NCAA Basketball: Michigan, Kentucky and Arizona leads Sunday Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
2. What is Rutgers ceiling if Cliff Omoruyi continues to miss time? – Ian Mumm (@FiveOnFiveHoops)
Just to clarify a few things, the ceiling for Rutgers is still an NCAA tournament team that has the potential to make the second weekend. The Scarlet Knights are currently struggling mightily to put the ball in the basket and their good players are all slumping at the same time. The slump seems to be a product of playing in the Big Ten.
One other factor is in play for Rutgers and that is they have had a hard time staying healthy this season and so many of their key players have been injured and missed some time. Already this season the Scarlet Knights have had their stars Ron Harper Jr. and Geo Baker miss a few games and now their star freshman Cliff Omoruyi is far from 100 percent and his loss is the one that Rutgers is having a very hard time overcoming.
Omoruyi doesn’t have the best numbers he isn’t scoring a ton but he provides a lot of energy on the defensive end and give the Scarlet Knights and athletic big who can run the floor and protect the rim. While the big man may not provide much in the way of production for Rutgers, he has tremendous potential and he also provides another talented big man to spell Myles Johnson.
Johnson and Omoruyi cant be on the floor together but they both play and with both of them it allows Rutgers and head coach Steve Pikiell to play the style they want. The Scarlet Knights are not built to play small, which they had to do when Omoruyi was out.
The Scarlet Knights were forced to play small as the frontcourt depth isn’t great behind Johnson and Omoruyi. Now that Omoruyi is back Rutgers is going to slowly start to integrate him back him into the team. If Rutgers wants to reach their full potential Omoruyi is going to need to provide something on the stat sheet which is going to open up the floor for Harper Jr, Jacob Young, and Baker.
If those three play like they are capable of then Rutgers is one of the best teams in the league. If they continue to struggle then the Scarlet Knights are an NIT team.