PISCATAWAY – Dylan Harper was back in Rutgers basketball’s starting lineup Monday, but he wasn’t back to his old self – and that proved costly for the Scarlet Knights.
With the star point guard severely limited by the illness that sidelined him during last week’s loss at Indiana, Rutgers began a make-or-break three-game homestand with a 75-63 loss to Wisconsin.
Harper went scoreless in his 15 minutes, managing four rebounds and just two shots. In a sign of how badly the freshman out of Don Bosco Prep was hurting, he played off the ball offensively to conserve energy during his time on the court.
Without their All-America candidate at anywhere close to full speed, Rutgers fell into a 16-point hole, rallied to pull within three, but ran out of steam. The Scarlet Knights are now 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. Their NCAA Tournament hopes hinge on winning the next two home games, against No. 20 Purdue and No. 22 UCLA, which of course hinges on Harper’s recovery timetable.
Wisconsin (12-3, 2-2) shot 53 percent from the field. With freshman forward Ace Bailey, who was just named Big Ten Freshman of the Week, unable to get going (9 points on 3-of-16 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 fouls), Rutgers’ offense was dead in the water.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1. Tyson Acuff comes through
There’s a reason why the postgrad guard averaged 21.7 points last season at Eastern Michigan, and it finally was on display Monday.
After suffering a broken foot over the summer and missing three-and-a-half months, Acuff struggled to find his footing – literally and figuratively – in Rutgers’ scheme. But after two months of fits and starts, it all came together for the 6-foot-4 guard.
Asked to take on significant minutes with Harper hurting, Acuff checked in as the sixth man and put together a season-best effort. He posted 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting. And he held his own defensively.
If this marked a corner-turning moment for Acuff, that could be a game-changer for the Scarlet Knights, who’ve been looking for a consistent third wheel to take some burden off of Harper and Ace Bailey.
2. Angry Pikiell
Unlike many of his head-coaching brethren at this level, Pikiell rarely loses his cool during games. Monday was an exception.
After Wisconsin beat his team to the rim a couple of times in the opening moments, Pikiell called timeout and launched into an eyeball-bulging, hand-waving diatribe as he benched starters Manny Ogbole and Jamichael Davis.
He was so apoplectic that the rant carried into the next timeout.
It was quite possibly the angriest Pikiell has been with his team in public during his nine-year tenure on the banks.
The players got the message, but by then they’d already fallen into a double-digit hole.
3. Hello, Dylan Grant
After appearing in just three games for 20 total minutes this season, freshman forward Dylan Grant checked in during the first half and made a big difference. He tallied five points and an assist in just five minutes, hitting 2-of-3 shots (including a 3-pointer) and recording a plus/minus of plus-7 for his run.
His play earned him a check-in in the second half, and he made the most of it, finishing with eight points. In one telling sequence, the 6-foot-7 Grant scrapped for two offensive boards and a loose ball. That’s the kind of hustle that earns you a permanent spot in the rotation.
4. Boos, then cheers
From the start, the nerves were palpable among the 7,500 fans in attendance. By midway through the first half, during one particularly gloomy timeout, those nerves manifested themselves in boos.
That’s a rarity in these parts, though Rutgers football team did get showered with boos during its 42-7 home loss to Wisconsin in October.
But the end of the first half, the mood in the building decidedly improved: Fans were on their feet as Rutgers cut the deficit to single digits. In the second half, once it sunk in that the Scarlet Knights were essentially fighting back without Harper, the RAC sounded more familiar.
5. Chips piled high as homestand continues
For just the second time since joining the Big Ten and the first time since 2017, Rutgers has a three-game conference homestand. The unstated, but widely understood, imperative was winning two of these three games in Piscataway.
The next two don’t get much easier: No. 20 Purdue (11-4) comes in Wednesday (6 p.m., Fox Sports 1) and No. 22 UCLA (11-3) Jan. 13.
Those are serious resume-building opportunities, and to keep reasonable NCAA Tournament hopes alive, Rutgers has to win both of them.
The first order of business, obviously, is Harper recovering enough to play like himself.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball, with Dylan Harper ailing, falls to Wisconsin
