5 things to consider when Rutgers takes on Minnesota
After a great win and a solid, but disappointing loss, Rutgers (10-8, 2-3) heads off to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota (11-7, 0-5) at the Williams Arena Saturday. The game tips off at noon and can be viewed on the B1G Ten Network or listened to on AM710, AM1450 or Rutgers Student Radio on FM88.7.
Rutgers continues to flow along on the momentum from Sunday's victory over Wisconsin as well as a hard-fought loss to Maryland.
Can they travel across the country and take a win from a struggling Minnesota team?
Here are five things which will impact the outcome.
1. Is 'almost' really not 'good enough'?
After the loss to Maryland on Wednesday, senior guard Myles Mack said there were no moral victories.
"We're trying to win a game. I don't think any team has moral victories. Everybody wants to win. That's all.''
Many of his teammates echoed this, which has to be encouraging for fans of a Rutgers team which has been wildly inconsistent this season. How easy would it have been to say, 'well, we did some good things and almost made it' when the game had gotten away from them?
Of course, it's easy to say after the Maryland. It needs to be proven by their play on the court during every game. The win over Wisconsin is in the past and while it was a tremendous win, it can only be praised for so long before the team needs to follow it up.
Even though Minnesota is winless in the B1G Ten, they should not be taken lightly. Good team approach every opponent as if they were about to play the best team in the world.
Will Rutgers approach Minnesota like that? Or are they primed to an upset themselves?
2. The Kadeem Jack Project
As we talked about the other day, Jack has made progress, but continues to be a work in progress as well. He's become more consistent going inside and attacking the rim, but there are still times when he will be a little free with his shots and move outside.
From here on out, Jack needs to continue to improve and get inside the key with the ball. He has to keep up his efforts at playing inside and taking advantage of his size and strength.
Mack is a tremendous outside shooter and Mike Williams has become more adept at shooting jumpers as well. Jack needs to leave that to them.
And make no mistake--he has slowly been doing just that. However he needs to keep it up and like anything else, it will take a constant level of effort.
He needs to dominate the paint against Minnesota the way he did against Wisconsin.
3. Up the amount of rebounds
Again, as we discussed earlier this week, the Scarlet Knights need to do a better job rebounding. They were soundly beat at the boards by Maryland--one of two key areas in the game where they were beaten by the Terrapins, the other being free throws--and the ability to rebound defensively and then turn those balls into points in the transition game was what really helped the Terps at the end of the game.
This ties into Jack being more of a force inside, but it isn't all on him. Too often after a shot, Rutgers already seems to be heading towards the defensive end. I don't know if it's a matter of thinking someone else is bound to go after the ball or if it is a schematic thing.
There needs to be a commitment to rebounding the ball by the whole team, though. It can't be just one guy because, as we have seen, then if that one guy doesn't step up, nobody does.
If they get beaten at the backboard, there is a strong chance they will be beaten at the scoreboard as well.
4. Make a free throw
Rutgers is shooting 59.1 percent from the free throw line, which sounds OK until you look up something like ESPN's leaderboard for free throw percentage and they aren't even on it. There are 351 teams and Rutgers is not one of them, the lowest percentage belonging to Savannah State with 56.7.
This is not the end of the world, but as we saw with Maryland hitting free throws can mean the difference between winning and losing. Maryland hit a ton of theirs down the stretch and it was how they stayed in the game and eventually won it.
Rutgers only made 50 percent of their free throws against Maryland, though they also only had 16 attempts compared to Maryland's 28. That's another issue, related but not the same. Rutgers sent Maryland to the line far too frequently, while not managing to get there themselves often enough.
Some of that will correct itself with Jack playing inside more often, which will put him in position to draw more fouls.
But when they get to the line - however they get to the line - they simply need to make more shots. I;ve seen various players staying after to shoot more baskets, often free throws.
That practice has to start paying off.
5. Can they finish a game?
When they beat Wisconsin, Rutgers did a good job of continuing to put baskets up as well as disrupt the Badgers' offense. When they lost to Maryland, they didn't do either of those things well enough.
They got a little sloppy and a little careless towards the end and it certainly contributed to the loss.
Every once in a while Rutgers gets that way and when it happens in a tight game--or at the end of a game in general--it costs them.
They have learned how to stay in a game and they've even learned how to win. Can they learn how to finish though? There's a difference between learning to win and learning to finish. Winning is winning but finishing means you can hold an opponent down on the ground as the clock runs out.
And we have seen them finish--again, Wisconsin--but in the loss to Maryland, they didn't.
This team needs to learn how to put teams away once and for all. It's something they are getting their head around as a team and it takes time and they have 13 more games to learn it (plus the B1G Ten tournament).
They need to start Saturday against Minnesota though, as even an 0-5 team in the conference can be a dangerous team.
As Rutgers can attest to, no B1G Ten team is an easy win.
