After completing a five-game homestand at Jersey Mike’s Arena, the Rutgers men’s basketball team will travel to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival. This marks the second consecutive season that Rutgers is participating in this tournament. The Scarlet Knights are scheduled to play No. 20/17 Tennessee on Monday at 1 p.m., followed by Notre Dame on Tuesday at 1 p.m., with both games broadcast on TNT. A third game will be played Wednesday against an opponent yet to be determined.
The tournament games will take place at MGM Arenas, with Brandon Gaudin, Candace Parker, and Nabil Karim providing commentary for television audiences.
This event is notable as it will be the first time since the 2017-18 season that Rutgers plays three consecutive days. During that previous stretch, Rutgers faced Minnesota, Indiana, and Purdue over three days in the Big Ten Tournament.
Rutgers enters the festival with a 4-1 record after winning four of five home games against Rider, Maine, Lehigh, and American. Over the next six games, only one will be played at home—a matchup against No. 1 Purdue on December 2—while the rest are away from Jersey Mike’s Arena. After returning from Las Vegas, Rutgers is set to play Michigan in Ann Arbor and Seton Hall in their annual rivalry game.
Dylan Grant leads Rutgers with an average of 16.6 points per game and is second on the team in rebounds behind Emmanuel Ogbole (7.8). Grant has scored double figures in four games this season and has recorded two games with more than 20 points—including a career-high of 28 against Lehigh. Tariq Francis has also reached double digits in four out of five games and leads Rutgers with ten three-pointers; Dennis Badalau follows closely with nine.
Last year was Rutgers’ first appearance at the Players Era Festival where they opened with an overtime win against Notre Dame but lost subsequent games to ranked teams Alabama and Texas A&M.
Tennessee arrives at the festival undefeated through five games after victories over Mercer, Northern Kentucky, North Florida, Rice, and Tennessee State. Last season Tennessee advanced to the Elite Eight during a campaign that finished with a record of 30-8. The Volunteers currently rank fourth nationally in rebounds per game (50) and ninth in field goal percentage defense (34.4%).
Nate Ament leads Tennessee’s scoring at 18.8 points per game while Ja’Kobi Gillespie averages 16.6; both players were named Preseason All-SEC selections and are included on watch lists for national awards such as the Wooden Award. Felix Okpara contributed significantly after transferring from Ohio State—scoring twenty points against Rice—and appears on preseason watch lists for top centers nationwide.
Rutgers and Tennessee have met twice before—the last meeting was thirty-three years ago—with Tennessee holding a two-game advantage in their series history.
Notre Dame enters Las Vegas also holding a 4-1 record ahead of its Monday matchup versus Kansas. The Irish have wins over LIU, Detroit Mercy, Eastern Illinois, and Bellarmine but suffered a narrow loss to Ohio State by one point.
Markus Burton leads Notre Dame’s offense averaging nearly twenty points per contest this season following his recognition as a Preseason First Team All-ACC selection; he missed most of last year’s meeting due to injury but had averaged over twenty-one points previously across twenty-five appearances.
Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry brings experience facing Rutgers from his prior roles within Penn State’s program as well as assistant coaching duties at Purdue; he holds a career record of one win versus four losses when coaching against RU across both institutions.
Rutgers’ history with Notre Dame includes regular meetings during their shared tenure in BIG EAST conference play between 1995–2013; overall Notre Dame leads their series by seven wins (21–14). At last year’s Players Era Festival these teams met again—with Rutgers prevailing in overtime led by Dylan Harper’s thirty-six-point performance—while their most recent NCAA Tournament encounter ended narrowly in favor of Notre Dame after double overtime.
