INDIANAPOLIS — All there is left to do for Rutgers is wait.
The non-stop roller coaster that has been the Scarlet Knights’ season now enters an agonizing two-day pause after an 84-74 loss to Iowa in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday, a one-sided defeat that could pop their NCAA Tournament bubble.
The countdown to the Selection Show was roughly 50 hours when the final buzzer sounded at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and there might not be a nail left to bite in Piscataway by the time the March Madness field is announced on Sunday night.
The Scarlet Knights (18-13, 12-8) had a chance to lock up a stunning NCAA Tournament at-large bid and clear a path to the Big Ten Tournament final with a win, but they ran into the hungry Hawkeyes (24-9, 12-8), who were looking for revenge. Rutgers’ fate is now in the hands of the selection committee.
Rutgers was one of the few teams that limited Iowa’s high-powered offense this season, holding them to a season-low in Piscataway during a 48-46 victory, but the Scarlet Knights had no answers for the Hawkeyes on Friday. Rutgers allowed Iowa to score 1.27 points per possession and were unable to keep up on the other end against a suffocating zone defense.
Rutgers senior guard Geo Baker kept the Scarlet Knights afloat for stretches, scoring a team-high 23 points, but he was no match for Iowa star forward Keegan Murray, who finished with 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting.
While Iowa came into the game hot, Rutgers got out to a blazing start. The Scarlet Knights took a 15-5 lead after four minutes before the Hawkeyes grabbed control of the game with a 31-9 run over a 12-minute span. The Scarlet Knights could not control the Hawkeyes on the floor or on the glass, and at one point Rutgers missed 12 shots out of 14 attempts.
Rutgers started off hot after halftime, too, going blow-for-blow with the Hawkeyes and staying within striking distance. But the run to turn the game around never came, the Scarlet Knights were unable to get closer than eight points.
The Hawkeyes took a game-high 18-point lead with a 16-6 run midway through the second half, a meltdown by the Scarlet Knights in which they could not get a stop on defense, could not get many good looks offensively and committed a number of killer errors. None hurt more than strength and conditioning coach David van Dyke’s technical foul for screaming an obscenity at an official from the bench with 13:31 to play. That led to a 4-point play for Iowa.
Rutgers fought back with an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to eight points with 6:22 to play. But senior forward Ron Harper Jr. missed a easy shot, sophomore center Cliff Omoruyi missed a dunk, Iowa built its lead back up to 15 points with three minutes to play, van Dyke got ejected after picking up his second technical foul.
Is the Scarlet Knights’ season over? We won’t know until Sunday night.
Rutgers holds one of the most confounding résumés in recent memory. The Scarlet Knights have some of the best wins in the country, with six Quadrant 1 victories, including three over the top 15 teams in the NET rankings.
But they also have three Quadrant 3 and 4 losses combined — including a résumé-cratering home defeat to Lafayette that has been hanging over their heads all season. They lost to four of the Big Ten’s bottom five teams and are 4-10 in road games. A double-digit loss in their final opportunity to build their case for the committee hurts.
Rutgers will be one of the most talked-about team in college basketball over the next 50 hours, with the Scarlet Knights left wondering whether they’ll hear their name at the end.
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at [email protected].
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism