Rutgers Women's Basketball opens Big Ten slate with No. 12 Iowa

After a 3-0 Thanksgiving week and a five-day rest in between, Rutgers Women’s Basketball hits the ground running in the next phase of the schedule.

The Scarlet Knights (7-2) host No. 12 Iowa at 6 pm on Saturday to kick off the Big Ten schedule — the only game in the early part of the conference slate — as the season’s first big-time test.

Rutgers head coach Coquese Washington, guard Faith Blackstone, and forward Janae Walker looked back on the opening nine games of the schedule, and their preparation for the showdown against the Hawkeyes (8-0).

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Resting up and adjusting

After two different weeks of playing three games in six days, Rutgers got its longest rest of the year to prepare for its toughest opponent so far.

“We had a week to — number one — get a little rested,” Washington told TKR at her weekly media availability on Tuesday. “Get all those bumps and bruises that come from playing three games and in seven days, kind of, get all those healed and taken care of.”

That rest is key for the team’s starters, as three of them — Kaylah Ivey, Zachara Perkins, and Nene Ndiaye — all rank within the top six in the Big Ten in minutes per game, all averaging at least 33.

Amid that stretch came Blackstone’s Rutgers debut. She had missed the first six games due to injury, but made an instant impact from the moment she stepped on the floor, both offensively and defensively, starting with helping kick off a third- and fourth-quarter run in the November 24th win over Siena. Blackstone said it was her first time suffering a serious injury, but the confidence from her coaches and teammates has helped her acclimate quickly to the court.

“Whenever I step on the floor, I just try to do my best at whatever the team needs me to do,” Blackstone said on Tuesday. “And sometimes that’s defense, offense, whatever. Right now, it’s a little everywhere, because I’m not settled in yet. 
So I just try to — I think what you can’t deny is defense at the end of the day — so I try to bring my defense to the fullest extent that I can, and just go from there and play within the game.”

Washington added that Blackstone’s addition to the floor does not totally stick out in one way, but her ability to do several different things on the floor adds backcourt depth, and her experience as a sixth-year player does so as well on offense and defense.

“I just like to bring pressure,” Blackstone said of her defense. “I like to, like [Walker] said, bring chaos, and I think that that’s something that can also just reflect on our offense. When you bring chaos, it kind of gives you the energy to come on the other side of the floor and succeed. So I think that we feed off of that as a team. And that’s something that I love to do.”

Protecting the post

Typically in recent years, Iowa has built up a reputation as a high-flying, guard-centric offensive machine, led by Caitlin Clark, but kept up by Lucy Olsen last season.

This year, the Hawkeyes still have a solid stable of guards, led by veterans Taylor McCabe and Kylie Feuerbach, along with Georgia Tech transfer Chit Chat Wright, but a lot of the production has come down low.

Forward Hannah Stuelke was an impact post player from day one, and is now a bona fide star in the Big Ten, and is also flanked by sophomore center Ava Heiden, who leads the team with 16 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

“She’s grown from her freshman and sophomore years,” Washington said of the senior Stuelke. “She was really the recipient of a lot of opportunities being created for her, to now have grown to somebody who can create for herself. She can drive it from the high post, she stretched her range; she can knock down high post and three-point shots, and she’s doing a little bit more off the dribble. So she’s really expanded her game.”

Walker also dished on her potential matchup in Stuelke on Saturday, excited to face off against a team with premier size in the frontcourt after facing off against some smaller matchups earlier in the season.

“She’s a great player, she runs the floor really well,” said Walker. “That’s kind of the identity of Iowa’s forwards. They like to run. They like to get out and transition. 
But I think we can match up down low with size, with our pace. So just really excited for that matchup.”

Rutgers will have its hands full with both Heiden and Stuelke, but the Scarlet Knights’ two-forward lineup with Walker and Imani Lester has the size to compete with the post presence of the Hawkeyes.

“I think we’ve had a lot of really good high-low opportunities,” Walker said of her frontcourt partner. “I love getting her the ball, I love depending on her to score, I know she can score. So I think that connection will be really important down the stretch.”

Embrace the glass

Speaking of the frontcourt, an aspect that has showed some cause for concern is in rebounding.

Rutgers ranks 15th nationally in offensive rebounding rate, getting second opportunities 41.7 percent of the time, but that strong mark has not translated to the other side of the floor. Opponents are grabbing offensive rebounds at a 33.6 percent rate, good for 215th nationally. Especially in earlier games where the Scarlet Knights have a size advantage, the defensive rebounding numbers ring slight alarm bells.

“We’re not as consistent on that end,” Washington said of the defensive rebounding. “And you can look at statistics and numbers and things of that nature, but I think we’ve had some games, we’ve been really solid on defensive rebounding. We’ve had other games where we’ve not been as good. So, I think for us, it’s a consistency thing, as opposed to any kind of fundamental reason.”

