PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball will ride a four-game winning streak into a Sunday night contest at Minnesota. The game at Williams Arena will be at 6:30 pm on Big Ten Network.
Rutgers has revitalized their season with a current four game winning streak, vaulting the Scarlet Knights up the conference standings and improving their postseason positioning. RU is on its first four-game winning streak in conference play since February of 2022. The streak marks the first time in program history that RU has won at least three straight conference games, with at least two of them coming on the road and at least one ranked win.
The streak has coincided with the season debuts of
Jeremiah Williams and
Emmanuel Ogbole, who are both 4-0 in games they have been active for. Williams, who became the third ever Scarlet Knight ever to win the Big Ten Player of the Week award, has scored in double-figures in all four games. Williams leads the
team over the past four games at 14.3 points per game, with 16 assists (4.0 per game) and 5.3 rebounds.
In that stretch, RU has held all four opponents to 60 points or fewer. It marked the first time that Rutgers held four straight Big Ten opponents to 60 points or fewer since joining the league. The defense has held opponents to 57.0 points per game in that streak, limiting foes to 38.5% shooting and just 7.5 assists per game. Rutgers has outscored its opponents by an average of 9.5 points per game over the last four games.
The Scarlet Knights are coming off a comeback victory on Thursday night, overcoming a 13-point deficit to Northwestern for a 63-60 victory. RU held the Wildcats to just one field goal in the final 9:44 of the game, holding the Wildcats to its lowest output in a Big Ten game this year. Grad forward
Aundre Hyatt hit a three-pointer with 56 seconds remaining in the game to give RU a three-point lead. Junior guard
Jeremiah Williams sunk a floater which held as the game-winning shot on RU's final possession to secure the win.
Rutgers is 4-0 since the return of
Jeremiah Williams and
Emmanuel Ogbole to the lineup. Per Bart Torvik, the Scarlet Knights have been playing like the 19
th best team in the country since February 2
nd, and third in the Big Ten in that span, just behind Purdue and Illinois.
The Scarlet Knights are currently ninth in the nation and leading the Big Ten in blocks per game (5.5 bpg). That is buoyed by Cliff Omoruyi, who improved to second nationally at 3.29 blocks per game after a five-block performance in the win over Northwestern. Omoruyi has 13 blocks in the last two games, has five games this year with at least four blocks, and has 4.3 blocks per game in the four-game winning streak.
Rutgers' defense is second in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency (89.8) and non-steal turnover percentage (11.3) and fourth in block percentage (15.9). RU is 11
th in the country and first in the league in field goal percentage defense (39.4%) and also first in the league in three-point percentage defense (30.6%) and second in the Big Ten in scoring defense (64.8). Rutgers stands at 13-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or fewer and are 10-0 when holding opponents to 60 points or fewer.
Minnesota enters the matchup at 15-9 overall and 6-7 in the Big Ten. The Gophers started the year with a 12-3 mark after beginning the year 3-1 in league play. Since January 12, UM is 3-6, following back-to-back losses against Iowa and Purdue.
The Gophers are led by second-year head coach Ben Johnson, who was 9-22 last year in his debut campaign. Minnesota is seventh in the nation with 18.4 assists per game, with Howard transfer Elijah Hawkins leading the nation at 7.6 assists per game.
Dawson Garcia leads the team at 17.6 points per game and with 6.4 rebounds. Freshman started Cam Christie averages 11.3 points while Mike Mitchell Jr. has 10.5 points.
Rutgers is 7-10 all-time against Minnesota and have won five of the last seven games against the Gophers. Both the losses in that seven game-span have come at Williams Arena, with the last win at Minnesota coming in 2021. After Minnesota started the series, which had just two games in the 1970s prior to Rutgers joining the Big Ten, with a 7-1 mark, RU is 9-3 since then.
Last season, the teams split a pair of matchups. In the trip to Minnesota last March, despite 23 points from Cliff Omoruyi, Minnesota rallied back from a 10-point deficit with 1:15 remaining. That game came after a meeting at Jersey Mike's Arena where the Scarlet Knights romped Minnesota, 90-55, in a game that stands as the highest ever margin of victory for RU in a Big Ten Conference game.
Cliff Omoruyi needs four blocks to tie Herve Lamizana's 2002-03 season for seventh most blocks in a season by a RU player. Omoruyi needs two points to pass Doug Patton for 25
th all-time at RU in scoring.
- Second five-game winning streak of the season (previously Nov. 10-27).
- First time ever winning five straight Big Ten Conference games.
- First five-game winning streak in conference play since 1990-91 in the Atlantic-10 (Jan. 17-28 over George Washington, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Penn State and Temple).
- First time winning five-straight conference games, with at least three games on the road, since the 1988-89 season.
- First time with multiple five-game winning streaks in the same season since 2016-17.
- Six wins in the last eight meetings with Minnesota and 10 in the last 13.
Rutgers remains on the road for the next contest, traveling to face No. 2 Purdue. The Thursday night contest at Mackey Arena tips at 7 pm on FS1. RU then returns home to host Maryland and Michigan.
