Containing Keegan Murray took a team effort – just how Rutgers likes it
"Super special," Geo Baker said. "Right now I feel like everyone really enjoys getting stops."
PISCATAWAY – Fran McCaffery was asked a perfectly fair question – what did you see on the game-deciding foul call against Keegan Murray? – to which he gave a perfectly honest response.
“I saw really good defense,” the Iowa coach said.
It’s hard to deny that the ticky-tack call and Ron Harper Jr.’s game-winning free throws provided an anticlimactic ending to Rutgers’ 48-46 victory over Iowa. But McCaffery’s reply was ironically fitting: Wednesday’s game was a slobber-knocker, all about defense from beginning to end.
What makes Rutgers’ win so significant was the way it conquered one of the top offenses in the country, led by Murray, the nation’s leading scorer until Wednesday. Harper had the primary defensive assignment, but several teammates took turns to help stop Murray as well.
Caleb McConnell, Rutgers’ strongest perimeter defender, blocked a Murray shot in the first half. Mawot Mag and Dean Reiber had to take him on when Rutgers’ second unit was on the floor. Murray ended up with 13 points and 13 rebounds, but went 5-of-14, committed two turnovers and slipped from a 23.9 ppg average to 23.3 in one forgettable night.
“Super special. Super special,” Geo Baker said. “I think that was kind of our knock at the beginning, was that we weren’t really ‘loving’ defense. That’s kind of what we were trying to say to each other. When you love defense and you’re having fun on defense, shots get easier to make. You’re just having more fun out there. You’re more loose. Right now I feel like everyone really enjoys getting stops.”
Steve Pikiell is known for his teams’ stellar guarding; Rutgers ranked top-30 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency three of the past four seasons, including sixth in 2019-20. It’s almost hard to imagine a Rutgers squad not “loving” defense. Maybe having fun as you go is the key to the engine.
The Scarlet Knights’ effort Wednesday – 10 blocked shots, seven steals, Iowa air-balls that led to shot-clock violation after shot-clock violation – is about as much fun as a defense can have.
On a team as talented as Iowa, which lost the national player of the year to graduation yet still entered this game averaging 82.6 points, it’s never a one-man show. Paul Mulcahy held Jordan Bohannon to 2-of-11 shooting (2-of-10 from three), forcing multiple air-balls and an errant pass that skipped behind him all the way to the far baseline.
The Hawkeyes made just 27.9% from the floor, and their bench went scoreless.
“That team has every offensive weapon that every team in the country wants,” Harper said. “So just being able to take them out the game and take them out of their offense, that’s just a credit to all the guys that were out there contributing.”
It would seem Rutgers’ style fits so well into the Big Ten ethos that they’re better off playing low-scoring slugfests like this. But Pikiell reminded me that this same team scored 93 against Nebraska only two games ago.
“Every shot went in that game. This one, in and out, a lot of them,” he said. “I thought we had some good looks. We did turn the ball over too much. But figured out a way to win. That’s what you have to do. It’s the best league in the country. It’s the hardest styles to play against.”
Harper felt he was well-suited to cover Murray because he’s been in his counterpart’s position before. Wednesday called for a little payback.
“Last year he kind of did that to me, so it felt good,” Harper said. “Being the leader scorer in the country, you know, I was once there, I was up there on those leaderboards, top five in the country in scoring. I know what comes with that, so it really helped me in guarding him. I really got to lock in on all his plays, knowing what he was gonna run, knowing exactly what he was gonna do. And he still got me a couple times. He’s an elite basketball player playing at an All-American level.”
For all the talk about having fun getting stops, I was curious about how players’ defense is impacted by officiating, in light of how the game concluded. Murray’s tight guarding on Harper’s final play didn’t seem to require a foul call, whether you ask Big Ten Network analyst Robbie Hummel or pretty much any Hawkeyes fan.
As much as players need to pay attention to how a game is being called, Harper told me the mentality must be to lock in either way.
“Usually you want the game to go smooth though and you don’t want a lot of fouls, but today there was a lot,” Harper added. “And today was the first time I was grateful that there was a lot. Guarding Keegan Murray, he runs up the court like a horse, like a monster. Just getting a little break, whether it’s 10 seconds, 15, is good.
“Games will go up and down. Sometimes there’s only 25 total fouls in a game, sometimes there’s 40, and it’s kind of how it is in this league... The officiating crew did a great job today and it was an old-fashioned fight.”
........
What a night that was. A 48-46 game won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but I can appreciate an evenly-matched, physical style of ball. So can the Scarlet Knights’ faithful, I’m sure.
Let’s clean the glass and get out of here:
It will stun some folks to learn that Rutgers now has the fourth-best conference record in the Big Ten at 5-2, tied with Ohio State and ahead of the likes of Purdue, Indiana and Penn State. A difficult schedule still lies ahead, including a brutal stretch against five straight ranked teams, but the Scarlet Knights are doing what they can to put together a confusingly enticing team sheet. What will speak louder in March? A home loss to Lafayette or wins over Purdue and Iowa? “Every game is super important. This game may come down to us making the tournament or not down the road,” Baker said.
Thanks to Providence’s current COVID pause, Seton Hall got to take a breather this week. Good, because three games in a five-day stretch await: at St. John’s, home to St. John’s on campus, rematch with Marquette at Prudential Center. That one-point loss to the Golden Eagles (decided by far worse officiating than Iowa could ever complain about) might not sting as much after Marquette upset Villanova last night. St. John’s, meanwhile, looked completely disjointed in a 23-point loss at Creighton, where they were outrebounded 50-31.
Iona 86, Monmouth 85 (OT). I watched this on TV out of the corner of my eye while working Tuesday night. That was a much better version of the Hawks than we had seen in some of the games leading up to it. Right now, Iona seems to have more depth, but don’t count Monmouth out of the rematch Feb. 13 in New Rochelle, N.Y.