Rutgers reaffirms its identity with 20-point home blowout of Penn State

Aundre Hyatt rises up for 3-pointer in second half that provided coup de grace for Rutgers against Penn State. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — When Steve Pikiell arrived at Rutgers in 2016, the state of the program was such that anyone could show up at Jersey Mike's Arena while the national anthem was being performed and still secure a seat in the lower level, several rows off the floor.

Times have changed on the banks, and consistent success has bred demand like the scene Tuesday outside the trapezoidal house of horrors for visiting teams, where Rutgers students waited for over two hours for tickets to a Big Ten game against Penn State that would later underscore just who the Scarlet Knights have become as a program.

“I saw it wrapped around the diner there,” Pikiell said of the throng of students after Rutgers wrapped up its latest identity-affirming performance in a decisive 65-45 win over the Nittany Lions. “It was like, unbelievable. It was awesome, and I’m very appreciative.”

“I’m like, ‘what is this for?’” Aundre Hyatt mused as he made his way into the arena. “Then I go walk next to the RAC and I see the line for student tickets, and I’m like, ‘wow, it’s packed.’ So just seeing everybody, all the students come out and support us, it means a lot to us.”

Even after a loss to Michigan State that bounced Rutgers (14-6, 6-3 Big Ten) from the ranks of the Top 25, the show of support was symbolic of what the Scarlet Knights are defensively, a team that wants to play a complete 40-minute game and leave no doubt of its heart or determination, something Hyatt cited as having been let down Thursday inside the Breslin Center.

“We just wanted to finish the game,” he stated. “We had went on a spurt and we just wanted to finish strong. I felt like we were in the game with Michigan State, but we let it slip away, so today, we just wanted to be dominant and finish the game all the way. I feel like we did that. It shows that we can compete with anybody, we just have to stay aggressive and keep doing what we’re doing.”

“They were locked in, they were connected today,” Pikiell echoed. “You have to do a great job on the backboards because the rebounds come off long twos. I liked the way we got to the free throw line, I liked the way we rebounded, and I thought in the second half, we really started to share the ball and get everybody involved. I’m just pleased with how we took care of a lot of different aspects of the game.”

In short, Rutgers’ execution was not lost on the man whose roster’s intent was to outmuscle the notoriously physical Scarlet Knights, only to be thoroughly embarrassed in retrospect.

“We played soft and we got beat by 20,” Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry remarked. “I’m just disappointed in how we played defensively. I thought we were really soft, I thought they got whatever they wanted to. I don’t know what to say. They played grown man basketball. No matter who was on our team, they took them to the post and they scored. At some point in time, you gotta stand up, at some point in time, you gotta have some pride, and we don’t have any pride. I told them that. I need somebody to be a man, step up, and give us something on the road.”

“That’s on me. I don’t know how I let them become this soft defensively as a team. If you want to win to win in this league, you gotta play tough. We played soft, we got our ass kicked and ran out the door.”

Shrewsberry mentioned only three players — former MAAC Player of the Year Jalen Pickett, along with Seth Lundy and Bucknell transfer Andrew Funk — as being the sole pieces of his roster to show up in Tuesday’s loss, a stark contrast to the team dynamic exhibited by Rutgers, whose connectivity was on full display on a night where its defense held Penn State to just three field goals over the final 13:08 of regulation, turning a three-point lead into a comfortable rout.

“You know what? It’s Paul (Mulcahy), Caleb McConnell, Cam (Spencer),” said Pikiell, crediting his upperclassman leaders for spearheading the defensive initiative. “Those guys, they’ve decided that they want to be really good on both ends of the floor, especially that defensive end. And when they’re connected, they’ve done a really good job. They dictate what kind of season we have. The players are in charge, and they were locked in.”

“I thought we did a really good job defending. We got right back to Rutgers basketball, the way we defended for 40 minutes. Great team win, everyone contributed, Aundre had an unbelievable second half.”

Hyatt’s second half, in which the LSU expatriate scored eight straight points and drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to put the finishing touches on the blue-collar victory, came on the heels of a dominant first half by Cliff Omoruyi, whose willingness to attack the interior leading into the intermission amplified Hyatt’s own confidence coming out of the locker room.

“Cliff’s one of the best bigs in the country,” Hyatt said of his teammate. “So when he’s being aggressive and having the night he had, it makes it a lot easier for us offensively and defensively. During halftime, they were telling me to stick with it, shoot my open shots and just stay confident.”

“I told him at halftime he was going to have a good second half,” a prescient Pikiell recollected. “We really believe in him. I think he’s one of the best sixth men in the country, and we need that from him. He was bouncy, he teed it up when he was open, and then the guys found him during that stretch. And I love, as a team, when we embrace someone else’s success. Like, guys were saying in the huddle, ‘get Aundre the ball.’ It’s always a good sign when other players are recognizing and then trying to get him the basketball. I thought we did a good job getting Cliff involved, another double-double for him, and then when Aundre got it going, getting him involved.”

Rutgers’ unselfish nature and willingness to share the fight no matter who the opponent has been an unintended, yet welcome, byproduct of the reversal of the long-downtrodden fortune that plunged the program into a decades-long morass that is now all but a mere, distant memory. And according to the architect of the renaissance, it is the character of his players for which the turnaround should be credited.

“These guys have made it that way,” a proud Pikiell reaffirmed. “I think they root for these guys. They’re great guys, they work hard, they represent the program the right way, so I’m glad our students really have embraced them. And they’re fun to watch.”