After a great win and a solid, but disappointing loss, Rutgers (10-8, 2-3) heads off to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota (11-7, 0-5) at the Williams Arena Saturday. The game tips off at noon and can be viewed on the B1G Ten Network or listened to on AM710, AM1450 or Rutgers Student Radio on FM88.7.
Rutgers continues to flow along on the momentum from Sunday's victory over Wisconsin as well as a hard-fought loss to Maryland.
Can they travel across the country and take a win from a struggling Minnesota team?
Here are five things which will impact the outcome.
1. Is 'almost' really not 'good enough'?
After the loss to Maryland on Wednesday, senior guard Myles Mack said there were no moral victories.
"We're trying to win a game. I don't think any team has moral victories. Everybody wants to win. That's all.''
Many of his teammates echoed this, which has to be encouraging for fans of a Rutgers team which has been wildly inconsistent this season. How easy would it have been to say, 'well, we did some good things and almost made it' when the game had gotten away from them?
Of course, it's easy to say after the Maryland. It needs to be proven by their play on the court during every game. The win over Wisconsin is in the past and while it was a tremendous win, it can only be praised for so long before the team needs to follow it up.
Even though Minnesota is winless in the B1G Ten, they should not be taken lightly. Good team approach every opponent as if they were about to play the best team in the world.
Will Rutgers approach Minnesota like that? Or are they primed to an upset themselves?
2. The Kadeem Jack Project
As we talked about the other day, Jack has made progress, but continues to be a work in progress as well. He's become more consistent going inside and attacking the rim, but there are still times when he will be a little free with his shots and move outside.
From here on out, Jack needs to continue to improve and get inside the key with the ball. He has to keep up his efforts at playing inside and taking advantage of his size and strength.
Mack is a tremendous outside shooter and Mike Williams has become more adept at shooting jumpers as well. Jack needs to leave that to them.
And make no mistake--he has slowly been doing just that. However he needs to keep it up and like anything else, it will take a constant level of effort.
He needs to dominate the paint against Minnesota the way he did against Wisconsin.
3. Up the amount of rebounds
Again, as we discussed earlier this week, the Scarlet Knights need to do a better job rebounding. They were soundly beat at the boards by Maryland--one of two key areas in the game where they were beaten by the Terrapins, the other being free throws--and the ability to rebound defensively and then turn those balls into points in the transition game was what really helped the Terps at the end of the game.
This ties into Jack being more of a force inside, but it isn't all on him. Too often after a shot, Rutgers already seems to be heading towards the defensive end. I don't know if it's a matter of thinking someone else is bound to go after the ball or if it is a schematic thing.
There needs to be a commitment to rebounding the ball by the whole team, though. It can't be just one guy because, as we have seen, then if that one guy doesn't step up, nobody does.
If they get beaten at the backboard, there is a strong chance they will be beaten at the scoreboard as well.
4. Make a free throw
Rutgers is shooting 59.1 percent from the free throw line, which sounds OK until you look up something like ESPN's leaderboard for free throw percentage and they aren't even on it. There are 351 teams and Rutgers is not one of them, the lowest percentage belonging to Savannah State with 56.7.
This is not the end of the world, but as we saw with Maryland hitting free throws can mean the difference between winning and losing. Maryland hit a ton of theirs down the stretch and it was how they stayed in the game and eventually won it.
Rutgers only made 50 percent of their free throws against Maryland, though they also only had 16 attempts compared to Maryland's 28. That's another issue, related but not the same. Rutgers sent Maryland to the line far too frequently, while not managing to get there themselves often enough.
Some of that will correct itself with Jack playing inside more often, which will put him in position to draw more fouls.
But when they get to the line - however they get to the line - they simply need to make more shots. I;ve seen various players staying after to shoot more baskets, often free throws.
That practice has to start paying off.
5. Can they finish a game?
When they beat Wisconsin, Rutgers did a good job of continuing to put baskets up as well as disrupt the Badgers' offense. When they lost to Maryland, they didn't do either of those things well enough.
They got a little sloppy and a little careless towards the end and it certainly contributed to the loss.
Every once in a while Rutgers gets that way and when it happens in a tight game--or at the end of a game in general--it costs them.
They have learned how to stay in a game and they've even learned how to win. Can they learn how to finish though? There's a difference between learning to win and learning to finish. Winning is winning but finishing means you can hold an opponent down on the ground as the clock runs out.
And we have seen them finish--again, Wisconsin--but in the loss to Maryland, they didn't.
This team needs to learn how to put teams away once and for all. It's something they are getting their head around as a team and it takes time and they have 13 more games to learn it (plus the B1G Ten tournament).
They need to start Saturday against Minnesota though, as even an 0-5 team in the conference can be a dangerous team.
As Rutgers can attest to, no B1G Ten team is an easy win.
