Rutgers basketball: Derek Simpson leads rally at Michigan
Rutgers basketball’s much-needed victory at Michigan Saturday didn’t start with the furious second-half rally.
It started Thursday, during the Scarlet Knights’ day off, the morning after an embarrassing home loss to Penn State.
“I texted a group chat with the guys,” sophomore guard Derek Simpson said. “I told them: ‘Man, I hate feeling like this. I hate having a dead locker room.’ That day I told the guys to get better: Go watch film, get in the lab, do something to be productive.”
On Friday his teammates responded with a spirited practice, and Saturday Simpson’s leadership spilled over from the group chat to the court. The Mount Laurel native posted 19 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals as the Scarlet Knights rallied from 15 down to win 69-59.
Rutgers (11-10 overall, 3-7 Big Ten) ended a three-game losing streak and won at Michigan for the first time after previously going 0-8 in Ann Arbor.
Michigan (7-15, 2-9) has lost five straight and is now firmly ensconced in the Big Ten basement.
3 THOUGHTS
1. Jeremiah Williams debuts with a bang
After a court ordered the remainder of his NCAA gambling suspension overturned Friday, the 6-foot-5 combo guard suited up for the first time in nearly two years and made an immediate impact. The Iowa State transfer -- who sat out 2022-23 with an injury and last played for Temple -- was inserted into the starting lineup and tallied 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 29 minutes.
Williams played well defensively and on the offensive end his presence as a reliable ball-handler and lane-driving threat seemed to relieve some pressure off of Simpson, who has been asked to do a lot. It looks like Steve Pikiell has found his backcourt combo after much experimentation.
2. Major lineup changes
Pikiell went for the high-voltage jolt, inserting freshman guard Jamichael Davis in addition to Jeremiah Williams and bringing leading scorer Aundre Hyatt off the bench after Hyatt sat for most of the second half in Wednesday’s listless loss to Penn State.
Despite introducing Jeremiah Williams and backup center Emmanuel Ogbole into the rotation, Pikiell kept it to 10, which is about the most any reasonable coach would play. The casualties were sophomore forward Antwone Woolfolk and postgrad forward Oskar Palmquist.
The changes didn’t bear fruit in the first half, which ended with Michigan up 39-30, but the Scarlet Knights’ depth wore the Wolverines down over the final 20 minutes.
It should be noted that Hyatt made key plays down the stretch. His 4 points and 2 boards in 18 minutes might not look like much, but his plus-17 was Rutgers' highest plus/minus by far.
“He showed that he’s mature,” Simpson said. “He’s a good teammate and he doesn’t care about nothing but the team. He didn’t put his head down; he kept going, kept pushing. Man, shout out to Aundre. He did his thing toward the end and that really helped us.”
3. Pikiell vs. Juwan Howard
This marked Pikiell’s 128th win at Rutgers’ helm, moving him into a tie for third in program history with Bob Wenzel. Tom Young (239 wins from 1973-85) holds the program record and Frank Hill (223 wins pre-World War II) also is ahead of him.
Pikiell has earned some criticism this season for Rutgers' underperformance to date, but compare his stewardship to that of Michigan coach Juwan Howard, who inherited a gold-standard program from John Beilein, has handled himself in embarrassing fashion and whose team has quit.
3 QUOTES
From the postgame radio with Jerry Recco (associate head coach Brandin Knight filled in for Pikiell, who is not feeling well).
Simpson on Jeremiah Williams: “We’ve been waiting for him to get back on the court. He brings a different type of energy to the game. Man, that dude plays hard.”
Brandin Knight on Derek Simpson: “Derek is going to get the big pat on the back, the one thing I think Derek would say is all of those guys – whether it was Cliff (Omoruyi) freeing him up or Mawot (Mag) cutting, I know there are some things that you can’t see sometimes because they don’t show up as points or assists, but we did a good job of clearing out some of those areas to give Derek lanes to get downhill and make the plays that he did. Cliff set great screens and rolled hard and he created conflict, and I think that’s how Derek got some easy baskets."
Brandin Knight on Jeremiah Williams: "Jeremiah was huge for us, just his intensity, his toughness, just his downhill mentality getting in the paint, and all of those things made us get through the tough stretch (early on)."
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Derek Simpson leads rally at Michigan
