14 games this season and seven games of at least four blocks.
Rutgers is 7-1 at home this season, 21-7 at home over the past two seasons, 31-11 at home over the past three seasons and 49-12 at home over the past four seasons.
Indiana will enter the matchup with an 11-4 overall record and 3-1 mark in league play following a 71-65 win over Ohio State on Saturday night. IU is led by head coach Mike Woodson. A former NBA head coach with the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks, he has won 55 games in three years in his first collegiate job after spending 1996 to 2021 as a professional coach in the NBA.
Malik Reneau, who had a game-high 23 points in the win over the Buckeyes, leads the team with 16.5 points per game, a breakout campaign after averaging 6.1 points per game last year as a freshman. He has added 5.8 rebounds and 42 assists. Sophomore center Kel'el Ware, in his first season at IU after transferring from Oregon, was named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Watchlist preseason. He is second on the team at 14.8 points per game and their leading rebounder at 8.8 rpg. Reneau (59.1%) and Ware (56.1%) both rank in the top-four in the Big Ten in field goal percentage, while Ware in the top defensive rebounder in the league (7.0 drpg).
Indiana returned just one starter from last season in sixth-year senior guard Xavier Johnson, who was named Preseason Second Team All-Big Ten by Fox Sports. He has missed seven games this season but has averaged 10.1 points per game. Freshman Mackenzie Mgbako, from Gladstone, N.J. was the Big Ten Freshman of the Week last week and has averaged 9.4 points per game on the year.
Rutgers and Indiana will meet for the 17th time, with the series even at 8-8. RU has won eight of the past 10 games. A February loss at Indiana last season in the last meeting snapped a six-game winning streak for RU in the series. IU won the initial meeting between these teams in a neutral site matchup in Honolulu in 1980, then the first five games as Big Ten games. Since then, starting with RU's win in the Big Ten Tournament in New York in 2018, RU is 8-2 against IU, including four wins by double-digits.
The last time these teams met at Jersey Mike's Arena, RU claimed a 63-48 victory over No. 8 Indiana in last season's Big Ten opener, fueled by a 19-0 run in the second half in front of the home crowd.
Derek Simpson scored 14 points, all in the second half off the bench. Following the win, current RU guard
Jamichael Davis announced his commitment to the team in the locker room.
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- Rutgers would be 9-2 in the last 11 games against Indiana.
- Rutgers would claim its first win over a Big Ten team since downing Michigan in last season's Big Ten Tournament, and first regular season conference win since defeating Penn State on the road last season on February 26. It would be Rutgers' first win at Jersey Mike's Arena over a Big Ten team since February 1 of last season against Minnesota.
- Rutgers would improve to 50-12 at home over the past four seasons.
The Scarlet Knights will next play on the road on Sunday, travelling to face Michigan State. Starting with the resumption of league play with the calendar year of 2024, RU has three of its first four games on the road to kick things off, with the Indiana game at home. Following the game at MSU however, the schedule is balanced by three of the following four games coming at Jersey Mike's Arena.
