The “Let’s Put A Smile On That Face” Game Thread: Maryland At Rutgers

How To Watch & Listen

Maryland (22-7; 10-6) At Rutgers (13-16; 2-14)

Where: The RAC

Tip-off: Tuesday, February 28th at 6:30 p.m. ET

TV: BTN - Brandon Gaudin and Dan Bonner

Radio: WCTC 1450 AM & WOR 710 AM - Jerry Recco & Joe Boylan; WRSU 88.7 FM

KenPom Rankings: Rutgers #125; Maryland #46

KenPom Prediction: Maryland 69 Rutgers 65; Rutgers is given a 36% chance of winning.

Series History: Maryland leads the all-time series 7-3 and they have won 5 straight, including a 67-55 win last month.

1st Meeting Recap

Tonight’s game is a blackout, as the team will wear their “dark knight” uniforms:

The bottom line with tonight’s game is that Rutgers is running out of opportunities to pick up a signature win. Maryland comes in after losing five of their last seven games, after starting with a program best 20-2 record. Offensive rebounding is the biggest strength of Rutgers and a major weakness of Maryland. The Scarlet Knights fell just short the past two games from picking off two top tier Big Ten teams, holding leads against both Northwestern and Michigan with less than 10 minutes to play.

A big key tonight is jumping out to a lead early, as they had to climb back from sizable deficits in those other recent losses. Head coach Steve Pikiell preaches the need to play well for 40 minutes, as Rutgers can’t afford to lose focus, because they could easily fall into a scoring drought and allow their opponents to spring a big run. Tonight needs to be different. Nothing marks progress like winning. Let’s hope Rutgers can build some much needed positive momentum ahead of their last home game Saturday v. Illinois, followed by the Big Ten Tournament.

Follow us on twitter here for live commentary and join us in the comment section during the game. Let’s go RU!

Game Preview