PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball wraps up a season-opening five-game homestand at Jersey Mike's Arena on Friday night, as the Scarlet Knights host Central Connecticut State. Game time is 6:30 pm.
The game will be live streamed on B1G+ with Dom Savino and Pat Boyle on the call, with Jess Buckley serving as a student reporter.
Rutgers enters the contest with a 4-0 record, looking to extend the second longest non-conference home winning streak in the Big Ten, which currently stands at 20 dating back to the 2022-23 Garden State Hardwood Classic vs. Seton Hall.
Dylan Grant had his second double-double of the season and the sophomore's career with 22 points and a career-high 11 rebounds on Tuesday against American. Grant has two 20-plus point games in the first four contests and has scored at least 10 points in every game this season.
Rutgers has scored at least 70 points in every game this season, averaging 79.3 points per game and outscoring opponents by an average margin of 15.3 points. RU is shooting 45.6% from the floor, holding foes to 37.5%, and outrebounding them by 11.0 boards per game.
Grant leads the team at 19.3 points per game. Guards
Tariq Francis (13.8 ppg) and
Jamichael Davis (10.5 ppg) follow him. Grant leads the team also, with
Emmanuel Ogbole at 7.3 rebounds and six blocks.
The Scarlet Knights average 21.0 points per game, 24
th nationally. RU gets to the charity stripe for 29.8 free throw attempts per game, 32
nd nationally.
The Blue Devils has won back-to-back NEC regular season titles under head coach Patrick Sellers, a two-time Jim Phelan NEC Coach of the Year. The team must replace six of their top seven scorers from last season, with preseason All-NEC selection Darin Smith Jr. returning to a squad picked to finish second in the league in the preseason poll behind league favorite LIU.
CCSU enters the game with a 2-2 record on the year. The Blue Devils scored a 60-59 victory over ACC foe Boston College as Darin Smith, Jr. hit a shot with three seconds to play to give Central their first win over a school in a Power 4 conference since they moved up to Division I in 1986-87. Melo Sanchez had 17 points in that contest. Smith Jr. leads the team in scoring on the year at 15.5 points per game, shooting 51.1% from the field, with Sanchez at 10.0, second on the squad.
CCSU also has a win over Division III school Vermont State – Johnson, and losses to UMass (84-77) and Quinnipiac (71-49).
CCSU is 5
th nationally with just 12.8 fouls per game committed. They also rank in the top-50 in defensive rebounding (29.75). Nico Ashley averages two blocks per game, with eight through four contests.
Rutgers and CCSU have faced off five times lifetime, all of them coming since 2015, all of them at home. The Scarlet Knights have won all five meetings. RU has won by an average of 25.4 points, with three of the five wins coming by 30-plus points. The Scarlet Knights won three straight meetings from 2015-2017, with the third coming by the closest margin of the series, a 71-67 victory in 2017. RU and CCSU then played twice in the 2022 calendar year, winning 79-48 on New Year's Day, then 83-49 early the next season in September.
Head Coach
Steve Pikiell is familiar with Central Connecticut State from throughout his life. The Scarlet Knights head coach spent his childhood around the campus as his father worked for the University for 25 years in a variety of roles. Pikiell served as an assistant coach at CCSU from 1997 to 2001.
During his tenure at CCSU, the Blue Devils notched an 81-63 (.563) record, including a 25-6 mark in 1999-2000 and a bid to the 2000 NCAA tournament. It marked the school's first NCAA berth. Coach Pikiell and CCSU head coach Patrick Sellers overlapped as assistants on the same staff at CCSU from 1999 to 2001 under longtime CCSU head coach Howie Dickenman. Fellow Rutgers staffer
Steve Hayn also served as an assistant with Pikiell during that stint at CCSU.
- Rutgers would improve to 5-0 to start the season for the first time since 2020-21.
- It would be the third time under Steve Pikiell that RU started 5-0, also done in Pikiell's first two seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18).
Following the contest against the Blue Devils, the Scarlet Knights will get on a plane on Saturday heading for Las Vegas for the Player's Era Tournament. The Scarlet Knights will have three games on the docket, starting with No. 20/17 Tennessee on Monday, then Notre Dame Tuesday and a third opponent on Wednesday.
