PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball returns to Jersey Mikes Arena on Tuesday night for the team's first home game since November 20. The Scarlet Knights will have their first Big Ten home game of the season as they host Penn State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, with a broadcast on Peacock.
Dating back to the start of the 2019-20 season, Rutgers is 72-19 at Jersey Mike's Arena. That includes a 4-0 mark to start this season and 16-5 in the last two years.
The Winter Village will return for the next two home games. RU fans will be able to enjoy a family friendly pregame event with food entertainment and programming starting three hours prior to the game.
Rutgers enters the game with a 5-4 overall record, looking to snap a three-game losing streak, all against high majors who were nationally ranked at some point this season (No. 9 Alabama, No. 20 Texas A&M, and at Ohio State, who peaked at No. 21 in the week two poll).
Rutgers has scored at least 66 points in every game this season, reaching 75 points seven times, and average 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.
The team is led by a duo of top freshmen. Guard
Dylan Harper remains third nationally at 23.3 points per game, while
Ace Bailey's 17.9 points per game is sixth in the Big Ten. A freshman also leads the team in blocks (
Lathan Sommerville, 9). That trio of freshmen also represent three of the top four rebounders on the team, while Bailey pacing the squad at 6.0.
Penn State enters the game with an 8-1 record, most recently winning its conference opener with an 81-70 victory over No. 8 Purdue. The lone loss came in a neutral site game against Clemson, with PSU also picking up a win over ACC foe Virginia Tech.
Penn State is third nationally in field goal percentage (51.9%), fourth in scoring offense (90.1 ppg), fourth in steals (11.1), sixth in turnovers forced (18.0), ninth in scoring margin (22.3) and 15
th in assists per game (18.4).
Ace Baldwin, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, leads the Nittany Lion at 15.1 points per game and has 73 assists and 19 steals. He is fourth in the nation in assists per game (8.1). Yanic Konan Niederhauser, a Swiss native and transfer from Northern Illinois, has posted 13.3 points per game and a team-high 6.0 rebounds, shooting 69.2 percent from the field (seventh nationally).
Penn State leads the all-time series, 45-37, against Rutgers. RU has won three of the past four games in the series and are 7-9 against the Nittany Lions as conference foes since joining the Big Ten in 2015. The 37 wins over PSU is the fourth most wins for the program against any one foe, and most over any Big Ten team (behind just Lehigh, Lafayette and Princeton). The teams played just once last season, a 61-46 Penn State win in February at Jersey Mike's Arena. Since 2015, RU is 4-4 against Penn State in home games.
- Four wins in the past five games against PSU
- 38
th all-time win against Penn State
- Win the Big Ten home opener for the fifth time in the past six years.
Rutgers remains home for the Garden State Hardwood Classic on Saturday. Game time against Seton Hall is 3 pm.
