It has been a difficult season for head coach Steve Pikiell and the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers fell to Washington on Tuesday in a hard-fought contest that saw the offense shoot poorly from the start. This brought the team’s Big Ten record to 4-13. Of the four win, two of them came in back-to-back game less than two weeks ago.
The Scarlet Knights are preparing to hit the road for two games against Maryland and Michigan State coming up. Pikiell wants Rutgers to find a spark like it did during that mini
two-game win streak.
“We want to take the next step, like we did a couple of weeks ago,” Pikiell said following the loss to Washington. “We were defending well and connected as a team. We need to get back to that. We’re young, and while some players are improving, we must be more consistent in our play, defense, and scoring.”
Rutgers last victory over Maryland on Feb. 15 ended a seven-game losing streak. This included an overtime loss to Michigan State in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knights get another chance to end a bit of a skid against a lowly Maryland team, but to do this, the team needs to convert on both ends of the floor — which did not happen consistently against Washington.
“We had many makeable shots, especially in the first half, and we need to convert those,” Pikiell said. “Our defense has to step up as well; allowing 79 points is too much.”
“We had opportunities to cut the lead but missed a couple of fast-break layups. We need to play better and convert the makeable shots. Defensively, our guys have shown improvement.“
Rutgers will close the season at home against Penn State after these two road contests and before entering the Big Ten Tournament. As a young team, it is common to show signs of inconsistent play. At this point of the year, Pikiell hopes that his team has one final spark to end the year.
