Geo Baker of Rutgers Basketball has tough task against defense of Clemson

Avoid a slow start

Rutgers has become notorious for starting slowly, especially in some of their more recent games. The Scarlet Knights may have been able to get away with that during the regular season, but in the NCAA Tournament, their opponent will pounce on them.

In their Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals loss to Illinois, Rutgers ceded the first nine points of the game to the Fighting Illini before heading into the half down 19. They do this in their victories sometimes too, trailing Indiana 23-8 after the first 12 minutes before coming back to win 74-63, a game that likely clinched Rutgers’ NCAA berth.

Now that being said, starting slowly against Clemson may simply be more difficult than it is against other teams. The Tigers are not an offensive juggernaut, especially in the first half, where they’ve averaged 30.3 points per game. The same Miami Hurricanes they lost to in the conference tournament are the only ACC team that scored less in the first half.

The Scarlet Knights are not high-flyers in the first half either, at 32.3 points per game. Against Illinois, they scored below that average, 28 points.

Rutgers doesn’t need to make their work more difficult. Getting off to a quick start would be good, but not getting off to a slow start is imperative.