Rutgers Basketball debuts at No. 23 in AP Poll

Jan 16, 2023 - 5:25 PM

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It’s official. Rutgers is ranked in the AP Poll.

The Scarlet Knights debut at No. 23 in the national rankings, marking the first time they are ranked since Feb. 8, 2021. This will be the 11th week that Rutgers finds itself in the rankings under Steve Pikiell.

The Scarlet Knights would have been ranked earlier but a loss to Iowa during a busy week of games delayed the process a bit. This loss came after defeating No. 1 Purdue and handling Maryland easily. This week, Rutgers was able to win a difficult road game against Northwestern before securing an overtime win over Ohio State on Sunday.

Rutgers (13-5, 5-2) is currently in second place all alone in the Big Ten. It trails Purdue by half a game and currently holds a tiebreaker over the Boilermakers because of the head-to-head matchup, which is the only meeting of the season. Rutgers also ranks 16th in the NET rankings and is No. 14 in KenPom.

The Scarlet Knights will hit the road for a matchup with Michigan State in East Lansing. They will have another chance to earn an impressive victory in a difficult place to play.