Big Ten Basketball power rankings: Rutgers falls while Michigan moves up

There might not be a more confusing team to judge in the Big Ten than the Scarlet Knights, who is two games over .500 in league play yet may not have much hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The past couple of weeks is a great example of that, taking on three road opponents in four and none of them in the top half of the standings.

Things started out poorly with a 66-49 loss at Penn State, with center Clifford Omoruyi (12 points and 12 rebounds) the lone player for Rutgers to reach double figures. The team did rebound to win at Maryland, before coming back home and holding Iowa to nearly 40 points below their season average of scoring in a 48-46 victory. Neither team shot more than 31% from the field, with Ron Harper Jr. leading all scorers with 15 points and Omoruyi bringing down 14 rebounds.

But the biggest letdown was yet to come for Rutgers, taking on a reeling Minnesota squad that was without multiple rotation players, including leading scorer Jamison Battle. On paper, the Scarlet Knights should’ve allowed around 50 points but instead, the Gophers pulled off the 68-65 upset. Geo Baker had a team-high 25 points but it wasn’t enough to get the win.

Rutgers has three winnable games coming up against Maryland, Nebraska, and Northwestern but will likely need to win all three in order to keep any at-large hope alive. And right after that is a seven-game stretch against ranked opponents and Michigan on the road. The schedule was always going to get rough for the Scarlet Knights at some point so they’ll need to get as many league wins as they can before that notable future stretch.