PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball resumes Big Ten play to open the 2025 calendar year. The Scarlet Knights head to Assembly Hall to take on Indiana on Thursday, January 2. The game will be broadcast by Peacock.
Rutgers had a resounding performance in a 91-point outburst for a victory over Columbia in the non-conference finale. The team posted season-highs in field goals (36), assists (26) and had a season-low four turnovers. 10 different Scarlet Knights scored in the win.
Dylan Harper posted a historic triple-double with 16 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. It was the first triple-double for a RU player since Roy Hinson in 1983. Harper joined Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox (2016-17) as one of just two Division I freshmen over the last 15 years with a 35-point game and a triple-double in the same season.
Ace Bailey matched his career-high with 24 points on 11 made shots.
Jamichael Davis had a season-high 11 points and career-high seven assists.
Harper is fourth in the nation in scoring at 22.8 points per game and first among freshmen.
Ace Bailey is third among freshmen at 18.2 points per game. Rutgers is the only team in the country with two freshmen among the top 500 scorers in the nation (RU has Harper at 4 and Bailey at 64, the next best is Illinois with players at 159 and 540). Rutgers also has the top freshmen scorer among both men's basketball (Harper) and women's basketball (Kyomi McMiller, 20.4 points per game).
Rutgers has scored at least 66 points in every game this season, reaching 75 points nine times, 80 or more points six times, and averaging 79.7 points per game this season. Rutgers has never averaged more than 69 points per game under head coach
Steve Pikiell. The last time RU averaged over 70 points per game was 2013-14 (71.1 ppg). In fact, RU has averaged over 70 points per game for a full season just that one time since the start of the 2001-02 season.
Rutgers has reached 90+ points three times this season (Columbia, Monmouth and Alabama), the first time having three 90+ point games in the same season since the 2018-19 campaign.
Indiana stands at 10-3 overall and 1-1 in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers are 9-0 at home this season and are 36-7 in home games over the past three seasons. Head coach Mike Woodson is 73-43 in his fourth year at the helm.
Malik Reneau leads the team with 15.0 points per game. Gladstone, N.J. native Mackenze Mgbako has contributed 13.5 points per game. Former Gonzaga and Arizona center Oumar Ballo leads the team with 9.2 rebounds per game (third in the Big Ten), 21 blocks and is at 12.4 points per game.
Rutgers and Indiana will meet for the 18th time, with RU leading the series at 9-8. RU has won nine of the past 11 games.
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 foes. Since then, starting with RU's win in the Big Ten Tournament in New York in 2018, RU is 9-2 against IU, including four wins by double-digits.
Rutgers won the lone meeting last season, defeating IU 66-57 in a home game where RU had five players in double-digit scoring and a +11 rebounding margin. Rutgers' last win in Bloomington came on March 2, 2023, when Ron Harper Jr. drilled a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining to claim the victory.
- 10-2 in last 12 games against Indiana
- 3-1 in last four games in Bloomington
- Steve Pikiell would be 4-1 against IU head coach Mike Woodson
- Starting Big Ten play with a 2-1 record for the fifth time in the past six seasons
Rutgers returns home for its next three games: Wisconsin (Jan. 6), No. 20/22 Purdue (Jan. 9) and No. 15/18 UCLA (Jan. 13). The team plays seven straight games against teams that are ranked or receiving votes in this week's polls.
