PISCATAWAY, N.J. – It is a new season for Rutgers men's basketball, with postseason play starting. The Scarlet Knights will head to Minneapolis this week for the Big Ten Tournament, hosted at the Target Center, home of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rutgers finished as the No.13 seed and will face No. 12 seed Maryland in the opening round on Wednesday. The game will be at 6:30 p.m. with a broadcast on Peacock. With a victory, the Scarlet Knights will advance to play No. 5 seed Wisconsin in game four of the tournament, which would be on BTN Thursday afternoon, 25 minutes after the conclusion of the day's opening game, which tips at noon, projecting RU's potential second game for approximately a 2:30 start on Thursday. The winner of the game against No. 5 seed Wisconsin would be slated to face No. 4 seed Northwestern on Friday afternoon.
Rutgers enters the Big Ten Tournament with a 15-16 overall record and concluded the 20-game Big Ten slate with a 7-13 record. The Scarlet Knights are looking to snap a three-game slide to finish the
regular season following a 30-point win over Michigan on February 29.
At the conclusion of the regular season,
Jeremiah Williams, through his 11 games played, led RU in scoring. His 12.6 points per game topped three players to finish in double-digit scoring, followed by
Clifford Omoruyi (10.7) and
Aundre Hyatt (10.4).
The Scarlet Knights stand fourth nationally in defensive efficiency (92.0) and fifth in block percentage (15.2) Rutgers saw a balanced minutes distribution, with seven players seeing between 20 and 27 minutes per game. The Scarlet Knights are in the top-30 nationally in blocks, field goal percentage defense, turnover margin and turnovers forced.
Clifford Omoruyi enters the Big Ten Tournament with 928 rebounds. He needs 14 rebounds to catch Swede Sundstrom (942) for 3
rd place all-time in RU history.
Omoruyi is also 22
nd all-time at RU in points (1,249), and eight away from tying Keith Hughes (1,257) for 21
st, while his 505 career field goals are 18
th, seven behind Ricky Shields (512).
Omoruyi enters the postseason with 91 blocks this season. Hamady Ndiaye's 2007-08 season with 93 blocks stands sixth, while James Bailey (75-76) and Chuck Weiler (91-92) are tied for fourth with 94 blocks in a season.
Last season, Trayce Jackson-Davis led the Big Ten with 92 blocks. With two more rejections this season, Omoruyi will have the most blocks of any Big Ten player since Jaren Jackson's 106 in 2018.
- Sixth All-Time Big Ten Tournament win (6-8 in Big Ten Tournament History)
- Third time in the past four years with a Big Ten Tournament Win
- Six wins in the past nine meetings with Maryland
Rutgers is 5-8 all-time at the Big Ten Tournament since joining the league in 2015. Last season, Rutgers won its opening game against No. 8 seed Michigan before falling to top-seeded Purdue. This will be the second time that RU has played in the 12-13 game, the previous coming in 2019 when 12-seed Rutgers fell to 13-seed Nebraska in Chicago. This will be the sixth time that RU has played on the opening Wednesday of the Big Ten Tournament, and first since that 2019 game. RU is 2-3 in the tournament's first round.
Maryland holds a 15-16 record in head coach Kevin Willard's second season in College Park, and also went 7-13 in league play. The Terps opened the season 9-4 through non-conference play and were 13-8 after opening league play 5-5, but since the beginning of February, finished the year 2-8 in their last 10 games. UM enters the tournament having dropped three straight and five of their past six games.
Maryland is led by Jahmir Young, who finished third in the Big Ten at 20.8 points per game. Young was also second in the league in free throw percentage (90.7%) and top-12 in both assists and steals. Julian Reese was third in the league with 9.7 rebounds per game and fourth at 1.87 blocks per game.
Rutgers and Maryland played twice this season, with the home team winning each time. Maryland won the last meeting between the schools, 63-46 at Jersey Mike's Arena on February 25. Rutgers claimed a 56-53 road win on February 6 in College Park. All-time, the two schools have met up 22 times, with the Terps holding a 14-8 advantage. Since March of 2020, Rutgers has won five of the past eight meetings. This will be the first time that the league's two Eastern Seaboard schools will meet in the Big Ten Tournament.
The way that the tournament bracket sets up for Rutgers, if the team is to continue to advance in the bracket, their first three meetings would be against schools that RU has already beaten on the season, starting with the Maryland matchup.
No. 5 seed Wisconsin awaits the winner of Wednesday's game. Rutgers dominated the Badgers at home on February 10, claiming a 78-56 win.
No. 4 Northwestern earned a double-bye and would be waiting in Friday's Quarterfinals. The Scarlet Knights downed the Wildcats, 63-60, in a home game on February 15.
It would not be until the semifinals, where Rutgers would theoretically face one of Purdue/Minnesota/Michigan State, that they would meet a team they haven't yet defeated this year. Purdue is the only one of that trio that RU faced twice this year, with neither Minnesota or Michigan State making trips to Jersey Mike's Arena this season.
