PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball will play its first true road game of the season this weekend in the Big Ten road opener. The Scarlet Knights head to Ann Arbor to play No. 3/2 Michigan at the Crisler Center, a 12,707 seat venue that is sold out in advance of the contest. The game is schedule for a 4:08 pm tipoff and will be nationally televised on Big Ten Network with Jason Horowitz and Shon Morris on the call.
 

About Rutgers

Rutgers enters the game with a 5-4 overall record and an 0-1 start to conference play after an 81-65 decision against top-ranked Purdue on Tuesday night. The Scarlet Knights recently returned from the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, where they closed the trip with an 80-65 win over UNLV. They have won by double-digits this season in four of their five victories, also doing so in wins over Maine, Lehigh and Rider, and earning a nine-point victory over American.

Rutgers utilized a deep rotation in the opening conference game against Purdue, with 13 players seeing game action. Of those, 10 of them played at least 12 minutes, and seven played at least 17 minutes.

Freshman Harun Zrno led RU with 13 points, all in the second half, after recently posting 14 in the Players Era against No. 16 Tennessee. The Scarlet Knights saw five freshman play at least 25% of the minutes in the second half of the contest, with six RU freshmen playing in their first collegiate conference game. Freshman Kaden Powers scored his first collegiate field goal and had a career-high in points

Dylan Grant also posted 11 points in the second half against Purdue and has scored double-digits in eight of nine games this year. The forward maintains the team lead at 15.3 points per game. Tariq Francis is the lone other Scarlet Knight averaging in double-figure scoring at 12.1 ppg, and shoots 96.2 percent at the free throw line, second in the Big Ten. Darren Buchanan Jr. made his first start as a Scarlet Knight in the Purdue game, and averages 8.6 points on the year.
 

About Michigan

Michigan is coached by Dusty May, a Final Four coach at FAU who boasts a 94-23 record (a winning percentage of 80.3%) across his past four seasons, having made three straight NCAA Tournaments. UM soared up the rankings this week, coming in as the top team in the nation at KenPom, No. 2 in the Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the AP Poll. The Wolverines are 7-0 with wins over five wins over top-55 KenPom foes, and have won the last four games by at least 25 points. The Wolverines were also in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival and won the championship, winning by 30, 40 and 40 points over San Diego State, No. 21 Auburn and No. 12 Gonzaga. Michigan's back-to-back 30-plus–point victories over ranked opponents mark the first time in college basketball history that feat has been achieved.

Yaxel Lendeborg is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week and USBWA's Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week after he averaged 17.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.3 blocks, shooting 63.0 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from three across the Players Era Festival. He was a Preseason All-American (Second Team) per the Sporting News. On the year, the native of Pennsauken, N.J. (63 miles south of Rutgers) leads the team at 16.0 points per game with 7.6 rebounds.

Morez Johnson Jr. transferred to Michigan from Illinois for his sophomore season. He is second on the squad at 13.1 points per game and averages 6.6 rebounds, shooting 66.1% from the field (13^th nationally).

Aday Mara transferred to Michigan from UCLA, where he played in 61 games across the past two years. He leads the team with 8.7 rebounds per game and 19 blocks.

Overall, the Wolverines have six players averaging 9.9 or more points per game, with Mara (10.1) joining Lendeborg, Johnson, Gayle Jr. (11.3), freshman Trey McKenney (11.0) and Nimari Burnett (9.9).

The Wolverines as a team rank in the top-10 nationally in field goal percentage defense (first, 34.4), defensive rebounds (34.86), rebounds (third, 46.57), rebound margin (fifth, 13.0), scoring margin (sixth, 26.1), assists (seventh, 20.3), blocks (ninth, 6.1) and scoring offense, 10^th, 93.7). UM leads the Big Ten in seven total stat categories and have topped 40 rebounds in every game this season.
 

About the Series

Michigan leads the all-time series 18-4. RU has won four of the past eight games in the series. The Scarlet Knights claimed a 75-67 home win on Jan. 4, 2022. RU then won three straight in the series. On March 9, 2023, the Scarlet Knights won a 62-50 neutral site game at the Big Ten Tournament inside the United Center in Chicago.

RU then swept a pair of meetings in February of 2024, winning 69-59 on Feb. 3, 2024 for the program's lone ever win at the Crisler Center. Then RU returned home for a 30-point win, 82-52. Michigan has won the last two games in the series, winning a pair of one-possession games last season. This marks the first time since the expanded-regular season schedule in 2017 that the two teams will meet as part of the early pair of league games in December.
 

About the Schedule

Rutgers faces No. 3/2 Michigan coming off a game Tuesday night where RU hosted No. 1/1 Purdue.

• This represents the toughest back-to-back games based on opponent rankings for Rutgers since the 2008-09 season, when Rutgers played at No. 1 UNC on December 28, then faced No. 3 Pittsburgh on December 31 and were at No. 2 UConn on January 3 for three straight games against top-3 foes. 
  • Rutgers also previously faced two top-3 teams in a 4-game span in 1992-93 (No. 1 Duke on December 12, 1992 and No. 3 Kentucky on December 28 with two  games in between.
• It is the first time that RU faces back-to-back top-10 foes since the 2011-12 season (February 19, 2012 vs. No. 2 Syracuse and February 22, 2012 at No. 10 Marquette).
• This will be just the third time that RU faces two top-2 teams in the same season
  • In 1989-90 RU faced No. 1 Syracuse and No. 1 Missouri
  • In 2008-2009 RU faced No. 1 UNC and No. 2 UConn

 

With a Win

• Rutgers' second ever win at the Crisler Center
• Four wins in the past six games against the Wolverines and five wins over the past nine games
• First ranked win this season
• 18^th ranked win under Steve Pikiell
• 16^th ranked win over a Big Ten team under Steve Pikiell
• Sixth top-10 win under Steve Pikiell
• 51^st ranked win since 1974
• Third win over a top-3 team under head coach Steve Pikiell (previously No. 1 Purdue, twice)

 

Up Next

Rutgers has a week off before the next game, staying in-state to play rival Seton Hall. This year's edition of the Garden State Hardwood Classic is on Saturday, December 13 at the Prudential Center in Newark, with an 8 pm tipoff time on FS1. Following that, RU has four straight at Jersey Mike's Arena (Penn – Dec. 20, Delaware State – Dec. 29, Ohio State – Jan. 2, Oregon – Jan. 5).