Gophers Back on the Road Wednesday Night at Rutgers

BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV: BTN (Kevin Kugler - play by play, Len Elmore - color)
Tip Time: 7:31 p.m. CT
Radio: Learfield IMG: KFAN 100.3 FM
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play), Spencer Tollackson (Color)
Sirius: 382 SXM App: 972

SERIES INFORMATION
16th Meeting (9-6 all time)
Record at Rutgers: 1-4
Gophers All-Time vs. Big Ten: 785-892*
* - excludes vacated games

STARTING FIVE
• The University of Minnesota men's basketball team is on the road for the second-straight game when it travels to Rutgers Wednesday night. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. CT, on Big Ten Network. It also marks the sixth game in 16 days for the Gophers, dating back to Jan. 16.
• The Gophers are facing the Scarlet Knights for just the 16th time in school history, as Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference in 2014. Since joining league action, Minnesota is 7-6 all time, dating back to 2015. Minnesota's last appearance in Piscataway, N.J., dates back to almost two years ago on Feb. 4, 2021 as the Gophers only faced the Scarlet Knights once last season.
• Minnesota fell to Northwestern Saturday, 81-61, in Evanston, Ill. Jamison Battle led Minnesota with 20 points and Ta'Lon Cooper added 12 points and five assists. The Gophers jumped out to early leads of 7-2 and 11-7, but Northwestern used an 11-0 run to build an 18-11 lead and maintained it through the rest of the game. Minnesota was without the services of leading scorer Dawson Garcia for the second-straight game and fourth-straight for freshman Braeden Carrington. Pharrel Payne returned to the Gopher lineup after missing the Indiana game. He also started in his first collegiate game of his short Gopher tenure.
• Jamison Battle finished with a team-high 20 points for the second consecutive game Saturday, his fourth 20-point game this season and his 76th career game reaching double-figures. He was 7-of-12 from the field, including 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, and he added three rebounds and two assists in 38 minutes. Battle has reached double-figures 39 times at Minnesota. The last time a Gopher had back-to-back 20-point games was also Battle in the 2021-22 season when he scored 20 against Western Kentucky and 24 vs Princeton at the Asheville Championships.
• Ta'Lon Cooper is closing in on another career milestone. The guard from Roebuck, S.C., is 13 points away from establishing his 1,000th career point. Sitting at 987 career points, Cooper had a three-year total of 773 points at Morehead State, while producing 214 so far this season with Minnesota. Cooper also established his 500th career assist mark earlier this year at Ohio State (Jan. 12).

ABOUT RUTGERS
• Rutgers enters the Minnesota game with a 14-7 overall record and 6-4 in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights have gone 2-2 in their last four games, including a loss at Iowa on Sunday, 93-82. Rutgers sits in a three-way tie for third place in the Big Ten with Illinois and Indiana, all at 6-4.
• Junior Clifford Omoruyi leads the team in points (13.4 ppg), rebounds (10.0 rpg) and blocks (2.0). Senior Cam Spencer averages 12.9 points, while three average a little over nine a game in junior Aundre Hyatt (9.7), and seniors Caleb McConnell (9.1) and Paul Mulcahy (9.1). McConnell was also recently named to the Naismith Defensive Player to Watch List, only 15 individuals to make it and one of four in the Big Ten with Chase Audige (Northwestern), Zach Edey (Purdue), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana).
• As a team, Rutgers averages 70 points per game, and allows just 58.7. That defensive mark tops the league and fourth nationally. Rutgers is shooting 43.3 percent from the field and average 38.8 rebounds per game. The Scarlet Knights also lead the Big Ten in steals at 198, averaging 9.6 per game.

THE LAST TIME
• Payton Willis scored a career-high 32 points, matching a program record with eight 3-pointers, and short-handed Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak with an improbable 68-65 win over Rutgers in the two team's last meeting on Jan. 22, 2022.
• Missing three starters, including their top scorer (Jamison Battle), the Gophers took the victory with the conference-minimum seven scholarship players available. Luke Loewe added 19 points and Treyton Thompson added 10 points and six rebounds in helping give first-year coach Ben Johnson his first conference win at Williams Arena.

INJURIES FOR THE GOPHERS
• Minnesota freshman guard Braeden Carrington has suffered a right leg stress reaction and will be sidelined for approximately four weeks, announced Jan. 19. His status will be re-evaluated after that time. Carrington, one of the first off the bench, averages 22 minutes and 6.2 points in 14 games this season.
• Minnesota was without Dawson Garcia and Pharrel Payne against Indiana. Payne returned to the lineup against Northwestern, but Garcia remains day-to-day. Garcia started in 18 games and led the team in scoring.

ON THE DOCKET
• Minnesota is back at Williams Arena Saturday night when the Gophers host Maryland at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
• Mike Grimm and Spencer Tollackson will also be on the radio call on KFAN 100.3 FM.

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Players Mentioned

Jamison Battle

Braeden Carrington

Ta'Lon Cooper

Dawson Garcia

Luke Loewe

Pharrel Payne

Treyton Thompson

Payton Willis