Rutgers not hitting panic button after third straight loss

Jacob Young shrugged off notion of downward spiral, insisting Rutgers would trend upward again after loss to Ohio State. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

For the second time in five days, Rutgers found itself overmatched against a physical team. Normally a cause for concern in most other programs, this is just another day in the Big Ten office.

On the heels of a demoralizing road loss to Michigan State Tuesday night, Rutgers returned home to the RAC with revenge on its mind against Ohio State, who handed the Scarlet Knights their first loss of the season in Columbus two weeks ago. But after a methodical beginning and 13-2 run that put the 15th-ranked hosts into the lead midway through the first half, the positive momentum stalled as the visiting Buckeyes scored 27 of the game’s next 31 points and lived off rebounds and free throws in the process to leave New Jersey with a 79-68 victory and season sweep of a Rutgers team now mired in an unexpected slump.

“They were real physical in the first half, and I thought that hurt us,” Steve Pikiell reflected as Rutgers (7-4, 3-4 Big Ten) came up on the short end of a 43-29 margin on the glass Saturday afternoon against an Ohio State team that replicated its winning formula from December 23 despite the absence of point guard C.J. Walker due to a hand injury suffered earlier in the week. “I liked the last 11-12 minutes, I thought that was Rutgers basketball. Unfortunately, you have to play 40 minutes in this league, and we’ll get ourselves to that point.”

“We just have to play harder,” Caleb McConnell assessed after pouring in his first dozen points of the year in just his third game back from an early-season back injury. “I feel like once we play hard, teams just really can’t compete with us, and I feel like that’s going to be a big emphasis.”

To Rutgers’ credit, neither Pikiell nor his players offered excuses in defeat, upholding the refreshing show of ownership for not being able to stop the Ohio State front line of E.J. Liddell, Kyle Young and Justice Sueing from asserting itself against the Scarlet Knights, again missing Cliff Omoruyi as the freshman continues to rehab a sprained knee. But with the team having now lost four of five after a 6-0 start, is there panic in Piscataway?

Not at all, said Jacob Young.

“We’re just staying positive with each other,” the speedy guard reaffirmed. “When stuff gets hard, you don’t separate, you come together. The season we had, it’s going to come back. We’re just in a slump right now.”

“We’ve got to start trusting each other more,” Young added, citing a potential reason behind the sudden dropoff since a 91-88 win over Illinois December 20. “At the beginning of the year, we just trusted each other more, but going into the game, we’ve got to take the same approach. We’ve all got to be on the same page. I think that’s going to make a big jump for us.”

Rutgers now has a six-day hiatus heading into Friday’s home game against Wisconsin, a break elongated due to Penn State’s COVID-19-induced pause Wednesday. While Pikiell revealed both Saturday and in a pregame conference call that the program had received several calls from prospective opponents, the prevailing opinion is that he will use the break to get his team refocused and retooled for the meat of the Big Ten schedule.

“We need to get healthy, too,” the coach opined. “There’s a lot more to it. It’s not just, ‘Can you play? Can you play?’ It’s protocol, it’s testing, it’s when they can leave. These calls aren’t easy calls, but we’ll just keep plugging. That’s what we do.”

“To me, it’s not our offense that’s killing us,” said Young. “It’s our defense, our rebounds, our second-chance effort. That’s not the same as it was at the beginning of the year, but we’re good. It’s nothing to stress about. We’re good, it’s just a couple of games. Everybody’s going crazy. It’s just a couple of games. We’re good, we’re gonna bounce back.”