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This is not the start that Rutgers men’s basketball had envisioned, a 53-51 loss on Tuesday night dropping the Scarlet Knights to 3-2 on the year.
In light of last season’s trip to the NCAA Tournament, there seemed to be some momentum this offseason about the direction of the program. Especially with a relatively light schedule to start, the back-to-back losses for Rutgers are shocking. Tuesday night showed a team that didn’t always have their motor on and that, for a fifth time this season, struggled to make shots.
Saying “we need to figure out a way to score my points,” head coach Steve Pikiell mixed realism with hope following the loss to Lafayette.
“I thought we’d be a lot better than this, obviously. We lost two one-possession games. I’d like to be 5-0, that’s where I thought we’d be right now but we’re not there,” Pikiell told reporters after the game.
“There is nothing you can do about the past, you can only work on what you need to do to get better in the future. We’ll devour film, we’ll keep working. We need to get some new guys into the rotation.”
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Rutgers, despite creating 20 turnovers, struggled in several other areas, including losing the rebound battle. The Scarlet Knights also shot poorly, making just 28.6 percent from the floor and 15.4 percent from behind the arc.
“I thought we just didn’t make shots today and that’s everyone. We have nights like and we’ll have a stretch where we make a lot of shots too,” Pikiell said.
“I’ll watch the tape again, I thought we had some good open looks and we’ll go from there. I don’t like the rebounding numbers; I thought we even we’re missing in the past we could crash the boards and get second shots. We did a little bit in the second half. We have to play better, [with] more energy. That’s on me, that’s on me as the coach. I’m fully aware of that.”
Pikiell didn’t sound set to panic, even after no one envisioned two losses from the season’s first five games.
“I stand by that I like this team a lot. I really do,” Pikiell said. “We got to figure it out, we got to get better.”