PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The postseason begins this week for Rutgers' men's basketball. The Scarlet Knights earned the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. RU heads to Indianapolis, where the tournament will take place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
RU's First Round game comes against No. 14 seed USC. The game, projected for roughly a 9 p.m. start following the initial two games of the day, will be broadcast on Peacock. Paul Burmeister and Robbie Hummel will be on the call with Nicole Auerbach reporting on the sidelines.
Rutgers finished the regular season with a 15-16 record overall and were 8-12 in Big Ten play. Rutgers was 3-2 in the last five games of the regular season, with one of the losses coming on a buzzer-beating shot by Michigan. Rutgers will head to Indianapolis with a 1-4 record at neutral sites this year (1-2 record in Las Vegas, and losses at the Prudential Center and Madison Square Garden).
The Scarlet Knights closed out the regular season on Sunday afternoon with a 75-67 overtime victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers. RU began the day with Senior Day festivities for
PJ Hayes IV,
Tyson Acuff and
Zach Martini. The team closed it out with 10 of its 14 points in the extra session coming from freshmen to secure the win.
Freshman
Dylan Harper had a game-high 22 points against the Gophers, his 19
th 20-plus point scoring game of the season. Harper finished fourth in the conference with 19.2 points per game. Fellow freshman
Ace Bailey was seventh in the league at 17.6 points per game. Bailey was third in the league with 6.8 field goals made per game, with Harper just behind him at 6.6. Following the regular season, Harper was fourth among all the nation's true freshmen scorers, with Bailey sixth.
Dylan Harper, with 537 points on the season, has the most points for any Scarlet Knight since Quincy Douby scored 839 points in his final Scarlet Knights' campaign in 2005-06.
Freshman
Lathan Sommerville has excelled at the free throw line this season, shooting 86.7% overall (78-of-90). He has made his last 26 attempts at the charity stripe dating back to Feb. 16. Sommerville's mark would currently be the 11
th best free throw percentage in a single season in Rutgers history and the best by a RU player in the Big Ten era (since Myles Mack in 2013-14). It would be the best free throw percentage by a first-year Scarlet Knight since Keith Hughes in 1989-90.
Rutgers ranks 222
nd in the nation per KenPom's 'D-1 Experience' metric. That is the second least experience of all Big Ten programs (only ahead of Illinois).
RU, who has never averaged more than 69 points per game under head coach
Steve Pikiell is averaging 76.6 points per game this season. Rutgers has averaged 76 points per game just 16 times in the school's 111-year history (and not since 1992-92). The last time RU averaged over 70 points per game was 2013-14 (71.1 ppg). RU has averaged over 70 points per game for a full season just that one time since the start of the 2001-02 season.
Dylan Harper took over the Rutgers' all-time freshman scoring record against Minnesota. With 537 points, he passed Mike Rosario's 2008-09 season for the most points ever by a RU true freshman.
Ace Bailey has 510 points on the year, and is third on the list, just shy of Rosario's 517 points for second.
A number of Rutgers players are looking to put their name onto RU's all-time single-season stat leaderboards.
Single Season Free Throw Percentage (Min. 75 Attempts)
8. Bob Lloyd (1964-65) .876
9. Keith Hughes (1989-90) .874
10. Steve Kaplan (1971-72) .871
11. Lathan Sommerville: .867
12. Steve Kaplan (1970-71) .864
13. Myles Mack (2014-15) .858
14. Al Karner (1994-95) .853
15. John Somogyi (1972-73) .850
16. Rob Hodgson (1996-97) .847
17. Quincy Douby (2005-06) .8465
Scoring Leaders
16. Steve Worthy (1991-92) 583
17. James Bailey (1978-79) 554
18. Mike Dabney (1974-75) 541
19. Dylan Harper: 537
20. Mike Rosario (2009-10) 534
21. Bob Greacen (1968-69) 532
Ace Bailey: 510
Free Throws Made
13. Keith Hughes (1989-90) 130
14. Eric Riggins (1985-86) 129
John Battle (1984-85) 129
Kelvin Troy (1980-81) 129
17. Kevin Black (1982-83) 127
Bob Lloyd (1964-65) 127
Doug Patton (1959-60) 127
20. Dahntay Jones (1999-00) 124
Dylan Harper: 118
Assist Leaders
16. Mark Conlin (1976-77) 129
17. Mike Coburn (2010-11) 127
18. Geo Baker (2018-19) 126
19. Mike Sherrod (2001-02) 125
Steve Brown (1985-86) 125
21. Anthony Farmer (2005-06) 124
Dylan Harper: 109
USC finished the season with a 15-16 overall record and 7-13 conference mark in its first season in the Big Ten, earning the No. 14 seed. The Trojans stood at 13-8 overall and 5-5 in league play on Feb. 1 after defeating eventual league champion Michigan State. However, the Trojans went 2-8 down the stretch, including just one win (over last place team Washington) in their last seven games since Feb. 15.
Offensively, USC ranks third in the Big Ten in field goal percentage (48.2%) and fifth in three-point percentage (36.8%). The Trojans do not go deep into their bench, with just 19.68 of their 76.4 points per game coming off the bench. The trio of Saint Thomas, Desmond Claude and Chibuzo Agbo are all top-15 in the conference in minutes per game.
Desmond Claude, who scored 30 points on 12-of-21 shooting in the first matchup against RU, leads the team at 15.8 points per game. Claude is ninth in the Big Ten at 4.2 assists per game, while Saint Thomas is 10
th at 4.1, the only team in the league with two top-10 players in assists.
Wesley Yates, who posted 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting against Rutgers in February, trails him at 13.8 ppg. Chibuzo Agbo is sixth in the league at 2.26 three-pointers per game.
Rutgers and USC have played three times in school history. 17 days prior to the upcoming meeting, RU earned a 95-85 win over the Trojans at Jersey Mike's Arena.
Dylan Harper led the way in that contest with 25 points, nine assists and six steals, the first player in the nation to reach that statline this season.
The previous two meetings came in 1973 and 1974, both at neutral sites, and both won by USC. The Trojans won 82-81 in 1973 and 81-66 in 1974. USC was ranked 14
th nationally in the 1973 meeting, which came at the All-College Tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and sixth nationally in the 1974 matchup, which was at the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
Rutgers is 5-9 all-time at the Big Ten Tournament since joining the league in 2015. The game marks the seventh time that RU has played on the opening Wednesday of the Big Ten Tournament, with a 2-4 mark in the tournament's First Round.
The way that the tournament bracket sets up for Rutgers, if the team is to continue to advance in the bracket, Rutgers' next two games would come against team's earning byes and in the national rankings. RU is on the track for the team to play the latest game of the session each day.
Purdue earned the No. 6 seed and a single-bye with a 21-10 overall record and 13-7 conference record. The Boilermakers slid down the league standings after starting 11-2 with a 2-5 mark down the stretch, but earned a 100-71 victory over the Scarlet Knights on March 4 and feature First All-American candidate Braden Smith.
Michigan (22-9, 14-6 Big Ten) garnered the No. 3 seed in the tournament and the accompanying double-bye for the third time. After winning just three Big Ten games last season, head coach Dusty May led the Wolverines to 14 this year, the most in program history for a first-year head coach. Both matchups between RU and Michigan this season were decided by one possession. Michigan won 66-63 on Feb. 1 in Piscataway, then prevailed on a buzzer-beater in Ann Arbor four weeks later.
