Seniors to don home white for final time

The Rutgers men’s basketball team will conclude its Big East season when the team hosts South Florida Saturday afternoon at the Louis Brown Athletic Center for Senior Day.
The Scarlet Knights are coming into the game on the heels of a 70-40 disaster Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome. RU led Syracuse at the half 20-19, but the Orange outscored the Knights 51-20 in the second half while shooting 75 percent. The 40 points was a season-low for the Knights.
In a game that turned into a horror show, RU did find one bright spot in the re-emergence of center Hamady N’Diaye.
The junior scored eight points and was aggressive on the boards, grabbing nine rebounds.
“Hamady was very solid for us rebounding the basketball and tonight he was very solid for us,” said head coach Fred Hill Jr. after the loss to Syracuse. “It’s nice to see him get some offensive rebounds and a couple of stick-backs.”
Injuries have hampered N’Diaye at times this season, limiting his productivity on both ends of the floor, but the biggest issue for N’Diaye has been staying out of foul trouble.
He committed four fouls and played only five minutes Saturday against Providence in a game that was arguably his worst in a RU uniform.
He was able to stay on the floor against Syracuse for 27 minutes and he made the most of the time by being aggressive on the boards. The aggressive play is something that Hill likes from N’Diaye.
“We want him to be aggressive and we certainly don’t want him in foul trouble, but he played 27 minutes and that is a good number for him,” Hill said. “I would rather have him be aggressive because that means he’s playing hard and maybe getting a few fouls, but if you can get 26, 28, 30 minutes out of him, that’s a heck of a night for him.”
South Florida (9-20, 4-13) enters the RAC after a 70-59 upset victory over Cincinnati. The Bulls trailed by five at halftime, but outscored the Bearcats by 16 in the second half to snap a six-game losing streak.
USF was led by a 30-point effort from sophomore guard Dominique Jones. Jones is averaging 18.5 points per game this season. With the victory over Cincinnati, the Bulls secured a 14th place finish in the conference and assured themselves that RU could not pass them with a victory.
Before the game, the Knights (10-20, 1-16) will honor their three seniors: guard Anthony Farmer, forward Jaron Griffin and forward JR Inman.
Farmer has been one of the Knights most consistent performers this season, averaging 9.2 points and 2.7 assists per game.
Griffin and Inman have seen sporadic playing time throughout the season. Griffin is averaging 3.8 points per game and Inman is averaging 4.6.
RU has lost eight in a row since a Jan. 31 win over DePaul at the RAC.

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