Busting Brackets
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Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings: Purdue, Maryland make huge leaps

By Austin Walther

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines reacts from the bench while playing the Penn State Nittany Lions at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines reacts from the bench while playing the Penn State Nittany Lions at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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PISCATAWAY, NJ – JANUARY 09: Geo Baker #0 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights reacts after scoring the game winning three-point basket defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 64-61 in a game at Rutgers Athletic Center on January 9, 2019 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
PISCATAWAY, NJ – JANUARY 09: Geo Baker #0 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights reacts after scoring the game winning three-point basket defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 64-61 in a game at Rutgers Athletic Center on January 9, 2019 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

11. Rutgers Scarlett Knights (8-7)

Previous Rank: 13

Rutgers is moving on up in the Big Ten basketball rankings. They are 8-7 and sit outside the KenPom top-100 thanks to a loss to Fordham at the beginning of December. They just fell in back-to-back games to ranked Big Ten teams and had to travel to play the Rams. The road trip concluded with a loss to Seton Hall. They were able to win their final two non-conference games.

They got smoked by Maryland to open conference play again. Things looked to be the same for Rutgers, but then they hosted Ohio State and pulled out a terrific three-point upset. The Scarlet Knights already had what was being called a program changing win over Miami earlier this season. This falls under the category of Rutgers stunning a good Big Ten team. Seems to happen every year. They did get blasted by Minnesota at the Barn, but Rutgers will take it in small doses.

Obviously if we’re doing a bubble write up, Rutgers does not belong on this list because of their very poor ratings on websites such as KenPom, the NET and Haslametrics. But we’re going to reward Rutgers for not losing any dumb Big Ten games while picking up a nice win over Ohio State.

It’s been all about the breakout junior year by Eugene Omoruyi. He’s leading the team in points with 14.6 per game, rebounds by a ton with 7.5 and has the ability to stretch the defense. Geo Baker is putting in his usual 13 points per game, developing into a nice points guard with 4.5 assists and has hit over 30 three-pointers. There’s only one senior in the rotation. Other than that, Steve Pikiell is working with the same experience as Brad Underwood. Things are looking up for basketball in New Jersey.

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