Rutgers Basketball with chance to rise in rankings against Ohio State

The Rutgers men’s basketball team will be back in action Thursday night with a road contest at Ohio State. Both teams are 6-2 and both coming off wins. Rutgers’ previous victory was a 63-48 decision over then-No.10 Indiana. Ohio State had a little easier go of it with a 96-59 win over St. Francis. Here is a look at how the teams compare in the latest rankings:

AP
Ohio State: 25
Rutgers: Unranked

Kenpom
Ohio State: 20
Rutgers: 31

NET
Ohio State: 25
Rutgers: 28

ESPN Power Index
Ohio State: 11
Rutgers: 26

Rutgers has one more game this week as the Scarlet Knights will host Seton hall on Sunday night. A sweep of those two games would likely vault Rutgers into the Top 25 for the first time this season. The Scarlet Knights’ losses came against Temple and Miami when the team was short-handed. The Temple loss was without veteran starters Paul Mulcahy and Caleb McConnell while the former did not play against Miami. But it has, once again, been the defensive play that have led to Rutgers’ early-season success.

“Our defense has been really good. We had one bad half this year,” head coach Steve Pikiell said after the Indiana win. “We didn’t play well at Temple in the first half. Otherwise, we have played really good basketball and we’ve gotten through a lot of obstacles. We got valuable minutes to our young guys. Cam Spencer is new to our operation. Wolf [Atnwone Woolfolk] is new and not having [Mulcahy and McConnell]. Our defense has been good and it’s got to continue that way. Mawot Mag is a key to it too. He does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score. Aundre Hyatt does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score. So they have been connected on that end and we take a lot of pride in that end of the floor.”

Rutgers defeated Ohio State in the last meeting, which occurred late last season. That win helped spark a run to the NCAA Tournament for the Scarlet Knights. Another win on Thursday would help spark a run into the top 25 of multiple rankings.  

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