NCAA Tournament March Madness

#146 Rutgers

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

The projection that Rutgers will need the conference’s automatic berth fits its résumé. The Scarlet Knights have shown they can beat good teams with a neutral-site victory over UNLV, a home win over Oregon and a gritty road victory at Penn State, and they have respectable home wins versus Penn and Maryland that a committee will notice. Those quality moments are offset by ugly losses away at Michigan and UCLA and by lopsided setbacks to Purdue and Illinois that expose how shaky they have been in true road and hostile environments. With a tough trip to Michigan State looming and a return date with Penn State still to play, Rutgers’ clearest path is to string together neutral-site victories in the Big Ten tournament to replace bad losses with the kind of road and quality wins the committee values.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/5Rider357W81-53
11/10Maine348W72-60
11/14Lehigh294W84-72
11/18American Univ244W80-71
11/21Central Conn309L67-54
11/24(N)Tennessee13L85-60
11/25(N)Notre Dame87L68-63
11/27(N)UNLV107W80-65
12/2Purdue7L81-65
12/6@Michigan2L101-60
12/13@Seton Hall52L81-59
12/20Penn171W70-69
12/29Delaware St363W65-50
1/2Ohio St27L80-73
1/5Oregon101W88-85
1/8@Illinois5L81-55
1/11Northwestern66W77-75
1/17@Wisconsin25L96-87
1/20@Iowa23L68-62
1/23Indiana41L82-59
1/27Michigan St8L88-79
1/31@USC69L78-75
2/3@UCLA34L98-66
2/7Nebraska12L80-68
2/15Maryland136W68-57
2/18@Penn St137W85-72
2/21@Minnesota72L80-61
2/24Washington53L79-72
3/1@Maryland136W69-65
3/5@Michigan St82%
3/8Penn St13759%