Rutgers Basketball: Takeaways after defeating Purdue while shorthanded

They can protect the paint

Basketball is a game of matchups, which is why San Francisco is able to get a 61-60 victory over Virginia, yet fall to Rhode Island 84-71 within two days. This particular game had every indication that Rutgers was going to get dominated in the paint by 6’10 Trevion Williams and 7’4 Zach Edey.

To make matters worse, aside from missing their leading scorer, starting center 6’11 Clifford Omoruyi did not dress either.  Once that was made official, much like their offensive success, any success on the defensive end would be dependant upon an entire team effort.

It must be stated that Trevion Williams had a great game and Edey’s stats were below his averages due to Williams having such a good game. The reality is, Coach Pikiell was well aware that they were not going to be able to shut down Purdue’s centers completely, he only needed to do it just enough.

The way Coach Pikiell was going to get ”just enough” done, was to limit the opposing centers touches and he did this by showing various looks on the defensive end. With just a foul-prone Myles Johnson as the only center who could log major minutes, Coach Pikiell switched from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense, seemingly at times from possession to possession. Even within the zone defense, Coach Pikiell went from a 2-3 to a 3-2 in order to keep them off balance.

Williams still scored 21 points, on 10/12 shooting, with 12 rebounds, while Edey tallied three points and three rebounds, but that was not enough to prevent the Scarlet Knights from coming away with the victory.