Takeaways | Rutgers basketball blown out by Purdue, fails to lock up Big Ten Tourney spot

Posted by author March 5, 2025 Basketball

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Rutgers traveled to Purdue with a chance to definitively lock up a spot in the Big Ten Tournament.

Instead the Scarlet Knights looked like a team that didn’t even belong on the same court as the Boilermakers.

With the exception of the opening minutes of the first half, Rutgers turned in a terrible performance, letting Purdue get practically whatever it wanted while the No. 18 Boilermakers rode a scorching hot showing from three-point range to a 100-71 victory at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana Tuesday night.

A win would’ve secured Rutgers’ spot in the conference tourney.

Steve Pikiell’s team still is in good shape – a lot would have to happen at this point for it to miss the tournament. Still, it’s not guaranteed.

Rutgers last week pushed a good Michigan team to the final seconds.

Against Purdue the Scarlet Knights barely even showed up.

Dylan Harper led Rutgers with 13 points while Ace Bailey had 12. Nearly all of their production came in the first half.

The Boilermakers built a lead that swelled to 30 points about eight minutes into the second half. The rout was on from there.

Matt Painter’s team shot 56.1 percent from the field and a blistering 18-of-36 from the perimeter – Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith combined to go 15-of-28 from deep.

They each finished with 23 points.

Rutgers, on the other hand, shot 43.9 percent and went 8-of-25 from long distance.

Purdue also outrebounded the Scarlet Knights 40-26, scoring 18 second-chance points off 15 offensive rebounds.

Early on it looked like the Scarlet Knights were poised to give Purdue a game.

Rutgers started off hot offensively, draining nine of its first 15 shots, with a three from Harper putting the Scarlet Knights up by eight points.

But Harper went to the bench with nine minutes remaining with two fouls and the game totally changed in the four minutes he was off the court.

Purdue took control of the game and caught fire from three-point range, going 11-of-17 from deep before the break.

Bailey had some highlights in the first half, including an emphatic, thunderous reverse dunk and scored 10 points in the first half, which ended with Rutgers trailing by nine. The Boilermakers also had 16 points off seven Rutgers turnovers before the break (meanwhile the Scarlet Knights had seven points off eight Purdue turnovers before the break).

The Boilermakers came of the break and scored the first eight points of the half to go up by 17 and the game was never close from that point on.

THREE THOUGHTS

1. Quiet second halves for Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey

Harper had 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long distance, in the first half. Bailey had 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

Their production didn’t continue after halftime.

Harper had five points on 2-of-4 shooting in the second half, while Bailey had two points and attempted just three shots in the second half, making one of them – they each played 12 second-half minutes.

To be fair, that’s far from the reason why Rutgers got blown out.

But it just shows how easily the game can get out of hand if the star freshmen are taken out of the game offensively.

2. No defense

Rutgers has made some improvement defensively in recent weeks – there was plenty of room for growth.

Against Purdue?

That improvement never showed up.

The Boilermakers had way too many uncontested shots. They made a lot of them.

That was the difference.

Rutgers can’t turn in a defensive performance like this and expect to win.

The Scarlet Knights have been far too inconsistent on that end of the floor all season long.

3. Big Ten Tournament outlook

Again, Rutgers has a very good shot of heading to Indianapolis next week.

But it’s not a sure thing. Not yet, at least.

Rutgers and its fans will be sweating, even a little bit, heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale against Minnesota at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

Penn State and Washington are already eliminated from the 15-team tournament.

The Scarlet Knights do hold multiple tiebreakers, which could help.

No matter how you want to put it, Rutgers needs to win on Sunday.

THREE QUOTES

Steve Pikiell typically does the post-game radio interview on WFAN but that responsibility went to associate head coach Brandin Knight on Tuesday.

On the disappointment of a game like this:

“It’s one of those games you look at the numbers and you say they made 18 threes and two guys made 14. It’s a point of emphasis. It’s disappointing when we defend like this. Tip of the hat to them, they made shots. But we gave them too many uncontested ones whether it was in transition, slow on rotations. It was just a point of emphasis that we were unable to take care of tonight.”

On team’s defensive struggles:

“It’s tough. It’s tough. Especially because it’s been a staple for us. But we have to figure it out. We still have games left to play. The biggest thing is you’ve got to figure it out quickly. But for us it is disappointing when we don’t get stops. The other problem, especially in the second half, was we gave up so many offensive rebounds so when we did get stops they got second opportunities and they capitalized on all of those second and third opportunities.”

On moving on from this game:

“It’s a quick turnaround, and that game means a lot to us. We’re playing for something. The reality is you want to get that last one and these next couple days we want to be feeling good trying to get into the tournament. That’s our biggest thing. We have to come back quickly and we have to get this thing right by Sunday.”