Rutgers Basketball routed by No. 17 Tennessee in Players Era opener
This time last year, Rutgers Basketball came into Las Vegas with a very different outlook. Led by two five-star freshmen, head coach Steve Pikiell and company were looking to make a statement.
The Scarlet Knights (4-2) this time around, came in with vastly different expectations and trajectory, and that trajectory continued to go downward on Monday.
No. 17 Tennessee routed Rutgers 85-60 in the opener of the expanded Players Era Festival, taking control early and never looking back. The Volunteers (6-0) led 56-30 at halftime, thanks to their length and athleticism.
Nate Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the way offensively for Tennessee. Gillespie scored a career-high 31 points with six three-pointers made, while Ament, a five-star freshman, scored 20 points, while grabbing five rebounds and dishing three assists.
Rutgers had three scorers in double-figures, led by freshman Harun Zrno‘s best game of his collegiate career so far. He scored 14 points on three made three-pointers, while Dylan Grant added 10 points and two rebounds. Darren Buchanan Jr. scored 13 off the bench.
Ament, Gillespie take over early
As analyst Candace Parker said on the TNT broadcast, “Tennessee has Jakobi Gillespie and Nate Ament, and Rutgers does not.”
Though it ultimately was not that simple as the Volunteers pulled away, that was the crux of how Rick Barnes’ squad sprinted ahead in the early minutes.
Gillespie – who dropped 14 points against the Scarlet Knights while at Maryland last season – matched that total in just ten minutes, knocking down a trio of three-pointers in the opening minutes. He stayed hot for the rest of the game, setting a new career-high on just 19 shots.
Ament, on the other hand, did struggle out of the gate. Rivals’ No. 4 overall recruit in the 2025 class played passive and passed up a few too many open looks for Barnes’ liking, leading to an early substitution and discussion on the bench.
That seemed to fix things.
Standing at 6-foot-10 with a wingspan stretching over seven feet, Ament scored from all over, scoring 20 points in the game with another four three-pointers of his own.
The point guard and forward duo combined for 40 of Tennessee’s 56 first-half points, and spurred the opening run to a dominant win.
Offensive woes
Coming off a matchup against Central Connecticut State where Rutgers was unable to put together any consistent possessions on offense, Tennessee served as a nightmare matchup, with its size, athleticism, and a coach in Barnes who hangs his hat on the defensive side.
Those worries all came to fruition.
The Scarlet Knights averaged less than a point per possession, and finished the first half with more turnovers (nine) than field goals made (eight). They finished the game shooting 37 percent from the floor and 32 percent from the three-point line. They added to those offensive struggles with a 14-for-22 mark (63.6 percent) from the free throw line, as they were unable to take advantage of drawing fouls against the Volunteers’ aggressive defense.
The ball movement became stagnant, as Rutgers registered just six assists on 19 made field goals, compared to 14 total turnovers.
Both Tariq Francis and Denis Badalau – who paced Rutgers in scoring at times this year – struggled, as Francis scored nine points and Badalau scored just two, both from the free-throw line, and missed all five shot attempts.
Pikiell turned to some of his younger pieces for the second straight game for some energy, and Lino Mark was able to get in transition and create some of his own opportunities on defense. He scored five points.
Once again, the offense struggled to get any kind of consistent offense, and set themselves up for failure against a strong defense on the opposite side.
Struggles defending the perimeter
Rutgers continued its issues defensively against the three-pointer as Tennessee put together a standout perimeter performance to get ahead early.
The Volunteers came into the game taking three-pointers on 36.7 percent of their field goal attempts, ranking 243rd nationally in that mark.
That all changed against the Scarlet Knights.
Tennessee shot 11-for-19 from beyond the arc, led by Ament and Gillespie, and Rutgers struggled to contain the aerial attack from the perimeter. Ament’s size allowed him to gain extra separation while shooting, with his higher release point, while the Scarlet Knights also stepped back on numerous attempts to prevent a potential driving lane.
This comes one game after the Blue Devils hit a season-best 42.9 percent of their three-point attempts, making nine, and two games after American put a scare into Rutgers with a 6-for-9 start from three, ultimately making 12.
While it has been – and continues to be – a pillar of Pikiell’s defense to funnel shot attempts towards a strong rim defense, and allowing threes as an offset of that, Rutgers has struggled badly to contest three-point attempts, past just allowing them to happen.
With a perimeter-happy system like Micah Shrewsberry‘s at Notre Dame up next tomorrow, then No. 1 Purdue and No. 7 Michigan not far behind in early Big Ten play, the Scarlet Knights have to figure out how to get perimeter stops – and fast.
Up next
Rutgers Basketball remains in Las Vegas for their second game of the Players Era, as they will be back in action on Tuesday, November 25th, as the Scarlet Knights face off against Notre Dame for the second straight year in the festival.
That game will tip off at 1 pm ET and will be broadcast nationally on TNT.
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