Another reason Washington added was the fact that the schedule featured a lot of high-volume three-point shooting teams, leaving a lot of opportunity for long rebounds to bounce back out onto the perimeter, adding it is somewhere the team has to improve, and that, “sometimes when we run to the rim, and the rebounds bounce over our head, and we don’t get the loose ones.”

Walker also added that rebounding has been an aspect where Rutgers “needs to grow.”

It will be strength against strength on Saturday, as Iowa ranks third nationally on the defensive glass, allowing offensive rebounds at just a 21.1 percent clip. It also sits at 43rd in the country with a 38.1 percent offensive rebounding rate.

The first test

Rutgers’ schedule heats up pretty quickly, especially after coming into the game with the lowest average opponent NET rank in the Big Ten.

The Scarlet Knights face off against eight teams currently ranked in this week’s AP poll, and two more receiving votes, including Princeton, who Rutgers plays next on Wednesday at Jadwin Gymnasium.

While the Scarlet Knights have had some uninspiring games — particularly on offense — against their lesser opponents, they have managed to come away 7-2, with the only blemishes coming on the road at Auburn, and a blowout loss to Stony Brook in what was the worst performance of the season.

One thing Rutgers has to figure out is getting out of second-quarter ruts on the offensive end, as that has come to rear its ugly head in several games over the past couple of weeks. The struggles in the second were a big reason for the loss against the Tigers, as well as keeping other games closer than they should have been. Logically, that comes after teams make adjustments on defense following the opening frame

“There’s not really been one consistent thing,” Washington said on the second-quarter maladies. “Some games, it’s been turnovers. Some games, it’s been we got the looks, we just didn’t knock them down. 
And some games, it’s been the pace that we’re playing at. So there’s not one specific thing, but it is an area of emphasis in terms of, we want to play strong for all four quarters. We’ve tended to start off strong, pretty good first quarters, and we tend to finish strong and play pretty well in the fourth quarter.”

The first ranked game against Iowa could be pretty telling for how the Big Ten season may go, though there will be plenty of adjustments — good or bad — to be made.

The Hawkeyes already feature two marquee wins on the year en route to a perfect 8-0 start, with both coming in the last two weeks. They defeated No. 7 Baylor 57-52 at the WBCA Showcase in Orlando, led by a stifling defensive performance. Iowa then defeated Miami (FL) two days later in the same showcase, and also beat MAAC powerhouse Fairfield 84-72 in its previous game on Sunday, pulling away late after a closely-contested first half.

Last year’s matchup between these two teams in Iowa City was an ugly one, with neither offense putting together consistent stretches in a 55-43 win for the Hawkeyes. This time, the game will tip off at Jersey Mike’s Arena at 6 pm ET, televised on Fox Sports 1.

Quick reading bites

• “It was really awesome. I played there my freshman year, so it’s been a minute since I’ve been that close to home, but just being able to see them and talk to them, you know, hug on them a little bit before the season really gets going. It was a good motivator for me. Really needed that.” — Janae Walker on seeing her family cheer her on at Auburn on November 20th

• “It’s been great. The fact that I can drive home now is, honestly, it’s a good feeling, especially around the holidays. Before, I would have to wait because I was in a different time zone, and I was so far, the city was so small. 
So the closest airport was like 2.5 hours away. So it was just tough coming back home, but now it’s like my family can come and see me. I can go see them whenever I need to. Just having that support.” — Faith Blackstone on returning closer to home for her final collegiate season

• “I think it’s still a work in progress, and I think, if you look across the board, you see the teams that kind of have their core back, they seem to be hitting on all cylinders a little bit. Stronger than some of the teams that are bringing in a lot of new players. 
So, I don’t think we’re any different than a lot of teams that are, you know, still fighting their consistency and finding their rhythm.” — Coquese Washington on the synergy level of the coaches and players ahead of Big Ten play

• “I think we have a long way to go. I mean, the season is long, and the non-conference is coming to an end, but like I said, I think with our guard play starting to pick up a little with Lauryn [Swann] and Faith. I think that’ll really help our ability to continue to grow and evolve, especially on the offensive end. We have a really strong defensive identity of creating chaos. So just adding offense to that is gonna be really good for us.” — Walker on how close the team is to its ceiling

• “I think giving myself grace and knowing that it will take time is something important. But yeah, I just think being patient. That’s one thing that I have to work on as well, because I’d be like, ‘Man, why am I not doing this?’ Or like when I’m used to doing certain things, it’s kind of like, ‘Hey, this doesn’t feel like me at all,’ but I also understand, I’ve been through some things. So I have to kind of accept that I might not be where I want to be.” — Blackstone on the reacclimation process to the floor

• “No updates, just, hopefully get things better with her day by day. When she’s ready to play, they’ll let me know. And when they let me know, I’ll let you know. 
So, just continue to work and rehab, and get as healthy as soon as possible.” — Washington on Swann’s potential path to returning