Rutgers men’s basketball will host No. 1 Purdue on Tuesday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena in the Big Ten opener, with tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FS1, featuring Jason Benetti and Bill Raftery as commentators, while Jerry Recco and Chris Carlin will provide radio coverage.
The Scarlet Knights enter the matchup with a 5-3 record after competing in three games at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Rutgers closed out their trip with an 80-65 win over UNLV, highlighted by Emmanuel Ogbole’s career-high performance of 21 points and 13 rebounds. Darren Buchana contributed 15 points in the second half, his best of the season.
Ogbole is currently averaging 7.0 points per game, marking his highest average during his three years at Rutgers. With a total of 56 points this season, he is nearing last year’s total of 71 points. Ogbole has recorded two games with at least 16 points and four games with double-digit rebounds so far this year. He ranks fifth in the Big Ten for offensive rebounds per game at 2.75.
Defensively, Rutgers allows an average of 67.6 points per game, placing them among the top-75 scoring defenses nationally. The team also ranks within the top-85 for blocks per game, averaging 4.3.
On offense, Dylan Grant leads Rutgers with an average of 15.6 points per game and has scored double figures in all but one contest this season. Tariq Francis is shooting a conference-best 96.3 percent from the free throw line and is second on the team with an average of 13 points per game.
Purdue comes into Tuesday’s matchup undefeated at 7-0 under head coach Matt Painter, who has led the program for over two decades and accumulated more than 470 wins. The Boilermakers recently won the Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas and have notable victories against Memphis, Texas Tech, and Alabama this season.
Purdue leads Division I basketball in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.19) and ranks among national leaders in assists per game (21) and three-point shooting percentage (42.3%). The team returns several key players from last year’s squad: Braden Smith averages 13 points and nine assists; Trey Kaufman-Renn has three double-doubles this season; Fletcher Loyer leads Purdue with an average of 16.1 points per game; Oscar Cluff contributes nearly a double-double each night after transferring from South Dakota State.
Rutgers and Purdue are set to meet for the 25th time overall, with most encounters occurring since Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference in the 2014-15 season. Rutgers has claimed five wins in their past eleven meetings against Purdue—including two victories over No.1-ranked Boilermaker teams: a buzzer-beater win by Ron Harper Jr., and another close victory last January at Mackey Arena.
A win over Purdue would mark Rutgers’ third defeat of a No.1-ranked Purdue squad under head coach Steve Pikiell, their first ranked victory this season, their sixth top-10 win under Pikiell’s leadership, as well as their eighteenth ranked win overall since he took charge.
Following Tuesday’s home contest—the only home appearance within a month-long stretch—Rutgers will travel to face Michigan on December 6 before playing Seton Hall on December 13.
