A sluggish start to one of the most anticipated seasons of Rutgers basketball history continued on Monday night as the Scarlet Knights fell 75-63 to Wisconsin and dropped to 8-7 (1-3 Big Ten). Though Rutgers cut its deficit to three points late in the second half, the Badgers closed on a 15-6 run to leave Jersey Mike’s Arena with a convincing win.
The loss left Rutgers with an uphill climb toward respectability in the Big Ten standings with games against No. 20 Purdue and No. 22 UCLA up next. Rutgers is currently No. 17 in the Big Ten standings; only the top 15 make the Big Ten Tournament. Monday’s loss, which was the first home defeat of the season for the Scarlet Knights, again exposed the perils of relying so heavily on freshmen. It also led to some tough questions for coach Steve Pikiell afterward.
While the celebrated tandem of projected 2025 NBA lottery picks and top-five recruits Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey have been magnificent at times early in their college careers, they combined for just nine points on 3 of 18 shooting against the Badgers. Compounding matters was that Harper played just 15 minutes — only four in the second half — while battling illness.
Harper also missed Rutgers’ loss at Indiana last week. In that game, Bailey was able to pick up the slack with a career-high 39 points on 16 of 29 shooting. But he never got going against Wisconsin, and the result was a frustrating loss that had Pikiell animated at times on the sideline.
Here’s everything Pikiell had to say about Bailey and Harper afterward.
On where Dylan Harper is in his recovery
He looked like he was still hurting out there. Yeah, yeah, he certainly was. I’m proud of him, he wanted to go tonight. But obviously, that flu has taken a lot out of him. And we gotta get him back to normal, but yeah, I appreciated his effort trying to. But he just didn’t have, obviously, what he normally has. So we gotta get him healthy, it’s that time of the year.
On whether Dylan Harper has truly lost nine pounds due to the flu
Yeah, the flu, it’s bad. So he’s been in the middle of it, so it’s a bad strand and he hasn’t eaten. And it’s what the flu does for you. I appreciated him trying today. He obviously wants to be out there for his teammates. But he just didn’t have the energy that you need to have, and it’s understandable.
On what Wisconsin did to get Ace Bailey off his rhythm
Yeah, I mean, he got in foul trouble early, and that obviously didn’t set the great tone. But he got some good looks too, gonna make some free throws, those kind of things. But you have nights like that, and I just wanted us to play better from jump, and we didn’t, and that’s on me, that’s not on anybody else but me. But he’s really good, and have nights like that in basketball.
On what gives him confidence it can be turned around
I’ve been here before. These guys are good. We gotta get Dylan Harper back, obviously. Last time I checked, I think he’s a pretty good player, and we will. And we got two ranked opponents, so this is the league we play in. So we got two great opportunities coming up here. These guys are tough, and they’ll come back in practice, and we always do. We figure it out, and you have to in a league like this. There’s ups and downs, and that’s what you get when you play in the Big Ten.
On making sure Ace Bailey isn’t letting a poor offensive night effect other parts of his game
That’s a great question. I mean, you gotta figure out ways to win even when the ball’s not going in. And he got a couple frustration fouls. I mean, he’s young in his career too, I don’t know if people realize he missed our first two games of the season, so he’s learning a lot. He was fantastic the other night with 39 points, everything kind of went in. Tonight was one of those other nights where it was a little bit harder and a little bit more of a struggle, but he can still do a lot of different things for us, but I think his rhythm was messed up a little bit by the fouls and having to sit the rest of the first half.
And without Dylan too, we need him in the game to score some points for us, but he’ll continue to learn. He’s a great kid, he’s a worker, he’ll watch film, and he’ll bounce back. That’s what the great ones do.
On Ace Bailey handling his wrist gingerly after the game
I mean, at this time of the year, I mean, everyone’s banged up with something. So if he went down the whole team, his back. But I don’t know anything about that, I didn’t hear anything either.
