Rutgers Men’s Basketball Drops Third in a Row
It might be early January, but the losses are starting to mount for Rutgers men’s basketball. The Scarlet Knights dropped their third in a row, 68-50 to No. 20 ranked Purdue at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Thursday. It was the second straight loss at home for Rutgers.
Most problematic, it was another rough night on the glass for Freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Harper, who has been battling an illness all week, was held to six points on 2-of-9 shooting. Bailey, who led Rutgers with 17 points, Thursday, hit on only five shots on 15 attempts.
“It has been a journey,” Head Coach Steve Pikiell said on Harper’s health. “He practiced yesterday so that was the first good practice that he has had. It is a work in progress. He is tough but we will get him back. He has not practiced in Seven days so it can be tough. Hopefully, he will continue to feel more like himself in the weeks ahead.”
In two games since sitting out the Indiana game, Haprer has taken only 11 shots, connecting on two of them. The one good sign is he saw his minutes increase from 15 minutes against Wisconsin on Monday to 28 minutes on Thursday.
As has become commonplace of late, Rutgers fell behind early, falling into a nine-point hole seemingly for the entire first half, a hole they never got out of as they trailed at the break 33-24.
It didn’t get better in the second half, as Rutgers struggled on the glass as Harper, Baile,y, and Lathan Summerville all missed key shots that could have brought the Scarlet Knights back into the game. Before too long, Raleigh Burgess and C.J. Cox connected on buckets to give Purdue a 12-point lead, 40-28 a little over four minutes into the second half.
Trey Kaufman-Renn soon took over, finishing the night with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting for the Boilermakers.
“We don’t have time to figure it out, but we gotta figure it out quickly,” Pikiell added. “This is a great league with terrific teams. We gotta show up and win the game.”
Asked if he was worried at all about his team missing the NCAA Tournament, Pikiell tried to sidestep the question.
“I do not worry about that,” he said. “I worry about UCLA that we are playing next week. There is a lot of basketball season left, we need to focus on working on that. I have been on both ends of the decision spectrum in terms of the Big 10 Tournament. We were the last ones in one year and the first ones out the next. This is an unbelievable league with many opportunities left so we have to focus on that for now.”
Rutgers will try to right the ship rather quickly on Monday night when they welcome UCLA for the first time ever into Jersey Mike’s Arena. At 8-8 on the year and 1-4 in the Big Ten, Monday night might be in the eyes of many, a must-win.
