Rutgers men’s basketball improved to 4-0, rallying from an early 11-point deficit to defeat the American Eagles, 80-71, Tuesday evening at a sleepy Jersey Mike’s Arena. The Eagles bombarded the Scarlet
Knights early with a barrage of made three-pointers before Rutgers settled down on defense and methodically attacked the rim to climb back into the game and eventually secure the win.
The Good
Impact Transfers
Tariq Francis dropped 19 points, with Denis Badalau, and Darren Buchanan adding 10 apiece.
While Francis was only 2-for-7 from the three-point line, he remained solid at the charity stripe, making all five attempts, grabbed five rebounds, and dished four assists. Badalau shot the ball well – 4 for 8 overall and 2 of 3 on three-point tries, for 10 points total. It’s early in the season, but Badalau and Francis appear to be the best pure shooters on the squad.
Forward Darren Buchanan continued to do his best Montez Mathis impersonation: a hard-charging forward who makes up for erratic shooting by getting to the rim and drawing contact. Six of Buchanan’s ten points were from the charity stripe in a game where Rutgers needed to exert its size and physicality late to pull away with a victory.
Dylan Grant
The powerful forward continues to rack up early-season points, putting together another stellar stat sheet: 7 of 12 from the field, 7 of 9 at the free throw line, and making his only three-point attempt. Add in 11 rebounds, and he was clearly the best player on the court for either side.
The Bad
Poor Perimeter Defense Early On
American was hot early, making nine first-half three-pointers, accounting for 27 of its 33 first-half points. Rutgers obviously can’t afford these slow starts against better competition. Inserting freshman Chris Nwuli and sophomore Bryan Dortch into the lineup allowed the Knights to play with more physicality and length.
Head Coach Steve Pikiell spoke about the slow starts during his post-game press conference.
“We have to become a 40-minute team, and we’re not there yet,” Pikiell said after the win. “But in the second half our hand activity was elite. We were up to touch, we executed our coverages, and we really established the game in those first four minutes.”
It’s clear that Rutgers is making the adjustments out of halftime to win these close nonconference games against mid-majors, but moving forward, they are going to have to play complete 40-minute games to have a chance against the likes of Tennessee next week and Purdue the week after.
And the Strange…
Jersey Mike’s seemed eerily quiet again on Tuesday night, with fans not sure what to make of this team. Needless to say, a large portion of Scarlet Knight fans seem to have already written off the season, proclaiming they have no shot to compete in the Big Ten. This squad certainly seems like a Pikiell-esque group, with returning players continuing to show improvement and an effort to return to rebounding and defense. Yes, the offense will likely be a weekly work in progress, but heck, they did just put up 80 points in a game where they took only 15 3-pointers and made six. It just seems way too premature to give up on this team and punt the season.
