Men’s Basketball Hosts Penn State on Senior Day Sunday

Sunday, March 8

Piscataway, N.J.

12 PM

Rutgers University

Penn State

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Photo by: Dakota Moyer

Men’s Basketball Hosts Penn State on Senior Day Sunday

Mar 06 | Men's Basketball

Watch on BTN Live Stats Rutgers Game Notes Penn State Game Notes

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball is set for the regular season finale this Sunday at Jersey Mike's Arena. Game time is noon, with a Big Ten Network telecast, with Jason Horowitz and Jordan Taylor on the call.

Senior Day

Rutgers will hold its Senior Day ceremony pregame. RU will honor one student-athlete, center Emmanuel Ogbole. Ogbole has played in 63 career games, making 41 starts at center, including starting 26 out of 30 games this season. He is a career 56.5% shooter from the field, posting 3.5 points and 3.6 rebounds for his career with 49 blocks. Ogbole is coming off a strong game with 13 points and six rebounds last time out against Michigan State.

Rutgers will also honor five senior student managers for their contributions to the program. The five who will be honored are Jack Reicheg (a Sport Management major from Princeton, NJ), Richard Wu (a Packaging Engineering major from Woodbridge, NJ), Andrew Taffe (a Sport Management major from New City, NY), Tim Ziemba (a Supply Chain Management major from Mount Laurel, NJ) and Hailen Arp (a Sport Management major from Highland Park, NJ).

About Rutgers

The Scarlet Knights are coming off a great effort on the road, cutting a 19-point second half deficit to one possession late in a 91-87 loss to No. 8/8 Michigan State. Overall, RU stands at 12-18 overall and 5-14 in league play with one game to play.

Three freshmen had key outputs for RU in that last game. Lino Mark had 14 points, shooting 6-of-11 from the field. He added four assists. Mark has scored in double-digits in five of their past seven games with two games posting 18 points. He has made 25 of his past 41 shots dating back to the first game against Penn State on February 18 (61%).

Fellow freshman Kaden Powers joined him in double-figure scoring with 11 points, stroking three three-pointers in just 15 minutes. Chris Nwuli, a freshman forward, had a career-high six points.

Tariq Francis had 25 points at MSU, matching his season-high with four three-pointers. It was his sixth game this season with 25+ points, and he leads RU with 16.9 points per game.

Francis has excelled at the charity stripe this season, with one of the top free throw seasons in RU history. After his 5-for-5 performance at MSU, he's at 90.8%. He has made 19 straight free throws across his last three games and also 55 of his last 58 dating back to January 27 (94.8%). His percentage is best in the Big Ten and ninth nationally.

Checking the Record Book

Most Free Throws Made in A Single Season at Rutgers
4. Bob Lloyd (1965-66) 161
5. John Somogyi (1971-72) 150
6. Quincy Douby (2005-06) 149
Phil Sellers (1974-75) 149
8. Phil Sellers (1975-76) 148
Phil Sellers (1973-74) 148
10. Larry Gordon (1953-54) 146
11. Keith Hughes (1990-91) 144
12. Tariq Francis (2025-26) 139

Best Single Season Free Throw Percentage at Rutgers
1. Steve Kaplan (1969-70) .927
2. Bob Lloyd (1966-67) .921
3. Tariq Francis (2025-26) .908
4. Geoff Billet (1995-96) .900

About Penn State

The Nittany Lions are 12-18 overall and 3-16 in league play after surrendering 94 points to Ohio State in a 32-point loss Wednesday night. Penn State opened the year 8-1, but then lost 16 of their next 19 games prior to an upset victory over Iowa last Saturday. Senior Josh Reed posted a career-high 25 points in the win over the Hawkeyes. Reed also scored 22 points against Rutgers in the prior matchup, with 19 double-digit scoring games this season overall for the Cincinnati transfer, who had just seven such games in three years and 97 games played as a Bearcat.

Shortly behind him in scoring is Kayden Mingo. A consensus top-40 recruit nationally and the highest-ranked recruit in Penn State basketball history, Mingo is at 13.7 points per game and is first in the Big Ten at 2.12 steals per game.

Freddie Dillone leads the team at 14.0 points per game, shooting 47.1% from the field. Dillone is a Tennessee transfer in his second year as a Nittany Lion after being originally a midyear enrollee at UT who transferred, then saw action in three NCAA Tournament games in 2023-24 as the Vols advanced to the Elite Eight. Last season, he averaged 9.4 points, and this year leads the team in scoring at 14.4 ppg.

Penn State's leading rebounder, Ivan Juric, is at just 5.2 boards per game. Defensively, PSU allows a field goal percentage of 58.8%, ranking in the bottom-10 nationally, surrendering 79.6 points per game which is last in the league, while rebounding just 28.97 boards per game, also last in the conference.

About the Series

Rutgers has 39 wins all-time against Penn State and has won five of the past seven meetings. PSU leads 45-39 all-time, with a slim 10-9 advantage since RU joined the Big Ten. The 39 wins over PSU is the fourth most wins for the program against any one foe, and most over any Big Ten team (behind just Lehigh, Lafayette and Princeton).

Last month, on February 18, Rutgers earned an 85-72 road win at the Bryce Jordan Center. Rutgers took command of the game from the outset, opening on a 9-0 run, leading 39-20 at halftime and never trailing in the wire-to-wire win. Tariq Francis had a game-high 22 points as Rutgers shot 56.6% from the field and 20-of-23 (87%) at the free throw line.

In the last meeting at Jersey Mike's Arena, RU won last season 80-76 as Dylan Harper (24 points, 11 rebounds) and Ace Bailey (15 points, 15 rebounds) had double-doubles in that game.

Up Next

The Big Ten Tournament starts on Tuesday in Chicago. Final standings on Sunday will determine RU's start date on path, with Rutgers looking for a win to help secure a top-14 seed and bypassing Tuesday's games.

Rutgers enters the weekend tied for that 14^th spot with Northwestern at 5-14. A Rutgers win or a Northwestern loss will place the Scarlet Knights in the 14 seed and avoiding a Tuesday game.