Ron Harper Jr. is day to day after “banging up his non-shooting hand” in Wednesday night’s Rutgers win over Illinois at Jersey Mike’s Arena – but it’s hopefully something that won't cause Harper to miss much time for the Scarlet Knights and coach Steve Pikiell, who joined Carton & Roberts to talk about the team’s fourth straight win over a Top 25 team.
“Earlier this season, I had (Jerry) Recco at the helm, and we were struggling, so we put him on the mic and we’re back in action!” Pikiell joked. “We’re playing well right now; we’ve gone through some ups and downs but I think it’s made us tougher, and we’re playing at a high level in a tough league.”
Prior to the stretch where the unranked Knights defeated four straight ranked Big Ten foes, they lost a one-point game at Northwestern on Feb. 1, a game where they were down as many as 25 in the second half but came back to force overtime.
That, Pikiell noted, was the impetus the team, 12-9 after that loss, needed to go on this run.
“It became a big theme, like we played a great 25 minutes that night, but it’s a 40-minute league. We’ve really been playing 40 great minutes since then,” Pikiell said. “You have to understand we’re going to lose games in a tough league, but you learn. We’re coming together as a team, and our arena is jumping and become a real tough place to play.”
Rutgers gets No. 5-ranked Purdue on Sunday, a team they already beat at the RAC back in December, but this time it’s on the road, and this time, the Scarlet Knights are one of two teams just a game out in the loss column behind the Boilermakers and three others atop the Big Ten Standings.
And, it could be the final game they play, at least for now, as an unranked team, especially if Sunday brings a fifth straight win against a ranked Big Ten opponent.
“The guys are trying to get ranked; as a coach you try to get them to not look too far down the road, but we’re playing really good teams,” Pikiell said. “We have to play well and the early part of the season didn’t go how we wanted, so we have that chip on our shoulder and played well to change that narrative. There’s a lot of really good teams in the league, but we want to win championships. We’ve put ourselves in position, but we have a lot of tough tests down the stretch here.”
Rutgers has the conference leaders in both steals and assists, but it’s been a team effort according to Pikiell, and as he said, he’s glad to see Jersey Mike’s Arena “jumping.”
“I know there’s an interest in coming to games, and people take notice when you beat some of these great teams,” Pikiell said. “Our defense has been terrific, and our guys have worked hard to earn this; we were good the last two years, and they know what it takes. It’s about everyone doing their job, and we have to continue that.”
We’ll see if they do, but after Craig & Evan hung up, Craiggy had to tell Evan he “embarrassed himself” by mentioning the “third quarter” or Wednesday night’s game…and then they got into a discussion about the proper pronunciation of Illinois center Kofi Cockburn’s name, so, well, just listen for yourself!
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